I'm a huge music connoisseur/music enthusiast of all types of music and genres-- especially punk/no wave stuff--- hence how I found out about this film because of Tomata Du Plenty/his involvement in the L.A. punk scene/him being the vocalist for somewhat-rare and "unrecorded" band the Screamers, who quite possibly are one of the earliest synth-punk outfits.
There is one other review on here already for this-- I'd say he got the story part right/very accurate description and IMDb has a very on-point/accurate description of the plot as well--- so I'm just gonna' touch on the factors I feel weren't quite hit on yet: 1. The story is amusing and different-- it's this very odd apocalyptic musical based in punk & no wave (the music isn't a million miles away from the Screamers, but it's definitely not the same either)-- but in my opinion, the film does feel extremely dated (which isn't necessarily bad, but that depends on your taste--- it's dated like the way the movie Weird Science is dated--- it screams hey this is the 1980's, so if you can deal with that--- then this is not a deal breaker).
2. The music itself--- it's surprisingly pretty cool that the music really did click well with the format of being a musical/not your typical musical-kinda music (big band swing, Broadway sorta stuff)-- it actually pulls through very well in that aspect. However, it simply doesn't touch the Screamers material either (which is what drew me towards wanting to see the film, and I imagine what would cause most people to ever find out about it now as it was never well-known to begin with, and the Screamers have slightly re-surfaced in various interviews (such as one with Jello Biafra who stated that they were the, "perhaps best unrecorded band ever")-- though one should note, they never had a proper studio recording, bootlegs/demo recordings that are clear enough exist/hence how I or anyone else interested in this ever heard the Screamers to be further intrigued into this movie-- books like, "We've Got the Neutron Bomb" and other books on L.A. Punk and bands from that period/in L.A. mention them, etc.
3. It's not a mind-blower-- but it's definitely an interesting art-film project-- a neat collaboration of original music and film-- I can only imagine in the 1980's how difficult an off-the-wall punk-sorta musical of this nature would've been to pull off/it must be very low-budget, I don't imagine people we're lining up to help the guy-- so sure albeit some parts are cheesy and dated, you gotta' give the guy credit for being truly original and pulling off a project like this.
Overall, if your into L.A. punk and interested in the Screamers music-- this is neat little part of that chapter and worth watching. If your not into L.A. punk/the Screamers--- and if your not into very sorta avant-garde obscure musicals either-- then I'm guessing it might not be for you. I give it 5 or 6 out of 10 stars.
