hyped garbage

Best movie ever!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Wow, it was great to catch up with Phil Daniels after all these years! Living in the USA, I literally hadn't seen him in anything since I ventured into a Mpls. theater in late '79 for my initial viewing of "Quadrophenia". Oh, I'd heard him 'rapping' on Blur's "Parklife" and as the lead voice in "Chicken Run", but it was my first actual Phil sighting since the 70's! And I've got to say, he can still bring it as a lead actor. We're roughly the same age, so please keep it going, Phil. It's nice to see there's still hope for the over 55 crowd when you're getting plum roles, even if I'm still sitting here at this god-awful desk.As for the movie, I'm going with a six rating. I was unfamiliar with Mike Peters' 2004 hoax where he released a song under a pseudonym, but I'm glad he was able to pull one over on the music industry which ultimately led to this film. And I always liked The Alarm, even if they were slagged off as short-lived "U2 wannabes" in the states.

Splendid slice of British Rock Rock Rockery. Vinyl is based about a Rock "N" Roll Swindle perpetrated by Mike Peters and his band The Alarm in 2004. With the record companies only interested in imaged driven bands with which to cash in the coin, Peters recorded a single and got some pretty youngsters to pretend it was their song. The record company bought it wholesale, with Peters and chums chuckling away until the reveal caused much mirth in the industry. So a sort of Milli Vanilli meets Blue meets The Sex Pistols!Film is based in Wales and features Phil Daniels, Keith Allen, Perry Benson and Christopher Roy Turner as the middle aged punkers who meet up at a friends funeral. Their band The Weapons of Happiness is a long distant memory, gone are the days when they opened for U2 and toured with The Buzzcocks. Hooking up for drinks after the service, the men, in spite of having different ideals in life, get drunk and lay down a jam session, that amazingly in the morning sounds rather ace. But with the record company only interested in image based bands like The Jammie Dodgers and Bling Bling, Weapons of Happiness can't catch a break, that is until lead singer Johnny Jones (Daniels) hits on novel idea...The whole film pulses with a sense of fun and vibrancy, the cast having a great old time of it acting up as a rock band past their prime but still carrying around a torch for the glory days. Their hangs ups and past differences are still there, and much of the comedy is derived from these scenarios. Once the youngsters arrive to be the fake face of the band, fronted by a superb Jamie Blackley, the age divide also provides scope for humour that is utilised fully. A running thread of Johnny and his frustrated partner (Julia Ford) trying to start a family, also provides mirth, while there's one or two surprises in the story as well.It's no rocket science movie, it's very lighthearted and directed breezily by Sara Sugarman. However, the caustic asides inherent within the narrative (prejudices of the music industry/hanging on to the past being good or bad?) do strike the right chords. The soundtrack is kicking, the "band's" song "Free Rock and Roll" beautifully catchy, the comic performances mightily strong, and the serious undertones never cloy the frivolity. From a Ramones/Buzzcocks/The Saints inspired hit single, to Daniels' ass! Vinyl is a winner and worthy of seeking out by music fans of all ages. 9/10

Plenty of laughs in this file which is loosely based on a true story (and full of in-jokes for those in the know). It could easily have fallen into the trap of being predictable but it doesn't. It comes over as fresh, quirky and fun. The serious moments are very natural, not forced, the music is good and the young band are very easy on the eye for the younger viewers. For the rest of us, there's Phil Daniels as the ever-optimistic Johnny Jones and Keith Allen, looking typically curmudgeonly as Minto, plus some well-aimed swipes at the contemporary record industry. Very much in the tradition of Very Annie Mary or The Full Monty.

I only gave this film one point as zero isn't available. A bunch of z list failed brit actors and a director who can't get employed work have put together a glorified showreel with their mates that only serves to demonstrate why their careers have collapsed. 1980's genre 'comedy' that would have been embarrassing in the eighties, it's not funny, it has no redeeming features. The plot details an ageing pop star who 'fools' the charts into playing one of his records by pretending it's played by a bunch of teenagers! Might have been vaguely relevant twenty years ago when charts were still of interest. Wake up oldies, music thrives on the internet these days and revivals of eighties bands are all the rage. If this failed pop star can't get air time now it's nothing to do with his age it's because he was rubbish in the first place. Take my advice, see something else. Watch paint dry before you waste your life on this rubbish. UPDATE: Here's a message the director sent me! Take this down or I will come to your school and make a show of you. This is destructive and vindictive. Be careful.Character is everything in life.