Spinning Gold

I don't understand the hate given some of the other movies out there like Cocaine Bear, 64 and Shazam. I thought this was a pretty good bio-pic. It is a very interesting insight on how the first Independent label was started. It also showed the people behind the scenes to get the talent, make the music and to get it out there for public consumption. Probably would have been better served if they focused more time on this change in the music industry. There was a bit of personal things they could have left out and it actually might have made the movie a little bit more focused. Regardless, if you can handle any of the above 3 other movies, then go out an enjoy a pretty good movie with some sound acting and editing, and make it a nice evening out.

I had high expectations here and this movie didn't come close to meeting them. At it's core is an amazing story, but they failed to tell it with any suspense, compassion or coniction. The trailer sells you on inside details of every act on the label, but for the most part, we only get to know Kiss and Donna Summer.

The biggest problem with this film is none of the talent looks like who they are portraying. Kiss has 5 decades of Cosplayers and every one of those fans looks better than the clown squad they assembled for this film. Not a single member looks like the actual band member and Gene Simmons looks like he's about 5"6' and that is with the platform boots. Tall talent in real life is portrayed by short people. Thin people like Gladys Knight are portrayed by a fat woman, and short people like George Clinton are portrayed by talent a full foot taller.

As much as I tried to get into this movie, the poor portrayals kept pulling me out. The music also was poorly done again removing me from the fantasy.

There are two reasons this movie is going to tank. 1) its target audience is most likely retired or pushing it. 2) it's not true enough to the people to satisfy the crowd. This was a watered-down remake of Rock of Ages. A poor parody or of poor movie. That's what happens when you allow the family of the subject to run the show. These kids are not film makers and it shows in every scene.

Note to self. Don't let the sons make a film about the father. Bad wigs, bad acting - covers that don't sound like the originals Tone is all over the place. Just bad and poor Jeremy Jordan in a terrible wig. Jason Isaacs so miscast. The actresses are badly used. Just a bad version of Scorsese or PT Anderson. How did this get a wide release? Who financed it? It should have gone straight to video. The lead character is unlikable and inconsistent. This is a vanity project if there ever was one. The script is terrible and the directing borrows from a bunch of different movies. Expect to see this on VoD very soon.

It was apparent that the production took inspiration from Wolf of Wallstreet and Bohemian Rhapsody. It wanted to show great musical moments from the highs and lows of a man's career; although a lot of it was taken out of context and not entirely true, and the cocaine infused chaos of the 70s but with a Party City wig.

Bad: Casting choices (that's the least convincing Gene Simmons I've ever seen), Hair and wardrobe choices (I want to puke every time I see the pubes I mean chest hair from Neil), and the green screen and vfx.

Good: The music is real good! Tayla Parx is a new discovery for me, has bits and pieces of fun though they fail to sustain it multiple times, Jason Derulo with a surprising performance.

At the end of the day, you can't fault a family wanting to honor a legendary family member but it would have been better had the creative direction been given to someone with experience. Just didn't seem worth the 10 years of pre production for this level of output.

My rating (6) is higher then the movie actually deserves.. This has to do that I'm greatfull to learn the origin some of my music. Not using the original music tracks is a big miss of the true feeling in my hart. No discredit to Donna Summer actrice Tylor Parks, but she does not have the voice or image of Donna Summer. I'm sure it has to do with the original song rights where proberly to expensive to use in the movie. That's a real shame because it would give the movie much more credit. The acting is oke-ish, but story play is poor. I had people that just walked out of the cinema that could not look at it anymore. (...) second half of the movie was better. But it took to long to be involved as a viewer.