Rating: Summary: One of my favorites of all time Review: This movie is fits in every genre possible without it being a complete mess, and it works so perfectly. THe story, which centers around a 15 year old who writes for Rolling Stone, is very interesting, and even more intriguing when you know that this story is based on the Director's life. The music is way cool, and captures the era well. Francis McDormand is very outstanding as the know all mom who has to deal with her growing son. Billy Crudup is great as the guitarist/star of the ficticious band: Stillwater. The movie is worth the price itself, but the DVd contains many interesting extras like articles written by Cameron Crowe back when he was kid, that were published in Rolling Stone. There's a making of documentar that's standard and interesting. There's also a cool Stillwater video. If you are "iffy" about buying this forget it, and just by it, it's got it all.
Rating: Summary: A MUSIC LOVER MUST HAVE!!!!!!!!! Review: A must have for all music fans, specially for all those from 70's. I cannot wait for ther next cameron crowe movie. Excelent music and performance of all actors. Best of the Best.
Rating: Summary: Compelling Review: This movie is the best movie I have seen in a long time. Its music is incrediable. The acting is superb. Kate Hudson proves she is not just Goldie Hawn's daughter but a brilliant actress. Billy Crudip played the sexy Russell Hammond and did an excellent job. But the best performance was for William. Patrick Fugit is so good at this role it makes you shake. So i give this 5 stars and 2 thumbs up. Get this movie, you won't regret it!
Rating: Summary: Best Picture of 2000 Review: Okay, short review: this was the best movie of 2000, bar none. Completely charming, wistful, smart, nostalgic fun.
Rating: Summary: Love Story Review: "Almost Famous" is a love story, but on different levels than most movies. Of course, you have the love between men and women (Crudup and Hudson) First love (Fugit and Hudson) but also Mother's love for her child (McDormand and Fugit) bandmates love for eachother, the band's love of the rock-n-roll life and most importantly, Crowe's love for rock-n-roll. That's what the movie really is - an ode to rock-n-roll and why it's important to so many of us...Fugit comes of age and experiences love and loss in ways that are familar to us all, backed with a soundtrack of a lifetime. Music has always went hand-in-hand with life's little triumphs and loses for me, and it's beautifully examined in the movie. One of my favorite scenes is when the band are at a low point, Crudup and Jason Lee having just had a blow-out and Crudup having gone missing and coming down from an acid trip, when, on the bus, they all slowly join in singing "Tiny Dancer" and that just shows you how music can heal all wounds and make wrong things right again. Music will stick by you through good times and bad, and in those little quiet moments of reflection of past memories, who doesn't associate certain events with certain songs? It's funny, some of my friends don't 'get' the movie and to truly 'get it', I feel one must have that personal love affair with music that Crowe describes to a tee. I love music. It has changed my life (to use a well-worn cliche) but it's true and this film is a tribute to the love story that many of us have shared with music throughout our lives.
Rating: Summary: Almost Perfect Review: Coming of age was never so exciting and wonderful than it was for william miller in the year 1973. He sets out for the adventure of a life time which we all wish we had, and he does that with he's boyishly charm and heart-worming gestures (and not to forget he's perfect lovable smile, which touch a special place, especialy in the "deflowering" scence (watch the close up very closely). The characters really blossoms in the surrounding crowe had built for them. Frances as the mother as so terrifying in her acting, it can make everybody shiver. and Billy Crudup will not be forgoten soon. When kate Hudson laughs, you just laugh back. It's always nice to make memories a little prettier then they really were, and cameron succeeds in doing just that, for the viewers pure pleasure. and he does that magically well and to the beat of Rock & Roll. William seems so weak and vulnerable, but he's rather the opposite of that. If the script hadn't been so "true", or if he played in another movie, he could have endured much more then he did. Had that been so, it would have been just enough for my tear glands to become active. But the movie doesn't suffer because of that. The plane crushing scene was one of the funniest and sophisticated in comedy history. It's a movie to watch again and again, and to embrace as a "make-you-feel-good" film, because it's just that.
Rating: Summary: A Different Kind of Film... Review: "Almost Famous" is a story that you won't forget. Unlike most movies, there isn't a recognizable person to hate, because everyone has their own demons which they use against themselves. Whether it is falling into a trap you have been warned of (figuratively speaking, of course) or repeating your own, sad history. All analogies aside, this movie had a real story. It had depth, while being enjoyable. The intensity was at the right level so that it can be a feel good movie, or a serious film. The music played was spectacular, and brought me back to some of my favorite songs. We can relate easily to this movie, because the protagonist is an intelligent, normal kid. The mother is everyones worried and paranoid mother, who is under extreme circumstances. The supporting actress (Kate Hudson) is superb in her role. And the band is amazing. This is the kind of movie you can stare at intensely or let it wash over you. This movie was nostalgic for most, and a new adventure for many.
Rating: Summary: This movie is terrible! Review: I am 38 and watched this movie with my husband and our 3 teenage children. None of us liked this movie. The story was lame, predictable, stereotypical. The main character was a homely boy, without charm, who lost his virginity to 3 pretty girls all at once and then yelled at them in the morning because they wanted him to take their laundry out. The rock "stars" lacked charisma. As for the new "it" girl, Kate Hudson. Hmm... She is attractive, not a beauty and does not have the adorable spark that her mother, Goldie Hawn had. Not even close. This film didn't even have good music!
Rating: Summary: What a dud! Review: What an overrated movie! The characters lack any semblance of depth, the script lacks anything that it was purported to have and the story is so poor it makes me sick. This took me 3 days to get through, it's a dud. [...]
Rating: Summary: An insider's sweet nostalgia Review: Yes, it's another coming-of-age film but I was completely drawn in because so many details of the 70's-milieu rock scene seem so genuine and accurate -- the characters, the dialogue, the clothing, the settings, the music -- it's all there. Even the name 'Stillwater' recalls a Lynyrd Skynyrd-type band from the mid-70's. The scene in which William Miller becomes mesmerized by the album cover art while listening to The Who really hit a nerve with me. This is exactly how rock fandom begins, the discovery of music and lyrics that seems to be speaking directly and only to you. Much of the rock world that stays on the periphery of the familiar coming-of-age story is fascinating, and because it feels like it had been informed by insider knowledge, I felt like I had been brought along for the tour. Moreover, Crowe inserts us into an eminently fascinating period of rock 'n roll, when it was going through one of its cyclical downturns. On one side, rock music was being slowly strangled by the increasing pursuit of profits by music labels and their increasingly sinister treatment of their artists, and on the other side, there was the oncoming juggernaut of the more danceable, manufactured musical form of disco. Another highlight for me is Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. Why Hoffman is not already a Hollywood star I have no clue. Crudup, Hudson and McDormand are also very strong and they will certainly contend for Oscar recognition. My only quibble about the film is that it is content with depicting everything through rose-coloured glasses. Even the way the film ends with all the loose ends neatly tied up and everybody happy and intact seems a little too disingenuous. Crowe seems to have ignored the rampant nihilism and misanthropy that existed at the time. The only person in the whole film who comes off looking like an a**hole is the screeching associate editor of Rolling Stone, and she appears onscreen for only a couple of minutes. It's strange that although Crowe's semi-alter-ego learns the important journalistic lesson of being "honest and unmerciful", that advice appears to have escaped Crowe. But then I guess this is why he's a filmmaker and not a journalist.
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