Garage Days

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie sucks on ice.

The "characters" are either overblown clichés (death-obsessed goth girl? Check. Drugged-out drummer with mod haircut? Check check. Ubiquitous use of eyeliner? Check check check!) or ridiculously annoying people who you'd never spend six seconds with in real life.

Script-wise, this is a soggy mess. There are three people credited with the story, which makes sense as there are at least three movies stitched together. My guess is that Dave Warner wrote a comedy, Alex Proyas penned a tragedy, and Michael Udesky scribbled in a notebook while tripping on liquid acid. Then each of them tore out every fourth page of his script, threw the remaining pages up in the air, and stapled the resulting mess together.

The, um, cinematography is aggravating. Tarantino is not hip, MTV is not edgy and that disjointed text-on-screen technique went out of vogue around the 1890's. As for the trip/rave/ingestion scenes, they're as effective as PSAs: Don't do drugs! Why? They're boring as all get-out.

Overall this is a sickeningly inauthentic movie. The acting is laughable, the comedy is unfunny, the pathos makes you hate these people even more than you previously did. All the tattoos look like they were drawn on with Magic Marker. And the band's total playing time is less than two minutes. 90 seconds of that is a fantasy scene.

The ONLY reason to acknowledge the existence of this celluloid horror is its soundtrack. Featuring the Jam, the Femmes, the Cure, Roxy Music and Tom Jones - that's entertainment. Just buy the record and skip this movie entirely.

This movie is just plain fun that takes a pretty average, well-known look at the music industry and the hike that bands take to get to where they want to be. But Alex Proyas adds some CGI effects (pretty funny ones, I might add...like Mellie the "baby") to make up where this average movie was headed. ALl of the actors are pretty unknown in the States (where I am), but it all doesn't matter because they were all vivacious enough (and good-looking enough) to make you believe that they encountered this past themselves.

This movie tries to take you on an emotional roller-coaster of relationships between band members and their girl/boyfriends, but where that comes up short, the movie just throws more fun at you. My favorite parts are the melon-baby and the hallucination scene where the band's bassist tries to get money from her parents and finds herself tripping out. I hated the where-are-they-now ending and cutesy-poo looks back on life and love and careers and whatever else, but the movie as a whole was OK. I gave it a 6/10.

I liked this movie. The plot is as old as the hills, only it didn't end the way I guessed (and I like that). Also there is a twist that I didn't see coming. The movie tells the story of a band that starts before their first gig. There are the usual inner-band romances going on and the kooky over weight manager/roadie tossed in for fun (see "Rock Star" or "Still Crazy"). The have to raise $1200 at one point (insert usual odd ways they do that here). There is the usual big concert at the end. Blah Blah Blah. BUT I liked this movie. Why? The ending was real, the sound track is great (I'm 41 what can I say), there were some twists to the plot I didn't see coming and the even though it's a tired old plot, it's a tired old plot for a reason: It's a good one. 7/10

"Garage Days" seems like an attempt to capitalize on a bunch of different genres by re-hashing them into a confused mess of film failure. Offering nothing new or fresh to the table, the film is un-entertaining and plods along at a predictable, ultra-flashy pace. The jubilent, carefree tone of the film is compromised here by weighty subject matter such as abortion and drug use. These "dramatic" elements of the film keep it from having a distinctive tone that engages the viewer when contrasted with the hyper active camera work, pointless interludes and predictable comedy. When all is said and done this is nothing more than a vanity piece trying to showcase cool clothing and little else. All of these combine to deliver an un-entertaining film experience. Pass on this one.

Do yourself a favour and see "The Wannabees" (about a gang of foul-mouthed thugs who become the country's most successful children's show), "Razzle Dazzle" (about a failing dance instructor and a bunch of fellow losers trying to coach a bunch of pre-teen girls to victory) and "Garage Days" about... as best as I can summarize... a rock'n'roll soap opera that plays out like a Hunter S. Thompson nightmare (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas).

"Garage Days" is exactly what a quirky, offbeat, rock'n'roll Aussie comedy should be: quirky, offbeat & full of rock'n'roll. Before I even get to my review, I'll mention some of the tunes on the soundtrack: AC/DC "It's a Long Way to the Top" & "High Voltage", The Cure "Boys Don't Cry", Violent Femmes "Blister in the Sun", Roxy Music "Love Is the Drug", and a particularly hilarious choreographed psychedelic scene set to Rick James "Superfreak". As in Proyas's masterpiece "The Crow", the music really sets the stage for the whole experience.

"Garage Days" follows a month in the life of a struggling punk-metal-grunge-pop band trying to get their one big shot. Along the way we get roped into the common themes of sex, drugs, love & friendship... and the not-so-common themes of creepy goth girlfriends, soul-sucking slot machines and talking cantaloupes. The whole movie comes at you hard & fast, like "Amelie" on crack.

Quite surprising for director Alex Proyas, master of the cinematic shadows ("The Crow", "Dark City")--it's very bright and lively. If you're a fan of Proyas, you must see this side of him. Much like Tim Buton who did "Batman" as well as "Peewee's Big Adventure", Proyas proves that there's a fine line between darkness & light, and he's able to cross it seamlessly.

A note for us Yanks, it helps to watch it with the subtitles because the Aussie accent can run over you like a rabid kangaroo. And some of the quips are priceless, you don't want to miss a beat. I found the script to be hilarious, the acting charming, the story suspenseful and the presentation memorable.

Tastes may vary, but I found each character to be instantly likable, from "Freddie" (an odd mix of Peewee Herman and a young Christopher Walken) to "Tanya" (a punk rich girl who sports the perfect blend of hot, cute & badass), "Lucy" (Henry Rollins meets Billy Idol meets Mongo from Blazing Saddles), "Joe" (a puzzler who is best left for you to decipher), "Joe's dad" (an aging rocker who himself is more childish & clueless than his son), all the peripheral characters who did a stellar job, and then there's the guy who steals the show "Bruno" their loser manager (played by Russell Dykstra from the aforementioned "Wannabees").

There aren't many well-known movies I can compare this to because it's so unusual, but if you've seen the hilarious Japanese flicks "Kamikaze Girls", "Swing Girls" or "Otakus in Love" I'd say this fits right alongside them. It also reminded me a bit of the funny Rainn Wilson flick "The Rocker", only pumped up with twice the adrenaline and totally Aussified. If you like rock'n'roll comedies, do not miss this!