CBGB (2013)

Waste of Money.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The music inheritage of CBGB and the history of PUNK in a movie. Simply outstanding.

I wasn't around the punk scene (although I love the music) and I'm not from New York, (or even the East coast for that matter) but I still know SH!T when I see it! This movie is SH!T!!! The film just comes across as so phony. Its trying to be cool and it's trying to be punk but it tries to damn hard and it just looks lame-o. The acting isn't great much of the time but the problem really stems from the lack of personality the characters were given in this film, that along with the squeaky clean studio sound of the "live performances" just doesn't ring true to me. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen but it might be the worst punk I've ever seen. You want a good punk movie watch Sid n Nancy or a documentary on the subject, that's my advice.

First off, I love Alan Rickman so it pains me to say this - why was he cast in this role? He sleepwalks through the whole thing. And I was told he was supposed to be all New York-y. He's about as New York-y as the Queen. A jew-fro, 20 extra pounds and a wardrobe of overalls does NOT make a character.Now on to the real problem: who wrote this thing? Did YOU get any sense of the importance or significance of CBGB watching this dumb movie? Because I didn't. Mostly it seemed to be a movie about a guy who steadfastly refused to pay his rent for no particular reason whatsoever. If the real Hilly was this much of a moronic aye-hole nobody would have had anything to do with him and history would not have been made.Now onto the "famous acts." These characters were paraded on in a ridiculous fashion. Oooo, there's Blondie. Oooo, there's Taylor Hawkins being Iggy. Oooo, there's the Ramones and the Talking Heads and a glimpse of Annie Golden and Harry Potter's friend in the Dead Boys. And why were those polished studio recordings used every time someone "played"? Where was the rawness? There was no sense of the growth of these bands or the growth of the club and there was no sense of what Hilly really meant to anyone. Remember in the final credits and they show Tina Weymouth at the RnR Hall of Fame bringing Hilly on stage with them and she talks about how Hilly FED them, and NURTURED them and blah blah blah. Did you see ANY of that in this movie? No.Finally...what was up with that comic book style? What in the world has this got to do with comic books?

Regardless of the inaccuracies, the music is great and the film provides a small glimpse into the scene at the Bowery club. Alan Rickman is wonderfully droll and captures the spirit of Hilly. Nice seeing a few old rockers pop up in cameos. Would have been nice to see more character development and have the bands that helped kick off the club and the punk scene be portrayed more than cardboard cut-outs. You can practically smell the stale beer and pee. I would suggest reading Legs McNeil's, "Please Kill Me" to supplement the film's account of the mid 70's NY music scene. Some casting was spot on, but the Lou Reed scene was pathetic and the actor was horrible. I like Justin Bartha, as well, but Stiv Bators was hardly adorable. The wigs were ridiculous too.