Garage Days [VHS]

  
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - DRUGS SEX & ROCK & ROLL!!! an australian point of view.?
Plot: A not so talented band struggles with drugs sex and rock and roll. Yup that sums it up!! The acting and character development is very well done. You have the singer/guitar writer who dreams of being a star who has a girlfriend, the bass player, who is into someone else. The lead guitarist is having strange fantasies of sex and adopts a melon as a child meanwhile abandoning his girl who the singer digs, the drummer experiments with too many drugs while the manager is just plain crazy!!! Sound Interesting? Pacing of the movie reminds me a lot like Trainspotting. Better than i expected!!


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Sex, drugs, and rock &roll
This movie falls in as one of the top in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll genre. In the tradition of movies such as Velvet Goldmine or Go, this movie is a fun and often times hilarious ride perfect for those drunken get-togethers with friends. The characters are very likeable. The lead singer is hopelessly in love with a girl pregnant with his schizophrenic friend's baby. The bassist is a strong female in search of a good orgasm. The drummer is a pharmacy-robbing druggy in search of a perfect high, and the guitarist is the schizophrenic. All in all, these are all people I'd want to hang out with on a Saturday night. This movie is beautifully acted, well directed, and well written. It's a shame that it didn't get the attention it deserved when out in theatres. I'd highly recommend this movie in every regard.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - another Proyas enjoyment....for the most part
After seeing The Crow I had much loved respect for Proyas and then he did Dark City and I still did, but I was pretty mad at him for doing I, Robot because I hated that movie with a passion. Then I saw this one on the video shelves and I rented it and I liked it, to some extent. Rock stardom is always interesting, especially when they play. Some good performances (one in mind being Kick Gurry), but some come off as bland. Brett Stiller?? Any relation to Ben Stiller? Maybe? Who knows. Anyway, the slow motion stuff was interesting and kept me from steering away. Marton Csokas (costarred with Vin Diesel in Triple X) also stars as the head manager to Sprimp (nice band name). Highlight would be the dinner scene when their all hallucinating..funny s**t. Proyas pulls off another enjoyable movie...for the most part. This made up for I, Robot. My suggestion is dont go see the crappy I, Robot...rent this one.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - The "Citizen Kane" for struggling musicians
In the tradition of "Airheads" and "That Thing You Do" comes this against-genre film from the director of the dark fantasy adaptation of "The Crow" and sci-fi classic "Dark City" (as well as this summer's would-be box office hit "I, Robot") Alex Proyas. It's another in a line of interestingly quirky Australian movies (and in fact not terribly dissimilar from the late Michael Hutchence's acting debut "Dogs In Space", though certainly far more light-hearted) that adds to that nation's reputation as a producer of fine cinema that pound-for-pound can go round-for-round with the heavyweights of the industry in Hollywood without breaking a sweat.

The film was obviously a labor of love, and even though the band at the center of the movie was definitely low-fi, the movie itself was shot using first-class editing and production values. The scenes of introspection when characters are given to voiceover monologue are particularly effective, to say nothing of the "Fun With Drugs" sequences. And even though there is a shortage of original music (how do you go about writing a song that you DON'T want to sound good?), the music used on the soundtrack itself is a terrific sampling of classic rock and alternative music that have been genre standards for ages, used to good effect (especially AC/DC and the Cure).

The actors are certain to be unknown to most American audiences, and not all characters are developed as evenly as they should be (this is particularly true of the band's bassist Tanya, who starts out as the frontman's girlfriend and then almost disappears from the plot entirely, instead being relegated to a position player; the fact that the characters are introduced at the beginning of the movie by the instrument they play in the band rather than their respective character names is not likely an accident). It is true that all of the classic rock-&-roll lifestyle cliche's are represented; there are problems with relationships, problems with drugs, and even problems with maintaining a grip on reality. There are sleazy managers, sexually manipulative diva wanna-bes, and has-beens who just don't know when to cut the mullet and get a real job. We've seen these issues play out across the pages of Billboard and Rolling Stone magazines with megaplatinum acts like the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, and of course the Rolling Stones. This is a movie that is dedicated to all the bands (a few of which I have been a member of) that never made it far enough to implode in such public surroundings.

As the case of the DVD asks: "What if you finally got your big break...and you just plain sucked?" See this movie and find out.



Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - A rock band in Sydney tries to finally get their big break
"Garage Days" is a comedy from director Alex Proyas made in between "Dark City" and "I, Robot," that asks the musical question, "What if you finally got your big break and you just plain sucked?" The setting is Sydney, Australia, or more specifically the suburb of Newton, although that fact is probably lost on anybody who does not live Down Under. Freddy (Kick Gurry) is the lead singer of a band, the name of which I do not think we ever get to hear, which makes sense because we never really get to hear their music that much either. This is because the band has trouble getting a gig.

Besides Freddy the band consists of Joe (Brett Siller) on lead guitar, Tanya (Pia Miranda) on bass, and Lucy (Chris Sadrinna) on drums. Bruno (Russell Dykstra) is the less than competent manager and Kate (Maya Stange) is Joe's girlfriend and apparentlty the group's sole groupie. What becomes key here is not the group's music (they play "rock") but the fact that they are about to go through the whole "Rumours" phase of Fleetwood Mac, but without the hit album. Freddy and Tanya are living together, but when Joe ignores Kate to run off on his own a conversation sparks a kiss between Freddy and Kate. The next thing we know Joe is trying to rip Freddy's head off, Tanya has moved out, Karen discovers she is pregnant with Joe's child, Lucy continues his question to find the perfect "10" in terms of pharmacological high, and I can still hear you saying that you will never break, never break, the chain.

Freddy and the band need a break, and they might have found one with Shad Kern (Marton Csokas), who is a big shot in the music industry (or at least he acts like one). The band just needs a break, one opportunity to play their music for a crowd and change their destinies. They are about at the point of giving up on the dream, but as Kate points out to Freddy, a dream only becomes something stupid when you stop believing in it and while the notion of having a date with destiny drives the film, it eventually dawns on Freddy that he is dreaming about more than being a rock star. After all, there is the example of former Seventies rocker, Kevin (Andy Anderson), who is as much a cautionary tale as he is an indirect glimpse at the glory days possible as a rock star.

Although the fact that Joe is deeply troubled in a way that goes beyond what the band members experience when Lucy gives them a bit of ecstasy to help mellow them out, this is essentially a feel good comedy. You will get the best sense of this during the final credits when the cast taken their curtain calls dancing to the Tom Jones hit "Help Yourself." Maybe the good feeling I picked up on is more than is actually justified by the comedy, but Freddy is a decent bloke and the story is not exactly following the familiar formula of a musical rags-to-riches story, which also helps. A happy ending is a safe assumption, but what it might take is not a foregone conclusion. Proyas spices up the story with some cute tricks and the result is that "Garage Days" is a fun little movie without aspirations to be much more.



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