Home :: DVD :: Musicals & Performing Arts  

Ballet & Dance
Biography
Broadway
Classical
Documentary
General
Instructional
Jazz
Musicals
Opera
World Music
Groove - Special Edition

Groove - Special Edition

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic, great depcition of our generation!
Review: With the movie originally being realeased in limited areas, many people have yet to experience this materpiece. After reading a few reviews of this movie I took the gamble and I was blown away. At first, I figured this might be another "GO" but I was very happily wrong. The movie encompasses a night of a rave/party with an incredible soundtrack that plays throughout the entire film. Furthermore, it is just a flat out great movie with a great story line. I recomend this movie for anyone and everyone that either enjoys the rave scene or just a great movie that defines one aspect of our generation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie - A must for all you ravers out there
Review: After watching this movie I understood why it won the Sundance 2000, It delivers the whole rave scene in the most accurate way. You'll find yourself saying - Hey that's me on the screen. Great movie, great sound track - A must

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredibly real
Review: This is a must see if you like the Rave scene or even just the music. I went in expecting to not like it with a group of friends and we all were blown away at how well the entire movie was put together.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great show for the ravers and party kids everywhere!
Review: This is a great movie. It wasn't released in most cities during it's theatrical running, but I heard about it from a friend in San Francisco. I'm a DJ, so I thought that it worth checking out and I was right! This is a pretty realistic movie with a great soundtrack and some of todays hottest Dj's spinning some great tracks. Great buy and well worth the money!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Groovy, Cheesy, Forgettable.
Review: This Sundance fave is basically 48 hours at a San Francisco Rave. In the 60's there were 'Happenings', in the 80's there were house parties, and in the 90's we have Raves. A lot of Raves are run by folks who merely want to throw the best dance party you've ever been too. They aren't interested in getting rich from Raves or running an underground version of Studio 54(though some people exist that try). There's a sense of community and a shared joy of the driving beats of the electronic, techno music that takes the old Kraftwerk sound to new heights of.... Well ecstasy ... as in the drug of course and very popular among Ravers. So it nitrous, as in laughing gas. So are power drinks-vitamin/fruit juice concoctions. So is bottled water-drugs and fast dancing can dehydrate you, you know.

Groove is about an Underground Rave party. We briefly meet a handful of character types who plan on going to the Rave. Some behind the scenes at the Rave, and then various characters interact at the party all night long RAVE.

There's five main characters in the film, a half dozen minor ones and some extras. Rave promoter (Steve Van Wormer) approves the location, coordinates the fast make-over of the warehouse into a party palace and later diverts a nosy policeman, re-organizes a Rave part 2 and keeps a handle on a potential drug overdose. He does it not to make money, but for 'the nod'. Which is a sincere genuine appreciation from at least one person who has attended the Rave he's organized. The word that a Rave is on is spread via, e-mail, and personal messages among a cult group of Ravers alert attendees. Party goers will meet a guy in a car in a quiet part of town, pay a couple bucks and get directions to where the Rave is being held.

David (Hamish Linklater) is a technical writer whose ready to write his first novel. His younger brother Colin (Denny Kirkwood) is an experienced Raver who insists insists David (who's a Rave virgin) go with him to the latest Rave. David really doesn't want to go, but Colin tells him it's important he is there because he wants it to be a very special evening him and his girlfriend (MacKenzie Firgens). It's no surprise he intends to propose to the girl at the Rave.

There's also Leyla (Lola Glaudini), a New York woman, new to the Bay Area who's not found a focus or purpose in her life yet, even though some of her former wild party friends have settled down. She's a 90's version of a grounded 60's flower-child, 80's new-ager. She dresses borderline goth. Eventually she'll make an impression on David with her exotic look and help him have a pleasant and safe experience after he takes Ecstacy with his brother and girlfriend. A romance blossoms.

Anyway, that's about all there is to Groove. That is its charm. There isn't a lot going on. A handful of characters interacting at an underground Rave. It's told from the perspective of Ravers and so we see the lighter, kinder side of Raves. There's no anti-drug messages here and there's a very naive youthful idealism emanating from the writer/director and the characters we meet. There's a nice tight, semi-documentary type style employed by first time feature film director Gregory Harrison (who's done some documentaries). His actors aren't very experienced, and at times this really shows. At times the script is downright corny and loopy. Some of the comic moments (particularly with the gay couple who are late and get lost on their way to the Rave) are forced and don't work very well.

The music is the a mix of mostly 'house' type techno music. We see real life dj's spinning some grooves during the film. There isn't any exciting choreography or show-boat dancing going on in the film.

