Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Marijus Kulvietis Oliver! -this classical musical proved, that Oliver Tvist looks the best in cinema as musical. In this adaptation we see excellent cast with Carol Reed's nephew-Oliver Reed. But what is a true discovery in "Oliver!"-it's great Ron Moody as the best Fagin ever. Let's listen to Fagin (Ron Moody) song from "Oliver!" , which represents the typical tragicomical and warm note of that adaptation-"Reviewing the Situation"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96rC4X_KWl4&t=20

Alicia (allkrueger) This film is based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Dickens knew how to write an extraordinary book. No matter how long the story is by Dickens I can sit down and read it from beginning to end. The film does the book justice because the directing, acting, cinematography and singing is great. The plot of the film is that an orphan named Oliver is taken in by people of questionable morals. Oliver is not the smartest boy in the world and in my opinion, he causes Nancy's death. You need to watch the film to see what I mean. The actors are so talented in this film. Some of the singing was dubbed by playback singers. I do not care if it is really the actors or actresses singing or not. The production is professional and extremely well done. I could watch this movie over and over and over again.

Stompgal_87 As a child, I owned this on the same VHS as 'Annie (another favourite musical of mine)' but never saw it in full up until now because I always used to watch 'Annie' in full but only about the first act of this film due to the vast length of the VHS. Renting the DVD gave me a chance to view 'Oliver!' in its entirety and jot down some notes about it for my university assignment on the portrayal of London in film (see also my 'Mary Poppins' and 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' reviews).The music is what makes this the most appealing and interesting live-action adaptation of the three I've heard of (this one, obviously, the black and white 1948 version that I watched a bit of with my mother and found boring and the 2005 version in colour that, according to its trailer, looks similar to this one but without the songs) and they made the film relatively swift albeit its length of nearly two and a half hours. My top five songs are, in no particular order, 'Food Glorious Food,' 'Oliver!,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two' and 'I'd Do Anything,' all of which are performed during the first act. The songs during the second act may not be the most memorable (probably due to not having watched it when I was younger) but the ones I liked best from that act were 'Who Will Buy?,' Fagin's dark performance of 'Reviewing the Situation,' Nancy's poignant performance of 'As Long As He Needs Me' and the catchy 'Oom Pah Pah.' The choreography is creative, especially during 'Consider Yourself,' 'I'd Do Anything,' 'Who Will Buy?' and 'Oom Pah Pah.' Further to the incidental music, I liked its old-fashioned feel and some parts of it being brief, instrumental arrangements of some of the songs. I also liked the brief arrangement of 'London Bridge' being played in the background during 'Be Back Soon, ' which in some way links to the London Bridge scene later in the film.Whilst watching this film, I could see some similarities to Disney's 'Oliver and Company (released 20 years after this film was)' such as Oliver the boy being taken into Mr Brownlow's care, Nancy and Sikes (?) taking him back and this version of Oliver returning to Mr Brownlow being similar to Oliver the kitten being taken into care by Jenny, Dodger and the rest of the dogs returning him to Fagin and Oliver the kitten being returned to Jenny at the end. In this version, the best characters are Oliver, Mr Bumble, Dodger, Fagin, Sikes, Mr Brownlow and Nancy. The story is filled with dark, funny and moving moments: the dark ones consisting of Oliver being trapped in the cellar at the undertaker's, Nancy's murder at London Bridge and the angry mob approaching Sikes; the funny ones including the pickpockets forming a horse and carriage during 'I'd Do Anything' and the brief shot of a Punch and Judy show; and the moving ones including Oliver's performance of 'Where Is Love,' Nancy's performance of 'As Long As He Needs Me' and the ending, which nearly reduced me to tears.Besides the songs I found forgettable, I found the title cards of St Paul's Cathedral shown during the overture, opening titles, intermission, entr' acte and the exit music tedious yet iconic. The cathedral was shown in daylight to represent more easy-going scenes while it was shown in darkness during darker parts of the film. London Bridge was also depicted in a dark way due to Sikes murdering Nancy and threatening Bullseye at that exact location.All in all, this is my absolute favourite live-action version of the Dickens novel and is strangely on par with Disney's 'Oliver and Company.' 9/10.

mark.waltz O.K., you could make it darker. You could "Sweeney Todd" it up and have Bill Sikes be exactly like that throat slicer who had the victims then turned into meat pies. But what they did with the film version of the 1960 London musical (brought to Broadway in 1963) is keep it faithful to that source, if not the original Charles Dickens novel with all the controversy of so-called anti-Semitism.Sweet little orphan Oliver (Mark Lester) wins the dare to ask for "more!" and when he does, he is throunced, bounced, and sold to a flustered undertaker named Sowerberry. Too sauced to save his purchase, Sowerberry sleeps it off in a coffin while Oliver beats up the older assistant Noah. Oliver escapes to London, meets up with the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild), and is soon off to see the Wizard of Pickpocketing, the hawk-nosed Fagin (Ron Moody), a lovable old codger of thievery with a few tricks up his sleeve. Fagin's co-horts, Bill and Nancy Sikes (Oliver Reed and Shani Wallis) both have different ideas of what to do with Oliver, but first they must get him back from the rich man who saved Oliver from being accused of picking his pocket.Musically, this is exciting, from the pleading "Food, Glorious, Food!" to the touching "Where is Love?" in the beginning, exploding into big city joy in the London-set "Consider Yourself", and then music hall glory with Wallis's loving Nancy singing such showstoppers as "It's a Fine Life!" and "Oom-Pah-Pah!".Title character Oliver is visually perfectly cast with the diminutive Mark Lester who has the right innocence for him with a touch of toughness when he needs to bring that out. Lester, seemingly dubbed with a high-pitched singing voice, does what he can to make the character not pitiable, but oh, that singing voice. Harry Secombe is an unforgettable Mr. Bumble, Moody a joy as that rascal Fagin who teaches his boys "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two!". Wild and Wallis shine with "I'd Do Anything", and the ensemble of "Who Will Buy?" is a huge production number that keeps the joy coming.All in all, there is nothing to complain about in this production, the right songs cut from the original and even the smallest parts perfectly cast with perfect visuals from the book. Once you see this (again and again) you will also see the similarities to another big stage musical, the Manhattan set "Annie", which also deals with an orphan trying to find her legacy and dealing with crooks in the meantime. Both shows have dogs, but Bill Sikes' pooch in "Oliver!" is a lot more nefarious looking than Sandy from "Annie".