Watch 200 Motels For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I'm giving this a "9" not because it's a great, well-crafted, well- scripted movie, like I think most people would agree "Chinatown" or "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is. I think it deserves a 9 because it's just an unfiltered extension of Frank Zappa's music, which I love already: weird, unique, often rambling, with astonishing gems here and there. "Mystery Roach" and "Magic Fingers" stand out as favorites. But Zappa was better at music than he was at filmmaking. 200 Motels is an annoyingly opaque in-joke, a surreal jumble of skits with psychedelic video filters, weird-looking people in funny costumes, and cheap sets. They're not really funny or interesting, either, they're just weird. It pulls off a lighthearted vibe like Sesame Street, only the characters talk about the "penis dimension," how depressing it is for whores to sleep with traveling musicians, and people taking too much acid. That may sound dark, even offensive, but the tone of 200 Motels is just so silly that it's hard to take any of it seriously.I think there are deeper meanings woven into this thing, but they're odd, half-baked and just not interesting. For instance, there's a recurring theme of nuns doing dirty and undignified things like having sex with Alladin's Lamp (wtf?) and taking pills. I would actually rather NOT take that seriously because even though it comes from the mind of the great Frank Zappa, it's... stupid. Juvenile. Hurrr you don't like religion, let's flick a booger on a nun. Without going deeper into why he wants to depict nuns in such an undignified way, it's just more tacky and nonsensical stage-dressing.It's kind of like the Monkees' "Head". It's stupid, pointless, and self- indulgent, but it's also a feature-length music video for a popular band, if you're into them anyways. And the over-the-top psychedelia is interesting at times.

I saw this movie on opening day in NYC in 1971. I wish I could get a DVD copy of it. It was beautiful then and I bet it is still beautiful. Yes, I still have the double album and the poster that I bought at that time. Long live Zappa! And also yes, Johnny Depp should play Zappa in the biopic!!! It is truly a great example of the rock opera that The Who tried to do a few years previous. This is it... a bit different, but still as great a rock film as "A Hard Days Night!! Zappa was a consummate politician, philosopher, musician and theoretician. This movie shows him pull it all together. And dig that amazing animation stuck there in the middle. True genius!

200 Motels (1971) *** (out of 4) If you've heard any of Frank Zappa's music then you should know what to expect in this semi-documentary and that's originality and strangeness. The film follows Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on a tour but don't expect your typical Don't Look Back type of scenery. Instead we get all sorts of short stories including an animated sequence with an acid taking Donald Duck wannabe, two groupies and Ringo Starr playing both Zappa and a dwarf. This film also has the distinction of being shot on videotape, which allowed Zappa to finish the movie in ten days. It's really hard to recommend this film to anyone because I'm sure most won't know what to make of it and in fact as a Zappa fan I wasn't sure what to make of it but that there is what makes the film work. Another movie like this can't pop up in my mind and for my money that originality is what makes this film special. Zappa himself is scene throughout the movie but never heard. That's an odd thing to do but what's even odder is having Ringo play Zappa and it's shocking how close they look to one another. Keith Moon shows up as a "sexy nun" so that there should tell you how nuts this film is. If you're looking for an actual documentary on Zappa or his tour then you're going to be out of luck here but if you want pure strange images then give this a try. There's plenty of music throughout the film as well, which is another big bonus.

While not truly horrible, this movie is still a nearly unwatchable mess which is only barely saved by Zappa's music.This movie could only have been made in the post-psychedelic, highly experimental climate of the early 70s. It feels like a first year film school project gone horribly wrong. Every "trippy" video and editing trick is employed. It's truly an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to film making, however, it only serves to compound the fact that there's no substance to this mess. There's no plot to speak of, rather it's more of a series of skits. The trouble is, for the most part they're unfunny and only barely entertaining. Even cameos by such luminaries as Ringo Starr and Keith Moon fail to deliver much beyond the cheap thrill of recognition.As I mentioned, this movie is only barely saved by the musical performances. That's because some of them are horrible, some are just OK, and only a select few are actually really good. This is the kind of movie you need to see on DVD so you can skip straight to the performances, because there's really no other reason to watch this movie.I guarantee you won't be able to get through this movie in one sitting. It's basically garbage, and is interesting mainly as a historical curiosity.