Killing Bono

Ask anyone under 25 what U2 means to them and most likely they'll roll their eyes and state that they're a parody of a rock band , effectively an Irish Staus Quo who receive undeserved acclaim from music critics who should be put out to pasture . . This is disingenuous and misinformed . For people of a certain age U2 were as much the 1980s as The Beatles were to the 1960s and some of us were there right from the start . Whilst Duran Duran and Human League were selling millions of synth pop albums which became dated overnight Bono and the boys were strumming guitars making music that will never date . If you think U2 are a band built upon hype rather than talent then go to youtube and type in " U2 I Will Follow The Tube " and you'll see a performance that is almost messianic in its life affirming streamlined beauty . Music is the greatest , most moving type of art whilst the music of The The has possibly changed my life through outside factors U2 remain my all time favourite musical icons

KILLING BONO is based on the memoirs of Neil McCormack and tells the story of McCormack and his brother Ivan . Neil and Ivan want to start a band and when Paul Hewson front-man of a band called The Hype asks Neil if his younger brother wants to join The Hype Neil refuses because they're brothers and their band is going to be the biggest band in the world . Paul Hewson changed his name to Bono and The Hype to U2 and Neil spends the next eleven years becoming more and more bitter at the band's success as his own plans for fame and fortune hit dead ends

There's a few good points to the movie . The incidental music does mirror that of U2 and there's a few performances worthy of mention such Peter Serafinowicz as coke head manager Hammond , . Pete Postlewaite in an under used role as the camp homosexual landlord Karl and Stanley Townsend as violent gangster Danny Machin though to be honest Townsend is often let down by the screenplay

In fact the whole film is let down by the screenplay . It's very difficult to believe there's a lot of truth in it because Neil McCormack must be a real life inversion of Jamal Malik from SLUMDOG MILLIONIARE . Every plan he comes up with seems so cursed by bad luck that karma must have it in for him . Either that or he must be the most stupid person to have ever lived . Considering he has the intellect to write a memoir one can't help thinking there's a massive amount of artistic license involved . Take for example the scene in the Dublin toilet with Neil and Ivan where someone drops a gun only to have another character put two and two together verbally which is overheard by a third character leading ... well let's just say it's too contrived to be taken at face value if someone says it's true

There's also the problem as to who the film will appeal to . My cinema visit had a small handful of people not much younger than me .who probably grew up with the band and therefore could get the in jokes . If they were die hard fans like me then they'd be able to spot massive anachronisms such as Boy being released at the same time as the Pope's visit . Boy was in fact released a year after the Pope's visit to Ireland . Likewise Dead And Alive's You Spin Me Round wouldn't be playing in a Bohemian nightclub at the time of release of War in March 1983 and who would have booked a concert for their band on the day of Live Aid in July 1985 ? A stupid person ? One suffering from bad karma ? Or most likely a person being economical with the truth . The truth is anyone who saw the concert live knew well in advance it was going to the legendary event it's remembered for

KILLING BONO is a fair film . It isn't going to be a massive success and one wonders if it might have worked better if THE COMMITMENTS where quixotic plans of making it big in the music world still in the public consciousness . It also suffers from the feel that it's made for TV a major problem with many Brit movies and will probably be remembered for being the final movie of Pete Postlewaite

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie! I had heard that this movie was weird and I had read about it that many was disappointed, but I don't understand it at all. I think it was a really good movie. Not even a minute I got bored and the story managed to keep me interested through the whole movie. In other reviews I have read that you have to be a bit older so that you have experienced the time when U2 was more popular than today but I don't agree at all. I'm fifteen and of course I know who U2 are but not in details. Maybe it's not the funniest comedy but it still laughed and it absolutely lives up to it's expectations in the comedy area and overall I really think this was a very good movie with good actors and I loved the music in it. If you are not sure either to watch this or not I absolutely recommend it, regardless of the age!

To truly appreciate this film you'll either have to be 40 something plus or be heavily involved in your own peer group's music scene. The League of Gentleman have a failed musician character that they play for the pathos type of comedy. Here, a real 'failed' musician finds comedy in rewriting his own aborted attempt at snatching fame and fortune in the fickle music industry. It's a very affectionate account - skating gently over the less pleasant aspects of the industry. Robert Sheehan is a dream as Ivan - oooh yes you could really see him in the U2 line up - something brother Neil prevented from happening. I honestly was transported back to the 1980's and dodgy music venues and half baked bands performing as if their lives depended on it. Fabulous. Not everyone's cup of tea though. Pure nostalgia for me - but oh I do wish they'd managed to sneak in a bit more of actual U2 music.

I really wanted to like this film, I really did, but in reality it was simply mediocre. However, it is worth saying that I went into this film not knowing anything about it, and most of the criticisms I formed whilst watching it were made before I found-out that the whole thing was actually based on a true story , which somehow absolves the film of a lot of its sins: The plot was long and meandering, yet bore an uncanny resemblance to the film "Rock Star" (Mark Wahlberg at his finest...?). The acting was questionable bar a great performance from Pete Postlethwaite as the lovable gay landlord. It really bothered me that the band's music (the McCormick Brothers +Shook-up) was actually really good up until their point of stardom when suddenly their musical style was transformed into something that sounded about as 80s as Fall Out Boy... I don't know how much of the soundtrack were original songs written by the band, but I'd be shocked if I found out that the song "Where we want to be" (for example) was an eighties classic. However, there are some criticisms that cannot be excused by the story's supposed authenticity and origins in fact... For example, the film didn't seem to know what it was, too funny to be taken seriously, too dramatic to be a comedy. Therefore many of the jokes were wasted. Despite my aspersions, it has to be said that the casting for the character of "Bono" was impeccable and that added dramatically to the quality of the film- grounding it in reality. Overall, I would say - Questionable acting - Brilliant Casting - A bit on the long side

I really enjoyed this movie. I have to admit, I initially had NO interest in the story, and only set out to see it to check out Ben Barnes' latest project. But within 10 minutes I forgot about watching "the lovely Mr. Barnes" (which he is not, in this movie) and was genuinely captivated by and became engaged in the story, the characters and the humor. I'd seen clips and responded with a yawn; thought the comedy portrayed in them was obvious and heavy-handed. But the trailer doesn't do it justice. The laughs were real and unexpected and the dialogue quick, natural and enjoyable. All of the supporting characters were excellent. Robert Sheehan, whom I'd never seen in anything prior, did a good job and Barnes disappears into and owns his character. All in all a fun watch, I'd recommend it.