…was and is an innocent film, made by kids for kids, and with adult concerns only getting in the way…there’s an appropriately child-like glee in Bugsy Malone’s best songs, which all sound great today, and the staging is agreeably quaint...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 5, 2024

Bugsy Malone is nothing but its godawful idea.

| Dec 2, 2023

Williams writes good songs and the whole production has a good-natured, uncynical vibe.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 22, 2021

Alan Parker directed a handful of exemplary musicals over the course of his career, but this isn't one of them.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 3, 2021

There are many delightful and mirth-provoking scenes in the picture. which tells the story of the gang wars in New York in a most unusual, unforgettable way.

| Aug 16, 2021

This film is the brainchild of writer/director Alan Parker, and it's amazing that he's pulled it off successfully.

| May 21, 2020

I don't know where this film will find its audience because it's really too boring to sit that long on one joke.

| Oct 29, 2019

Worth seeing purely for the sequence where the pre-teen Mafioso open their violin cases and pull out machine guns that fire nothing but cream pies. A true original from 1976.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2019

The movie is well made, the songs are excellent, and the actors are consumed in their roles. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jul 24, 2019

You'll have seen the film already, but this is a timely reminder of just how accomplished a production it is; once Parker had made the decision to cast only children in all the roles... everything else fell perfectly into place.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 17, 2018

Parker's script is as sharp as a wiseguy's suit, his attention to period and genre detail a constant joy, and he coaxes scarily poised performances from his young performers.

| Apr 18, 2014

This original concept, a gangster musical spoof with all the roles played by children (Jodie Foster among them), never found its audience, but it's worth checking out.

| Original Score: B | Aug 3, 2011

Jodie Foster stars in goofy kid mobster movie.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 8, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 13, 2007

It's boisterous and good-natured, with catchy songs, and always sublimely unaware of its own strangeness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 26, 2006

The songs and set pieces are still fresh and infectious and most of the child cast are mesmerisingly good. I defy anyone not to be caught up in the charm and nostalgia.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 30, 2006

There's little here that delivers even the bare minimum for a musical or a comedy

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 10, 2006

Pretty goofy idea, but kids will probably be diverted by it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 14, 2005