Sunset Strip

This is a fun, quirky, magnetic little movie about trying to make it in the 1970's rock scene amidst L.A.'s famed Sunset Strip District. It stays away from some of the heavier issues going on in the 70's, but I found that the trip it does bring us on is unique enough and real enough to play as good film making. Nick Stahl is believable in the rock n roll wannabe roll, and Leto is scene stealing as the STAR.

Although it doesn't have the heart of an Almost Famous or the dirt of a Boogie Nights, it meets both films halfway and entertains.

...Pardon my bad Cameron Crowe paraphrasing.

You know that feeling you get when you're sauntering past video boxes and you come across something that looks good...with some acting credit names you recognize, but somehow you've still never heard of the movie! It's a feeling of "This is probably going to suck, but I feel like takin' a chance anyway". Well, I did and it did.

I made it all the way through, although I was reading IMDb reviews of the thing while I was watching, and it sure helped not having to focus 100% of my attention on SUNSET STRIP. Kudos to the guy with the review linking Adam Goldberg's character to "Disco Stu", as I at least laughed at that while the tape was running.

Other than the alluring Anna Friel, there is absolutely no reason to watch this ALMOST FAMOUS ripoff (which actually was dumped in a couple of theaters a month before AF). But other than both films having a shot of the LA Continental Hyatt House, these movies are on opposite ends of the quality scale.

I'm not very interested in whether this film correctly portrays life as it actually was or is among the LA hopefuls or in whether the clothes or music are authentic. These issues seem to me to be superficial. As a story it is very, very good and is superbly acted by all the main characters. It is quirky in an interesting way. Anna Friel turns in a great performance as do several of the others. It should have had a wider release - I would give it a much higher rating than many of the banal films which become "hits" these days.

Well its like this, all I needed to read on the back of the box was "if you like Boogie Nights, you will love this"...NOT. What an excellent idea for a movie, 70's Hollywood club scene and the people trying to break into the biz....to bad it never delivered. Oh and by the way...it says it has a great 70's sound track playing through out? I think I recognized one song.

After seeing the film for the first time last night, and then reading some of the negative reviews here, the only logical conclusion I can make is this; if you weren't closely involved in that era, in that place, then you probably won't enjoy the film. But if you did, you will love it.

For those who were there, "Sunset Strip" is amazingly accurate, and sometimes painfully so. The male-centric attitude women of that time had to endure from so-called "liberated" men was summed-up perfectly in the scene where Anna Friel's character is summoned - there's no better word for it - by her rock-star idol, and upon arrival at his hotel room, is asked to serve tea by some pompous jerk.

As stated much better than I ever could by "fastfilmhh" in her review of this film, it is a deadly-accurate portrayal of the time, places and attitudes back then, warts and all.

The only error that I found was when one character made reference to "bad 'ludes." While there was certainly bad coke, and bad weed, Quaaludes were far too inexpensive and easily available for anyone to waste their time knocking off fakes, at least in my experience.

But that small mistake was nicely balanced-out by the stage-whispered comment made during a party scene by yet another pompous jerk - there were lots of those back then - alerting a new arrival to the "real party" going on in a closed-to-the-less-than-super-cool back room. That sort of social status selectivity happened at every party ever held back then, and was called "cocaine politics".

The producers obviously took great effort to maintain an accurate portrait of the times, from using and recording actual Fender 'Strats, to only showing three-piece bands on the Whisky's stage, which was a hard and fast rule at that club, unless the band was currently uber-hot.

Sidenote: If you are interested in securing your grand-children's financial security, find and buy an original Fender Stratocaster like the ones used in the film, plus some strings, and place them in a large safe-deposit box. In a hundred years or so, those puppies will be worth their weight in Stradivarius violins.

Some reviews have mentioned the lack of character development in "Sunset Strip", and that is accurate, especially when compared to other film portraying that period, such as "Almost Famous." While I won't pretend to read the writer's and director's minds, I will say that, considering the accuracy of the rest of the production, it could be that they deliberately left the characters shallow because let's face it, ... they (we) all were shallow back then. You needed those high boots to wade through the wall-to-wall pretense. The only difference between the suits and the freaks was that the freaks were freaks on purpose. And just a bit more honest. Sometimes.

Anyway, if you want to watch a living textbook of that place at that time, "Sunset Strip" hits the nail on the head. Just don't say it's far-out and groovy, please, or you won't be invited to the real party.