Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

aramis-112-804880 If you like big, splashy musicals, "Oliver!" is for you. Well acted (with a young Oliver Reed as the heavy and Ron Moody reviving his stage role as Fagin), well-designed (with David Lean art director John Box recreating mid-nineteenth century London--as it should have been), and chock full of wonderful songs ("Consider Yourself"; "Who Will Buy?"; "Oliver", etc.). SPOILER (for parents): It's solid family entertainment. Orphan flees Undertaker to whom he is sold, is enlisted by gang of thieves who exploit boys as pickpockets, only to escape the thug who abuses him when he accidentally hangs himself after bludgeoning to death his live-in prostitute girlfriend. Okay, the plot ain't "Mary Poppins" but it works . . . the first couple of times you see it. After that, the bigness and splashyness begin to pall.Some of the songs run too long. Oh, sure, back in the thirties they were able to do thirty repeats of "I Only Have Eyes for You" in a Ruby Keeler movie; but these days, when a song only has a verse or two, it gets boring however big it's played. "Consider Yourself" and "Who Will Buy" are amazingly staged, but eventually they're simply SO big you begin to wonder if director Carol Reed (Oliver Reed's uncle, nudge-nudge; that's how you get in the movies) is making fun of the genre.While some great English actors (both serious and comic) enliven the whole shebang, it revolves around the character Oliver Twist, cloyingly played by the altogether too-pretty Mark Lester. Here's why Walt Disney's better movies are better for you. In "Mary Poppins" the kids aren't cute. In fact, they're both kind of strange-looking. In this non-Disney production, Mark Lester is so impossibly cute those of us who used to be boys don't blame the kid who (SPOILER) threw a snowball at him. Fortunately Jack Wild, as the Artful Dodger, makes up for the cuteness factor by being good (and watchable) without being the least bit attractive. Or maybe I can't take my eyes off his hat, wondering how he manages to keep it on as it's too small for his enormous head.Simply by being gorgeous (thanks to John Box and Director Reed) and tuneful "Oliver!" is love at first sight to the splashy-musical lover, and for that it deserves (at least) the seven stars I give it. But after seeing it two or three times one wonders if it's really entertaining or it's simply sensory overload, like the "high" one gets from gorging one's self too many sweet confections at once.WARNING: Dickens is one of those great authors adults shove off on kids, while never cracking his books themselves. I was one of the few who genuinely loved Dickens as a kid (I first read OLIVER TWIST in the sixth grade; it made me a life-long Dickens lover, and I'm fifty-seven now). But while palmed off on children as good for them like spinach and broccoli, Dickens wrote for adults! I tend to think this movie is the sort of show it's makers thought children should like. However, don't expect it to keep today's youth (whose parents grew up on quick-cutting MTV, so you know their children's attention spans are nil) to be anything but bored by the whole ordeal.

grantss Oliver Twist is a poor orphan, living at a workhouse. He angers the powers-that-be at the workhouse when, one dinner, he asks for more food. They decide to sell him and he ends up working for an undertaker. The undertaker treats him badly and he escapes, heading for London. Once there he falls in with a gang of boys, thieves who steal for their adult leader, Fagin. Great musical adaptation of Oliver Twist, the Charles Dickens novel. I'm generally not into musicals but this works. The music isn't overdone and fits in well with the story, plus it propels the story along.Good performances all round.Won the 1969 Best Picture Oscar.

gavin6942 Musical adaptation about an orphan (Mark Lester) who runs away from an orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor (Ron Moody).Not being a fan of Charles Dickens (blasphemy?) and being really skeptical on musicals, I had some rather low expectations on this one. Now, I think it could have been trimmed a little bit (the opening music and credits add a good ten minutes to the length). But that is about the only bad thing I can say.The songs are quite good, the acting is good, the dancing is good... and all the parts we like about the story (without the dry writing) is evident here. The "please sir, I want some more" scene... and, of course, a very crafty Fagin, who is an important central character.

febru3012 Going to today's movies feels like attending a barbaric assault on ones senses. There's the foul rotten language, the pervasive sex (heter, bi, trans and homo), the messages that 1) all humans are evil 2) the human condition is one of desperation and 3) the means justify the end. Oliver! transcends all of this with superb acting, script, direction and production. Oliver! is a masterpiece that will never die because its the epitome of quality. I went on line after seeing Oliver! and bought the Blu Ray disc off Amazon. It will now take a prominent position in my DVD collection. Thank you actors, directors, writers and producers for bringing the viewing public a reminder of how good movies can truly be, even when its this rare.