Though it's not in the same league as the classic screen musicals, Annie's heart-warming rags-to-riches story line, social comment (shallow as it may be) and catchy songs make for an entertaining and unpretentious 90 minutes' viewing. While the songs-including "Tomorrow", "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" and "It's a Hard Knock Life"-are excellent, the kids' voices are shrill and the production pretty low-rent: Annie is very obviously a stage show brought to screen on a low budget. But while it lacks the polish that make the Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe musicals so special, it's funny and sweet and has a rough charm all its own. -Rikki Price.

A Hard Day's Night may have been The Beatles' first big-screen experience but, as they had become the biggest band in the world by the time of its production, the Moptops were able to ensure it was a bit different from the band-movie norm. "We'd made it clear that we weren't interested in being stuck in one of those nobody-understands-our-music plots," John Lennon would later recall. "The kind of thing where we'd just pop up a couple of times between the action, all smiles and clean shirts, to sing our latest record. Never mind all your pals, how could we have faced each other if we had allowed ourselves to be involved in that kind of movie?" Instead the quartet recruited a young director named Richard Lester-who had previously worked with the Fab Four's beloved Goons-to make a movie that followed them as they enjoyed and endured the phenomenon that was Beatlemania. "The film wrote itself right in front of our eyes," says Lester. "We just took the dirty bits and cut them out. " The result is a frenetic hour and a half inside The Beatles' personal space as they engage in all manner of surreal hi-jinks-more often than not involving Paul's "grandfather" (played by Steptoe and Son's Wilfrid Brambell) while dodging the ever-present horde of screaming fans. Although the result now seems a little dated, there remains an almost heart-breakingly good-natured aura around the foursome's naïve performances while few could argue about the quality of a soundtrack that includes "Can't Buy Me Love", "And I Love Her" and "A Hard Day's Night" itself, to name but a few. Whether the film would have been quite so successful if Lester had followed McCartney's suggestion and called it "Oh, What A Lovely Wart!" will, sadly, never be known. -Clark Collis A Hard Day's Night may have been the Beatles' first big-screen experience but, as they had become the biggest band in the world by the time of its production, the Moptops were able to ensure it was a bit different from the band-movie norm. [+]

Milos Forman's 1979 film of the 1968 musical Hair is far more watchable than it has any right to be. Controversial though the original stage version might have been at the time, it has not dated well. It was written back when most people thought the Vietnam War was a good idea and long hair on men a signifier of a hopelessly corrupt society, rather than the other way around. By the time the belated movie adaptation arrived attitudes had changed, and what made Hair so unique had become commonplace. However, the exuberance of the performances (led by Treat Williams) and the enduring appeal of some of the songs makes this movie version of Hair, even today, entirely impossible to dislike. On the DVD: The only extra is the theatrical trailer which, much like the film itself, is quite a cute period piece. Inexplicably, the scene-searching menu is not arranged by song, making it infuriatingly difficult to locate the tune you want, unless you already know the movie so well, which would leave little point in hearing these songs again anyway. -Andrew Mueller.

Writer-director Woody Allen has produced yet another challenging and funny film with Everyone Says I Love You, this time taking on the musical genre and bending it to his own unique vision. The result is one of his most charming films in recent years, as Allen assembles a typically sterling ensemble cast to evoke the romanticism of years past. This time, the large cast (including Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton and Tim Roth) not only turn in funny and touching performances, but they sing the classic songs of the 1930s and 1940s themselves, and sing them very well. The plot centres on an extended family in New York and their various romantic entanglements, including Allen's pursuit of Julia Roberts through the streets of Paris and the canals of Venice. The musical numbers are the film's high points, displaying wonderful choreography ranging from a room full of dancing Groucho Marxes to a dancing couple in flight at the banks of the Seine. Everyone Says I Love You is a witty and entertaining fantasy, and truly romantic escapism. -Robert Lane, Amazon. com.

Fred Astaire plays a fashion photographer based on real-life cameraman Richard Avedon, in this entertaining musical directed by Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain). The story finds Astaire's character turning Audrey Hepburn into a chic Paris model-not a tough premise to buy, especially within this film's air of enchantment and surrounded by a great Gershwin score. Based on an unproduced play, this is one of the best films from the latter part of Astaire's career. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Remember that scene in Jerry Maguire where the title character suddenly realises the foolhardiness of his impulsively written manifesto? That's how director Alan Parker (The Commitments, Fame) ought to feel every day of his life since making this dopey, 1976 musical featuring an all-kid cast playing Prohibition-era gangsters and molls. What was Parker thinking? The cuteness of the concept never did hold up for more than 10 minutes, but the film extends it impossibly into a feature. Jodie Foster is on hand, lip-synching a Paul Williams song (Williams wrote the score), but even she can't detract from the film's overall silliness. It's a toss-up as to whether children will enjoy watching it, since the characters and the milieu are based on adult situations. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.