Review of MCA Physical video. Apparently the VHS tape retailed at US$60 back then!
OLIVIA: PHYSICAL, MCA Videocassette $60 or by rental
This 54-minute original video just won the first Grammy for Best Musical Video of the year. With fantabulous sets and costumes, an array of gorgeous men wandering through. and 13 “greatest hits” warbled by Olivia Newton-John, there is certainly enough entertaining.
How much you like it. of course, depends on how much you can tolerate Olivia’s whispered delivery, all of it lip-synched, even in parts that place her in a mock rock concert setting.
The first three numbers are worth it if you haven’t seen them on network television or in clubs and bars. During the opening sequence she sings the infectious song in a gleaming, tiled gym crammed with sinewy, well-endowed huskies wearing Speedos. The surprise ending has them walking out hand in hand, leaving our poor Aussie in the lurch.
In “Landslide,” the opener, she sizzles with her real life boyfriend, pretty boy Matt Lattanzi, as a somewhat disrobed and arduous Musketeer.
The picture resolution is vivid, colors sharp, and sound crystal clear. Altogether it’s diverting and worth a workout.