Rating: 
Summary: One of the Greatest Films of the Year
Review: This film is amazing when you begin to think that it is basically true. This really happened to the writer/director Cameron Crowe. The characters in this film are probably the best developed ones, considering they don't say much. The majority of their development occur through silent looks. This is an amazing accomplishment in my eyes. Check out the Tiny Dancer scene on the bus, this is one of the greatest uses of music in a film since the Wise Up scene in Magnolia. This scene summaries the entire feel of the film, it's amazing. Stillwater's music is awesome and has the classic feel that it needs. Jason Lee and Billy Crudup are great in this film although they obviously try to hold back and not take for the main story.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost the worst movie I've ever seen
Review: Even though I love rock music, and I thought the soundtrack to this movie was excellent, and I thought the acting was admirable, the storyline in Almost Famous is ludicrous and boring. This was an opportunity to make a great, or at least fun, movie about the music and larger than life characters from 1970s rock and roll. Instead, it's a flop. The movie gives us an excellent soundtrack, but we learn nothing about the artists who made that music. It presents us with some interesting characters, but they are not portrayed in any depth. There is some potential in the storyline -- a 15 year old away from home for the first time touring with a rock band -- but the story we are given is boring mishmash about flunkie groupies and shallow, moronic rock stars.How anyone could have watched this movie and liked it is a complete mystery to me.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Famous is not a movie. It's a living experience.
Review: - "What do you love about music? " - " To begin with... Everything " . That's one of my favorites quotes of the film. First of all know that I consider this movie along with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Billy Elliot" the very best of 2000. Cameron Crowe really nailed this one. Smart and realistic dialogue, mood, story, feeling, and above all real emotion... they are all here. Every single actor and actress hit the right notes. If you forgot the reason of the existence of motion pictures then watch, live and experience this amazing and magical creation.
Rating:
Summary: Gladiator = Big budget; Almost Famous = Big heart
Review: Almost Famous is a charming movie with heart and soul rarely found in today's mire of blockbusters. I found Almost Famous appealing on many different levels, and while it wasn't a tremendously funny film, I wore a snug smile continually while watching it. On one level, it's a great movie about a talented and earnest teenager commissioned by Rolling Stone Magazine to write a feature on a rock band called Stillwater (they don't know he's only fifteen, of course). His name is William Miller, and he has become liberated from the vehement values of his mother through rock music. He develops a passion for it, and his role as a young rock critic garners the attention of Rolling Stone. On the road with the band, he meets (and becomes infatuated with) Penny Lane, a groupie whose character (played by the lovely Kate Hudson) is heartbreakingly delicate. She tries to rationalize her existence and rejects the notion of being emotionally damaged by this fantasy world lacking morality. William is saddened by how Russell (Stillwater's guitarist) treats her, and helps her out in the end. William also befriends the aforementioned guitarist Russell, and their developing relationship allows them both to learn from each other. On an ancillary level, it's a movie about rock music. During William's travels with the band, the band scores with a successful record, endures battles of ego, and goes through management changes. Although Stillwater is a fictional band, the script and director's canny sense of time and the business could trick you into thinking they were real. It's about the pragmatics versus of ideals of the industry. It's about a critic's integrity, the cruelties of the biz, and more. Why this movie is so wonderful is that it's a great movie about growing up. William's exploits with the band parallel coming-of-age for most teenagers. He is a starry-eyed idealist who witnesses the broken hearts and inclemency of the real world, yet still steadfastly clutches at confidence and optimism. William is a smart kid, and his character is very well-acted with the right amounts of naiveté and youthful exuberance to add credence to his role. Great, great movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Half-Decent
Review: I can't say that this movie is terrible, but I really don't get how everyone is so enamored by it. It was extremely boring, it didn't go anywhere, and it seemed to drag on and on. It really suffers from the same problem that "Jerry Maguire" had: it doesn't know if it's supposed to be comedy or a love story, and it falls completely flat. The bus scene was embarrassing to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Oscar
Review: This movie was incredible, there wasn't a thing about it that I didn't like. What I enjoyed most was the use of music to emphasize what was happening in the film. In almost every scene there was a different piece of music in the background, or foreground to set the mood. Music is a large part of our lives, and its ability to take us back to specific times and places is amazing, and this movie will do that for the viewer.
Rating: 
Summary: It's pretty good, well worth seeing, BUT THAT'S IT!
Review: What the hell are all these people going on and on about? I won't recap the specs for AF except to add that's it's the most OVERRATED movie I have seen in recent memory. I'm not a teenager either, I'm a 70's kid, so I totally get the references in the movie. It's not a bad movie by any means, but it's not an "all time classic" either. It's worth your time because Crowe is a good storyteller, just ignore the silly hype from the VH-1 crowd or you're be disappointed. Overblown hype kills anything eventually.
