Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant blast
Review: Reasons to enjoy this film: 1) You came of age with the rock music of the late 60s, early 70s. 2) Your parents came of age with the rock music of the late 60s, early 70s and made sure you became very familiar with its conventions. 3) You've been to recent "comeback" concerts and wondered what was going on backstage. 4) You like The Last Waltz but love This Is Spinal Tap. 5) You enjoy well-crafted British films that are refreshingly free of American film mannerisms and celebrity mugging. 6) You like it when a film gets something "right," in this case the music and its culture. 7) Bill Nighy as the lead singer is outstanding. 8) You are in the mood for a comedy that doesn't bite much. Reasons not to watch this with very young children or senior citizens to whom you are related: 1) They won't get the music or the topical references and will either comment derisively or interrupt frequently asking you to explain. 2) They won't get the bawdier moments and will ask you to explain.
Rating: 
Summary: best movie ever
Review: This movie is one of the very few that I can watch over and over. After being a roadie for a club band in the late 70's and early 80's, most of the situations in here are the "been there, done that" kind of stuff, especially "STRANGE FRUIT's" first gig. I think the writers must have been at our first gig.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: This is not a comedy to make you laugh all the time, but it is very well crafted, a true gem. Amazing pop soundtrack, tryuing to sound exactly as a metal band of the seventies would. Fantastic. Only weak point is the actor that palys the role of the young guitarrist hired by the band in their comeback. At some stage scenes, no attempt was made to syncronize the songs with his playing.
Rating:
Summary: the best movie i have seen in years
Review: This is truely the best rock video ever made. Everything from the acting to the laughs to the music was great. ANYBODY WHO GIVES THIS MOVIE 3 OR LESS STARS SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED.
Rating: 
Summary: Rock 'n' Drole
Review: The simple tale of the archetypal British rock group, disbanded following mounting inner turmoil and a disastrous open air appearance in the 70s, now in need of cash and attempting to reform. All the appropriate ingredients and clichés .....drugs, artistic temperaments, egotistical tantrums, flares and fart jokes...are thrown in and combined with faultless casting and a superior soundtrack (courtesy of Chris "Squeeze" Difford and Mick "Foreigner" Jones), make for an enjoyable watch. "Strange Fruit" and their entourage prove an endearing bunch, but the film's shining light is Bill Nighy as the alcoholic, preening, pretentious, but ultimately insecure and unloved, lead singer. The film only fails to achieve greatness due to the fact that, as a comedy, it is at best amusing, rather than hilarious. Still, I've been to much worse gigs!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: This movie makes for a nice sleeping pill. When it was over I was still waiting for it to start. What the story lacks the music doesn't make up for. If your looking for a similar movie try(Eddie and the Cruisers) not a great movie but it has a nice twist at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: This movie makes for a nice sleeping pill. When it was over I was still waiting for it to start. What the story lacks the music doesn't make up for. If your looking for a movie similar to this try(Eddie and the Crusiers) not a great movie but at least it has a nice twist at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Do You Have To Be British To Do This Sort Of Thing Right?
Review: "If women are from Venus, and men are from Mars, then drummers must be from Pluto..." -- just one absolutely perfect line among many from this perfect film.The only thing i've seen in years that can compare to this is "The Commitments"; both films get into the conflicts and camaradery and stress and joy and pain and happiness that being part of a band -- even a mediocre or even a bad one -- can involve. Even though i knew it was all fiction, i didn't for a minute doubt that these guys really *were* Strange Fruit, a band that *almost* went somewhere and then broke up under strange circumstances. And i was rooting all along for them to pull it off, to make a success of their reunion, to finally get the breaks they didn't get twenty-odd years ago. A tour-de-force from beginning to end, thjis is a film that lets those of us on the outside know what it's like on the other side of the footlights... and in the dressing room... and on the tour bus... Don't start watching this one unless you're willing to give it your full attention,,, because it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful surprise!
Review: It is odd, actually, that I should be making any statementsabout this movie, being that I missed the whole of the first part ofit! In deed, when I walked into the room, where my husband was watching it, I cried, "What the ( ) are you watching?" Well, as it turned out, a good movie! The thing I liked most about it, was the fact that the characters were so well rounded out emotionally and every personally type was explored: from the emotionally inhibited singer, to the drunken, over sexed drummer, to the mother hen "Let's all get along" organist, to the sneering, yet protective roadie. The elements of conflict that one would expect to see, when a group of talented personalities have been shut up in a bus for monthes on end, are there. The rivalry, the petty back biting, the opening of old wounds, the fear of age and rejection, the longing for group acceptance, the frustraction of trying to get everyone to cooperate, and the love/hate relationships that are the stock and trade of over blown egos, are played out between the band members as they try to get back a piece of their youthful glory. Actists, as a whole, are usually very insecure people, and you could see that clearly with Ray and then again with Brian. Brian being the most touching of all. The confrontation the band has with the press actually makes you want to slap someone. You truly want to protect these characters and reassure them that everything is going to work out fine. Then too, the music was wonderful and believably acted out by the cast. This was a lovely, lovely movie and I will be adding the DVD and the soundtrack to my collection! END
Rating:
Summary: This film deserves a better title.
Review: I have to agree with most of the reviewers here. This is one of those "finds" that we all hope to stumble across. It has some of the best defined characters I have ever encountered in any film, ever. I actually became nostalgic for Strange Fruit. I was sorry they broke up so many years ago and their first singer died. . . wait a minute, it's only a movie! It is so good. It takes its place alongside Shawshank in my collection . Rock on, Ray.
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