Metal Lords

In all honesty this movie starts as a rambling, awkward mess which slowly becomes punctuated by moments of touching brilliance coming out of seemingly nowhere.

Shy teenager Kevin traipses through high school all the while being dragged along by his best friend Hunter, whose dreams of becoming a metal god threaten to tear down the very two man band he's built. Together they traverse friendship, love, and most of all what it means to keep everything "Metal".

While I was struggling to keep myself engaged in this seemingly flop of a movie, a poignant and well executed turn in the story made me sit up straight in my seat. From there on I was treated to what became an increasingly riveting story with characters that extended beyond the superficial.

I was particularly touched with a surprisingly complex character suffering from mental illness, treated with finesse and a level of understanding that I can only surmise comes from real world experience.

Overall this movie was not your typical coming of age teen rom com, and you can expect a somewhat sophisticated peek into the lives of teenagers finding their own, messy ways into adulthood and what it ultimately means to find acceptance in yourself and others.

HEAVY. METAL. FOREVER!!!

I really enjoyed this movie, not just because I like metal but because it speaks of adolescence, of friendship, bullies, virgins, geeks, love and most importantly for me, it includes mental health as a real every day issue. Sweet movie.

Even though not top notch production and the pitch of the plot and the knitting together of the whole productionsjalabaise feels a bit immature at moments. But the music is the drive, and loads of heavy riffs and raffs you get wether you like it or not, and the acts by the 3 mains are just as acustic as al di meolas guitarplay and andrew lloyd webbers celloloid and billy cobhams drumdrills, and it looks darn real for life.

So if you have a wet dream to start a grungerockband or maybe a bandaid or just want to make your own hardrock movie, then youll have something to learn from and try to peel away some of the glitches made in this production, cause the grumpy old man doesnt think its perfect, but its massivly beautiful anyway.

If you're a metal fan this will give you a few laugh out loud moments but otherwise it's fairly standard high school romcom 'battle of the bands' fare. Inevitably I found myself thinking of Jack Black (school of rock) as the die hard Hunter (Greensmith) incessantly goes into ecstatic monologues about how they will dominate all with their band. The love story plot isn't bad - although, a little 'Grease' with the 'good girl turned bad' trope - but you can't help rising to the theme and going all in as Panteras 'I'm broken' is deployed at just the right moment (enjoy!). Add in some surprise metal guest appearances and a few really well executed slapstick jokes and this is really ok for a few laughs but sadly falls short of the 'file under classic' it might have been.

This movie rocked! Not only the kids acted great, but they were perfect for their roles: cute when they were playing it real, hard when they suffered and inspiring as rock singers. The film uses metal band shenanigans to tell the story of how young people feel and are treated by the world and how they treat each other, but it is never blunt or preachy and allows all characters to evolve. The more I think about the film, the more I like it.

Also, awesome song at the end. Not really a metal fan, but even if you don't enjoy the rest of the film that much, the ending song makes it worth it.