If you want a fairly authentic look at a mellow RAVE happening, this film gives you that with some cliched characters, corniness and hardly a negative message spoken. It's almost pro-drug and glamorizes drug use somewhat with a couple of messages about being careful and responsible about what you take and with whom. The film is far too safe to get excited about on any level. It purposely is ambiguous about any possible purpose it might have other than.. Here's a Rave... they aren't wild orgies or places where everyone goes nuts using drugs, but they are young people hanging out, unwinding, experimenting a bit and moving a bit to loud music.

A nod and a shrug. It's an okay film. 2 and a half stars rounded up to a 3.

Chris Jarmick, Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder-a steamy cyber- thriller...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Great Depection of the "Rave" Culture.
Review: The 60s had they're hippies, the 70s and early 80s had their disco, we have techo. The electronic beat-boxes of techno, house, acid, and the other genre's that have created the "rave" scene will go down in history as defining the millennium culture. The movie Groove portrays this culture very well. From the empty underground warehouses, filled with laser shows to the Glow Sticks and the Ecstasy-- it's all there.

Grab this movie, and watch it, especially if you have nothing to do with the scene, or know nothing about the scene. This movie will be used in classrooms 30 years from now to teach about the "Millennium Culture."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Plotless... but nevertheless great
Review: ok.. the main problem with this movie that some may find is that there really is no real plot to the movie, i guess it almost seems quasi-documentary... but its not.. haha...

so theres no plot... you dont like plotless movies... dont watch this one, but if you are so interested in just a quick, and undetailed glimpse of wat this whole scene is about... and you dig this kind of music... u just may like this movie as i did.

so lets recap... deep??... nope.... action??... nope... funny??... depends on yo sense of humor (we found it hilarious at some parts... the discoball on the subway... CLASSIC)...

anyways.. peace and merriment!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Groovin' with Groove
Review: A wonderful film! A must-have for any raver or techno/house/trance lover!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Film!
Review: This movie rocks. If there could ever be an accurate depiction of my life,this is it. If you have a heart and a mind and a love for the rave scene (and what the scene is about) not only should you SEE this movie, but you should OWN it! PLUR

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Vibrant yet cheesy
Review: The movie from a storyline standpoint is intruiging since there aren't many movies of this sort to choose from in the "electronic dance" (rave) scene. The movie is pretty short, although that isn't the real problem with it.

The actual dialogue between the characters seemed a bit forced, such as the exchange between the promoter and one of his buddies who questions why he goes through the hassle of putting parties together anyway. Other aspects such as acting, and I hate to pick on the DJs but snaz and digweed seemed to me like they were trying to act as DJs, not actually being them, slowed the film down a bit.

The energy brought into Leyla's character was a nice boost to the movie, and the scene where Dave is outside beginning to feel the effects did make me feel a bit queasy :)

The film did a good job on trying to develop characters throughout the party instead of developing them beforehand and watching how they react to the different situations that occur. A nice twist since there have been many times where me and my friends will go and be completely open with people we've never met before. So, the film kind of caught a special element of the scene, which was a nice plus.

It seemed most aspects were covered in the movie....there were the candy ravers, the kid who just went so he could take as many drugs as possible, the guy who goes solely for the purpose of hooking up, the first timer, the sober veteran who watches after the first timer, the happy-yet-really unstable raver girl, the ravers who go just to hear their favorite DJ, and of course, the DJs themselves. Some of these characters were developed and represented nicely, but as noted before some of the lines they were fed seem to be more pointed towards people who have no idea what goes on in the scene...a "How to..." if you will.

Another neat aspect of the movie was the actual switching of the DJs themselves, and how they all had their own styles to bring. There was Snaz, who at times did a good job of representing the DJ who had to get the music going before the partiers had arrived, made some rookie spinning mistakes when they did come, only to give way to crowd-pleasing DJs who have an enormous amount of confidence in their abilities. A particular interesting turn came for Snaz, who had to perform an anxiety-riddled second set because another one of the DJs had a serious problem which prevented him from going on.

I'm glad the DJs themselves got their deserving chunk in the movie, since they are an ever-growing phenomenon in the industry. When Polywog turned up the volume during "Twenty Minutes of Disco Glory" at the build-up point, it reminded me of everything that is fun about the dance scene in general.

To summarize all this non-sense.....this movie could have been made better, but not all groundbreakers are masterpieces. If you've never been to a rave before, this would definitely be an interesting one to check out. If you have, it makes a good start to a collection that will hopefully grow as more and more people realize that the underground-yet-coming-up dance scene offers much more to the mind, body, and spirit than TRL on MTV ever will.


<< 1 .. 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates