24 Hour Party People

Rating:
Summary: relive the glorious past
Review: This film is part comedy, part documentary, and is very entertaining. I've certainly been spinning the old Joy Division records in the week since I've seen it! 24HPP may be the first feature film to include a reference to its own future status as a dvd. In fact, it's the self-referential nature that makes the film so fun--Coogan's performance as Wilson is quite brilliant.Maybe not the greatest film ever made, but a better film about the very influential Manchester music scene that I'd have thought possible. More proof of the superiority of the Northern English punk bands!

Rating:
Summary: Blue Monday
Review: Michael Winterbottom certainly had no way to go but up after the dreadful "The Claim." And so he does more than make up for it with the fiendishly inventive and entertaining, "24 Hour Party People."
"24HPP" is based on the real life of Tony Wilson a Granada television personality (he hosted Britain's "Wheel of Fortune") who also had a real talent for scouting, producing shows for and recording new and talented bands like New Order, Joy Division and the Sex Pistols in Manchester, England circa 1971-1994. He was also a club owner who had a lot to do with the invention of the current DJ/Rave scene.
What makes this film so enjoyable is the tact that Winterbottom has adopted to tell Wilson's story: Wilson emcees his life both personal and professional in as droll and dry-witted, British middle class/bangers and mash way as possible. It's a hoot.
Along the way we are introduced to a myriad of 80's bands and their music mostly through actual live footage of the bands themselves. But it is Wilson himself as portrayed by Steve Coogan who is the revelation here. He's smart about music and his career but dumb about the realities of the music business. He's very much in love with his wife but doesn't hesitate to take advantage of the favors of music groupies. He wears suits, dress shirts and overcoats to meetings with his rowdy bands, who wear jeans,torn tee-shirts and make-up and sport scowls of miss-apprehension and distrust until Wilson speaks of his love of their music.
"24 Hour Party People" transcends it's 80's roots and becomes universal through the sheer joy, passion and love that Wilson and Winterbottom obviously feel for this music and it's milieu that has as much conviction and reverence for it's subject than do "Amadeus" or "Jail House Rock."

Rating:
Summary: The very best of intentions!
Review: What a great idea to try to recapture on film, the Manchester music scene during the late 1970s to early 90s. Also called the "Madchester" music scene, it witnessed the birth of punk and the death of acid house. At the top of the music revolution, a philosophical tone presented itself; a sort of "music existentialism" one might say. Inspired by both the Situationist International and the art of Andy Warhol, a bored TV journalist named Tony Wilson, created Factory Records after catching one of the first Sex Pistols concerts. The company's philosophy centered more on partying than actually working. Their mode of operation in the style of total anarchy; no rules, no organization and no real desire to launch new careers or make money. What a great concept and subject for a movie! The talented Winterbottom attempts to fill the shoes of his characters, thus adapting his filmmaking to "Factory Records standards." He shot the film on digital video, his actors equipped with radio mics. Their dialogue is mostly improvisation as they find their way through the scenes, and the credits are so cryptic and psychedelic, they are virtually unreadable. Well, guess what? Manchester is not "Madchester" anymore, the Sex Pistols are gone, and film is not the medium for a musical "improv." Music back then had something to say or to scream rather, about life, the world, or better yet, how to approach both life and music. Winterbottom doesn't appear to have anything at all to say about this subject, not even through his characters. Wilson (the real one) confesses that he has "no talent but to hang out with geniuses," and we feel it throughout the film. His character starts out as a bored journalist, and remains a boring music promoter. Wilson also says he tried to convince the filmmakers to make the film about the real geniuses, the musicians, but that they refused. Big mistake, because all this energy, passion and philosophy of life doesn't come through in the film, making it...well, boring. Even the idea of "people partying for 24 hours" is absent. The music was intellectual and emotional. The film is neither, leaving us cold and numb...

Rating:
Summary: COOL!
Review: This movie was awsome! Andy Serkis was probably the best actor in the movie go see it!

Rating:
Summary: Punk Rave and Dry Humor.... What a combo...
Review: Great movie, lots-o-british humor, lots-o-british music history. Too much Happy Mondays, not enough about New Order but you get to see the birth of the rave scene which is very cool. Where else can you get a movie and see a guy hang himself while watching a chicken dance on his TV....

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money on this one
Review: Talentless people and garbage music torture you in this turkey-in no time flat,you'll be driven to pure insanity as you run screaming "MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" out into the yard.Do not spend money on this product unless you want to wind up beating your head against the wall and babbling nonsense.

Rating:
Summary: Cool, Edgy, Independent Film
Review: This movie manages to be funny, quirky and sad--all at the same time. It combines the story of Joy Division's Ian Curtis and Happy Monday's Shaun Ryder--apparently with much revisionist history along the way. The interesting combination proves to make for an entertaining and interesting film.

I was laughing from the very beginning, with the movie's re-enactment of the infamous Sex Pistols gig in Manchester. Long have I heard tales of this show and it was treat to see it in the film.

There is plenty of great acting in this movie--particular from Steve Coogan as an arrogant Tony Wilson. Plus, I enjoyed the performances of the actors playing Ian Curtis, Martin Hannett and Rob Gretton, respectively.

It might have been fun to see and hear more of New Order in the moveie, but there are plenty of stories to be told concerning the Manchester, England music scene and the folks who made the film probably had enough difficulty fitting in as much as they did.

Do be sure to check out the commentary track by the real Tony Wilson. It's a real kick, and very insightful.

Lest I forget to mention, there is some FANTASTIC music in this movie.

Keep in mind this movie isn't for the little kids!

Rating:
Summary: Manic Mancs
Review: a great deal of fun - overwrought, hackneyed, loud, indulgent, hazy, much like a Friday night in Fallowfield. Coogan is cooly cheesy, the lads who play JD and the Mondays are great - esp Ryder and Hook - and the space in between is filled with the shady, upstart conmen one might imagine in a grimy postindustrial utopia. Purists, sadists, and basically anybody with no sense of humor or fun will complain endlessly. (this is an impression - Tony Wilson's no less - not a documentary). most everyone else will be pleased.

Rating:
Summary: A fine film
Review: I have watched this film at least ten times and it holds up. It holds up even if you don't know who New Order or Happy Monday are. It contains many themes that are present in Michael Winterbottom's previous films. Shirley Henderson is great in a minor part. It's an entertaining film throughout. I enjoy watching all the director commentaries, with Tony Wilson and Steve Coogan. Some commentaries are deadly dull. These are as entertaining as the film itself. I guess a bunch of Joy Division fans and Happy Monday fans came to see this one. It is more about a time in Manchester. It is about a city and the music. There is supposed to be a real Joy Division film with Jude Law as Ian Curtis. That should be good and more what people seem to want. I spoke to Steve Diggle of The Buzzcocks and he thought the film wasn't about punk at all. It was about two minutes about 1976-1978.

Rating:
Summary: 24 Hour Boredom
Review: This movie, or whatever it entails itself to be, is nothing but a collection of small parts that make it totally unreliable. It is so boring, that one not only begins to hate British, because they are portrayed as chain smoking, cussing, prostitute visiting, sobs who do nothing but say the F word and sit on the cold sidewalk. The film was supposed to be about the Factory record label which signed up one of the best bands of all time, Joy Division but as the actors are so terrible, all we get is the Ian Curtis look alike who does nothing but prance around the stage all day pretending to look cool. This movie is not recommend to anyone at all because it isn't even a good tool for sleep.