CBGB

Saw the CBGB Movie last night... Great job! no car crashes.. just Hilly's truck, no alien invasion, no love story unless you count the part with.. Well, I wont mention any names.. Just a story about a little club that could.. at least for a little while. Alan Rickman did capture the essence of Mr. K.. this is not a documentary so I did not mind the time line of certain things not being accurate, it was entertaining and if you were not fortunate enough to have been there back in the day you can still learn a thing or two about the beginnings of Punk Rock. Yes there were many bands that played that stage and some are upset for not being included.. perhaps writing scathing reviews.. I was happy to be there "cant all be rock stars" Great tribute to Hilly at the end when Talking Heads were added to R&R Hall of Fame. I loved it and do want to see it again!

From the director of Bottle Shock comes another love letter to the 1970s: CBGB. If you have no idea what that means, or if you know what it means but don't know what the letters stand for, you'll be very entertained by this movie. Full of literally dozens of songs from 1970s rock and grunge bands, it's a must-see for classic rock lovers. As you listen to Television, Blondie, The Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, The Stooges, The Ramones, The Police, and countless others, you'll get to see modern actors dressed up and lip-synching to their songs!

CBGB is a New York nightclub started by Hilly Kristal, played by a hilarious wigged-out Alan Rickman. His dive bar isn't paying his bills, so he transforms it into a nightclub where people can chill out and listen to "Country, Blue Grass, and Blues" bands. It gets turned into a hot spot where undiscovered punk bands play before they become famous. The beautiful Malin Akerman plays Debbie Harry, Taylor Hawkins plays Iggy Pop, Joel David Moore plays Joey Ramone, and countless others perform in a sort of "candid camera" that shows behind-the-scenes fun as well as performances from "way back when". This film completely captures the 1970s music scene, and the colors, lighting, incredibly grungy interior design, costumes, and wigs make it feel like a time capsule. If you know your bands, you'll get even more out of the humor, and if you don't, you'll just get a kick out of Alan Rickman's hilarious scenes with his mother, Estelle Harris, and his scenes with a grown up Rupert Grint. There's a lot to love about this tribute to the 1970s, but if you don't like that decade, don't even think about renting it.

"There's something there, there's definitely something there." After two failed attempts at running a bar and on the verge of bankruptcy Hilly Kristal (Rickman) throws everything he has into a bar where he wants to feature local country, bluegrass or blues bands. What it turns out to be is the launching pad for an entirely new sound for a new generation. As the legend goes punk wasn't born here but after bands such as Blondie, The Ramones, The Police and Iggy Pop punk was discovered here. I have to admit I am not a fan of punk music. I did like the Police and some songs by the bigger named artists but overall it's not one of my favorite genres. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this going in but I really ended up liking it. Alan Rickman is great in this (as always) and the story moved fast enough that there really wasn't a boring part in this at all. The actors they picked to play the bands were spot on, Malin Akerman, Rupert Grint and Kyle Gallner are all interesting choices. I really ended up liking this much more then I thought I would. Overall, this is not just a good movie about music, this is a good movie period. I give it a B+.

Apparently, I'm practically the only reviewer that wasn't there or personally knew Hilly himself. I grew up in a smaller-ish mid-western town and was introduced to punk by a girl from high school in the late 70's, and became aware of CBGB in the mid 80's. CBGB was always a mecca I wanted to visit but never got the chance to, so I leaped at watching this movie.

First off... It' important to remember this is the fictionalize account of the legendary New York city punk club CBGB and Hilly Kristal, and not a documentary. I went into watching this with the expectations there would be many factual errors. I noticed some items like band stickers on the walls from the wrong decade, but it's a Hollywood movie... not a documentary. I think the end credits says it best where it says "And we know that Iggy Pop never played at CBGB... Just deal with it.".

This location was so instrumental to music that I doubt a 3 hour movie could have done it justice. They had to pack a lot of story into a short amount of time so no one watching this movie should do so expecting a historically accurate movie. I enjoyed how they interweaved Punk magazine into the story. I felt it helped keep an upbeat, lighthearted message about Hilly and CGBG and kept the plot moving.

Now it's a double edged sword here with my criticism. The plot got pretty thin in the middle of the movie as the director tried to give the viewer a idea of the energy that was going on with the bands playing there, and some of the insanity I'm sure went on there on a regular basis. While the plot got non-existence, it was still enjoyable to imagine being there and seeing bands like the Ramones, Blonde, Patti Smithe playing.

Even though I thought there were points where the plot got lost, and the acting was somewhat awkward and forced at points, I still thought it was well done. My one big complaint is the ending was sort of sudden and anticlimactic.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie personally... but I didn't have high expectations on what it was going to be either. I guess if you're a punk purist or were actually there, then someone might be disappointed in the movie.

I was a fan of CBGB music before I even knew what it was. I remember going to a second hand record store and asking them if they had any John Cale records. They said, yes, in the CBGB pile. The what? CBGB. Seeby-Jeeby..? And then they pointed at the section and there was a bunch of punk/new wave that I love. Heaven? Yes. Randall Miller seems to have a big passion for this music of the 70s and 80s too. I'm way more interested in the other upcoming project he had in mind called The Drummer, which was to star Vera Farmiga as Christine McVie and Aaron Eckhart as Dennis Wilson, but that film seems to not be happening anytime soon. Instead, I'm happy to check out CBGB to at least learn more about the place than 'it was a club.' The film prominently features musicians such as Television, The Dead Boys, Talking Heads, Blondie and Iggy Pop, but this story is about Hilly Kristal, the founder of the club, played by Alan Rickman. Although the film appears to glide through the narrative without much of a sense of jeopardy or pressure, it's very entertaining and colourful, designed in a magazine style with split screens and annotations every now and then. Even though that caricature tone does not match the gritty punk attitude of its topics, it's an accessible and simplified version that's great fun to watch, even if most of the accents are terrible.

7/10