Rating:
Summary: The first accurate portrayal of the 1970s and its generation
Review: The media has done an effective job of convincing the world that nothing existed between the Baby-Boomer generation and Generation-X, between the 1960s and the 1980s. However, there was indeed another generation in-between, that is quite different from those who came before and those who came after. While the Baby-Boomers were (and still are) primarily concerned with ideology and rebelling against their parents, the generation that came of age in the 1970s was primarily concerned with art - especially rock music - and spirituality. Cameron Crowe is the first person from this generation to create an accurate portrayal of the 1970s and our generation. How far off most previous depictions have been, is easily demonstrated by the media equating the 70s and .... disco ! Disco didn't start until the 1970s were OVER. All the characters in the film, from William Miller and Penny Lane, down through the Zeppelin fan to the partygoers in Topeka, are all amazing accurate and correspond closely to people who I knew at the time. All the locations in the film, particularly backstage at the San Diego Sports Arena and at the Continental Hyatt on the Sunset Strip, were also amazingly accurate - not only in terms of the look and feel , but also in terms of what went on there - as I was there, in both locations, during the 70s. (The scenes were really shot on location, with current furnishings replaced by what used to be there in 1973.) And, furthermore, all the dialogue was precisely the way we talked in the 70s, as well as what we would talk about. And, lastly, the music was really what we listened to. You couldn't avoid hearing Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and The Who, among many others. All this amazing accuracy is made possible by the film being an autobiography. The claims that it is "only semi-autobiographical", seem on close examination to be mainly for legal purposes, like the disclaimer at the end that all the characters are fictional, when in fact I've met personally more than one of the well-known named personalities in the film. What is remarkable is that Cameron was able to remember so clearly many of the tiny details, details which make the film like a time machine for those of us who "came of age" in the 1970s. It's very satisfying that now the record has been set straight, and that there is finally a true depiction of those times, that are of great significance in the lives of a generation who previously were not even acknowledged as existing! Many thanks to Cameron Crowe for putting us on the map! And please see all the other fine reviews on this page for descriptions of the excellent acting and filmmaking in this production.
Rating:
Summary: The time, the place and the music of the 70s recaptured
Review: This original screenplay won an academy award this year and I can understand why. There's a lot of heart in it as it's based on the writer/director Cameron Crowe's own experience as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. The young Patrick Fugit is cast as William Miller, the 15-year-old reporter who, with a combination of pluck and luck manages to get an assignment to write about the fictional rock band, Stillwater. He's a true innocent and plays the role with wide-eyed wonder as he winds up traveling with the band, much to the upset of his mother, played by Frances McDormand. Billy Crudup, with his chiseled good looks plays the lead guitarist of the band and his role goes beyond the stereotype of a rock musician. And then there is the lovely Kate Hudson, who adds sparkle and sensitivity to her role as a groupie. William Seymour Hoffman also adds his talents as the writer/rock critic who the young William looks up to as his mentor. It's a great cast. The best part of this film, though, was the way the screenplay captured the time and place of the rock music scene of the 70s. Some of the music was original and some were old favorites such as "America" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Every Picture tells a Story" by Rod Stewart and :The Wind" by Cat Stevens. The details were all there -- the attitude, clothing, and youthful energy that was so much a part of the times. I couldn't help but notice though that even though drugs were talked about, there wasn't much on-screen drug use. This is to the film's credit which was, basically, about the relationships between the people as well as the music. The world that this film captures so well is long gone. The characters have grown up and the young reporter is now a successful Hollywood screenwriter. The intensity of the times have faded and we now live in a world of computers and cell phones. What a delight it was though to again feel the pulse of the 70s and hear the music once again.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Films About Rock!
Review: If you are a fan of 1970s rock n' roll then this is the movie for you.Cameron Crow's autobiographical film is both an homage and love letter to a bygone era.We follow William Miller (Cameron Crowe's alter ego)as he discovers both the backstage world of rock n' roll and a little about himself.He travels with the fictional band Stillwater (purportedly based on real life bands the Allmand Bros., the Eagles and Led Zepplin)to get his first big story for Rolling Stone Magazine.During these travels William must deal with his strong-willed mother, a groupie (though she denies this)named Penny Lane and various band musicians with massive egos.In the hands of a lesser director this story could have become a crass farce. Instead Crowe brings us a moving story about growing up.Special note she be made of the Oscar nominated performance by Kate Hudson.She has a very special presence in this film.Also,this film has a brilliant soundtract which features such '70s icons as Elton John, Cat Stevens,Lynyrd Skynyrd,Rod Stewart,and Led Zepplin.The extras on this DVD include a very interesting documentry on the making of the film.What is missed is a commentary track by Crowe,himself, which I think many of the film's fans were waiting for.If you are a connoiseur of rock n' roll from the '70s then buy this DVD!
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