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Movies / On DVD / A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night

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A Hard Day's Night (1964)

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Reviews Counted:71

Fresh:71

Rotten:0

Average Rating:8.2/10

Consensus: A Hard Day's Night, despite its age, is still a delight to watch and has proven itself to be a rock-and-roll movie classic.

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Television

Synopsis: A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, nominated for two Academy Awards and featuring the Beatles in their feature film debut, is one of the greatest rock-and-roll comedy adventures ever. The film has a fully... A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, nominated for two Academy Awards and featuring the Beatles in their feature film debut, is one of the greatest rock-and-roll comedy adventures ever. The film has a fully restored negative and digitally restored soundtrack.

The year is 1964 and four young lads from Liverpool are about to change the world – if only the madcap world will let them out of their hotel room. Richard Lester's boldly contemporary rock n' roll comedy unleashes the fledgling Beatles into a maelstrom of screaming fans, paranoid producers, rabid press and troublesome family members, and reveals the secret of their survival and success: an insatiable lust for mischief and a life-affirming addiction to joy.

The film takes on the just-left-of-reality style of a mock-documentary, following "a day in the life" of John, Paul, George and Ringo as fame takes them by storm. On their way from Liverpool to a London television stage, they must evade a teenage mob, outwit a press conference, answer fan mail and give one of their trademark, faint-inducing performances. But even this manic schedule gets interrupted as Paul has to oversee the shenanigans of his irrepressible grandfather (WILFRID BRAMBELL), a "real mixer" whose love of dissension threatens to break the band apart. Soon John and grandfather are butting heads, George is considering a modeling career and Ringo goes missing in the streets of London.

Throughout it all, witty one-liners, classic pop songs and world-class charm build up to happy-go-lucky moments of liberation that capture the sheer exuberance, innocence and rock n’ roll spirit of four young men trying to make their own rules in a world determined to confine them. [More]

Starring: Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison

Starring: Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Wilfred Brambell, Norman Rossington, Victor Spinetti, John Junkin, Anna Quayle, Kenneth Haigh, Richard Vernon, Eddie Malin

Director: Richard Lester

Director: Richard Lester
Screenwriter: Alun Owen
Producer: Walter Shenson
Studio: Miramax Films

[See More Credits]

Reviews for A Hard Day's Night

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

The mop-tops are likeably relaxed, with Lennon offering a few welcome moments of his dry, acerbic wit.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of the most influential films of the past 40 years gets the spit and polish for a reissue -- and it still hasn't aged at all.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Great band, great music, great film. Not only that, it remains a fascinating portrait of Britain on the cusp of change.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/17/01
Bob McCabe
Bob McCabe
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Richard Lester's innovative film, the Beatles' debut feature, is a timewarp memento of that brief 1963-4 phase in their history known as Beatlemania.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
George Perry
George Perry
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For fans this is a chance to enjoy The Beatles' legendary music and charisma with unprecedented clarity.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
04/27/09
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film moves with such joy, humor and fluidity that you can't help getting swept up in the frenzied action.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment 1 Comment
02/03/08
Beth Accomando
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

These three-minute singles still feel vibrant and alive.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

A Hard Day's Night remains a highly lovable movie.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
02/13/01
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

A comedy classic that cross- pollinated Jean-Luc Godard with the four Marx brothers.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
01/01/00
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday

The kind of timeless artifact that, decades after its making, still hits the senses like a burst of fresh air.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

We loved them -- yeah, yeah, yeah. Now we can love them all over again.

comment Comment
12/08/00
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe

It's the exuberance of 'Can't Buy Me Love' and the chiming harmonies of 'If I Fell' that will leave a moony smile on your face when the show is over.

comment Comment
01/19/01
Francesca Chapman
Francesca Chapman
Philadelphia Daily News

The music video by which all other music videos must be judged. And none top it.

comment Comment
01/19/01
Howard Cohen
Howard Cohen
Miami Herald

It's a fine conglomeration of madcap clowning in the old Marx Brothers' style, and it is done with such a dazzling use of camera that it tickles the intellect and electrifies the nerves.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

American-born director Richard Lester serves up a helping of what, on this side of the pond, we came to think of as kicky, mod British filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
09/10/07
Don Druker
Don Druker
Chicago Reader

Beatles fans will get a kick out of this, but those who don't worship at the Beatle shrine may be a bit flustered by its complete lack of a plot and incomprehensible accents.

Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews | comment Comment
05/31/02
Matt Easterbrook
Matt Easterbrook
Matt's Movie Reviews

One of the great life-affirming landmarks of the movies.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

That Lester and the Beatles got away with the irreverent and superb Hard Day's Night is, by today's standards, a miracle.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
10/15/03
Jurgen Fauth
Jurgen Fauth
About.com

The film is mad, mad and crazy, shrewdly designed for the teenage and calculated also to attract the curious and the oldsters who enjoy this sort of thing.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
01/01/00
Al Finestone
Al Finestone
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles, in song after song, pay homage to the faith of love, and that faith connects them to something ancient, lending this topspin musical its near oracular beauty.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
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Latest News for A Hard Day's Night

September 12, 2007: Total Recall: Across the Universe And The Beatles On Film
This week, Across the Universe hits theaters. Julie Taymor's film, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess as a young couple in the midst of the heady, chaotic 1960s,... More...

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