Shoplifters of the World

As both a bit of a film buff and an obsessive Smiths fan of 35 years, I kinda knew this film would be bad - how could it live up to any expectations? And yes it was terrible but I kinda loved it too. It was awfully cliched - so many lines lifted from smiths songs which as a 17 year old I might have found clever. It was clearly written and directed with love but probably a University thesis - in the hands of a Dexter Fletcher (Sunshine on Leith anyone?) it would have been a masterpiece. As it was I forgave it for its insufferable moments and enjoyed the music. I have no doubt that its heart was in the right place and that will do for me. I guess it's like watching a bad smiths cover band. You know you're gonna clench your teeth but you'll still relive some of the magic of your youth.

A movie about hardcore fans of The Smiths aimed directly at hardcore fans of The Smiths.

People are either going to love or hate this film, I'm sure. I fall somewhere on the "loved it" side, but only just barely.

The first thing that you will notice is that there is an overuse of Smiths lyrics in almost every scene. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't. Where it did work is when you don't sense it coming, and then it will make you smile. But where it did not work, I found myself cringing slightly, as the use of a lyric at that moment felt a bit too forced, even campy, and I got the feeling that maybe the actors themselves were cringing, too.

But lovers of The Smiths will appreciate all of the inside jokes and will probably enjoy this film much more than they will be willing to admit.

Try not to take this one too seriously, say, along the lines of a John Hughes film, which this movie seemingly aspires to be the antithesis of (you'll see what I mean during one particular scene).

I also really enjoyed all of the scenes between the heavy metal radio DJ and the obsessed Smiths fan hijacker and the eventual bonding that occurs

I'm giving this a much higher rating than it probably deserves, mainly because I'm a true Smiths fan and because we need more movies that explore the 80s and the music scenes of that era.

If The Smiths were not the soundtrack to your life, at best this will be a. John Hughes-inspired 80's flashback film about that group of friends in the waning days of high school lamenting their future without each other.

If however your life made much more sense once you discovered Morrissey and Johnny and every coy twisted lyric that made you feel better about yourself and the world we live in, this is the movie that will make you laugh and cry and remind you that you are not alone, you were never alone and how at the worst of times, you can still sing your life.

This loving and respectful homage to everything The Smiths, with layers of references done in a period-piece style, should probably have been made decades earlier... but is well worth the wait.

Thank you to the entire team who gave this gift to those of us who will watch it over and over again.

But i watched the movie anyway.i got what i expected. A thin plot built around "true intentions", lol. But the music was enough to get me thru it, just as the Smiths got me thru the 80's. As clunky and forgettable as the plot was, the music and the record store and references took me back to a sacred time in my life when music meant everything and saved my soul. For that, i thank the filmmakers.

Know what you are getting into, but it was charming.

Amazing soundtrack and some cringe-worthy dialogue, but the movie brought back the feeling of those nights. Do you remember those nights? When you went out with friends, drifted from place to place with a good song on the radio? It's not solving the problems of the world, but it's good to feel alive.