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Absolutely Fantastic

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I came across this movie on Netflix streaming. I am a Rickman fan so watched it because of him. The subject turns out to be Punk Rock, a music genre that I truly hate, but the story of how all this came about is very interesting.Alan Rickman is New Jersey native Hilly Kristal who in 1973, after at least a couple of failed businesses leading to bankruptcy, decided to start yet another new business. He was certain that country music would be the next big thing so he called his place 'CBGB' which stood for 'Country, Blue Grass, and Blues.'As it turned out those musical forms never took off in his place, they took off in Nashville. But the CBGB became a magnet for alternative forms of music, like Punk Rock. Like The Ramones, or Debbie Harry, or The Dead Boys. Even The Police featuring Sting.Hilly was never much of a businessman. His place was crude and pest- infested, and he probably had the dirtiest toilets in Manhattan. He never bargained contracts for supplies and was paying too much, cutting into profits, which ended up in cash in his freezer.His daughter is played by Ashley Greene as Lisa Kristal, she recognizes his lack of business skills and sets out to make things right but Hilly was not very cooperative.All in all a pretty fascinating story, if it had been written as fiction we would have a hard time believing many of the things that are portrayed here.

SO...I am sure there were mistakes made and liberties taken. Before I begin, please remember this is a non-fiction account of an important time in music. 'CBGB', is generated out of Holly-weird, you know - that place where facts occasionally get in the way of telling a good story. I got that, and understand a twisted truth often reflects ideologies ingrained in the minds of many movie producers, directors or writers. In this case, I doubt any bad intentions were meant, I think their goal was solely creating good entertainment. For me - they did a spectacular job. Thank you cast and crew good job.I do understand that this movie is not for everyone. I am old enough to have hitched my musical wagon to the music of the '60s and '70s. So I would be extra critical of anything pumped out attempting to explain, 'Woodstock', or, 'The Monterrey Pop Festival.' Again, I appreciate those critical of this movie.For me, this movie ginned something up inside of me personally. I am now very interested in researching this important bit of history. I vaguely remember this era, although this time-frame was a bit after my 'generation.' I hate to admit it, I had very little interest in the entire genre (of course I owned albums by Lou Reed, Blondie, Patti Smith, and The Ramones – but never really cared to digest any meaning behind the 'Punk?' movement.) Well now I do. For those of us hidden in the shadows (or me - I am Punk-ignorant) – this was a super summary of the time.Again, thanks cast and crew– excellent job.

Okay first of all if your a big fan of one particular artist or more in the story and are expecting their role (or even their personality) to be fleshed out, chances are you will be disappointed. They are all (aside from the Dead Boys) limited to cameos and as such some people find they are a little generic. I'm not sure how much depth people expect in what often amounts to less than a minutes screen time, but there you go. It is not a long movie and it would have been impossible to do justice to everyone involved in that music scene in such a short time. In the restraints they had, I believe they did well enough.Secondly there are some liberties taken with the actual music. It didn't matter to me as it was all great music, but if your picky on such things that may irritate you. An example of this is that the Ramones don't actually play any Ramones tracks, instead they player a Joey Ramone solo track that was released later. I don't really understand why they made those choices, but that is the way it is. Some people may feel the "live" sound isn't gritty enough. Again, I had no problem here, I wanted to hear good music and I did.Perhaps those that get the most out of this films are those that like the music but aren't huge fans of anyone in specific. This is where I fell and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I laughed and I cried and when it finished I was happy. Alan Rickman is the centrepiece of this film and that I think will make this enjoyable to the majority of viewers (as the IMDb average suggests) as he is as solid as ever. The rest of the cast is reasonable but no one stands out. The sets look very accurate (from what I can tell at least) and the whole thing is quite believable.Taken out of the historical context this is basically a light hearted comedy about a growing music scene and a guy with passion, kindness and absolutely no business acumen. It feels like a "British Comedy" which for many will be fine, but given the topic is a New York club some may feel it inappropriate. If you read this review and still want to see the film then you will no doubt enjoy it as much as I have (or more).

"There's something there, there's definitely something there." After two failed attempts at running a bar and on the verge of bankruptcy Hilly Kristal (Rickman) throws everything he has into a bar where he wants to feature local country, bluegrass or blues bands. What it turns out to be is the launching pad for an entirely new sound for a new generation. As the legend goes punk wasn't born here but after bands such as Blondie, The Ramones, The Police and Iggy Pop punk was discovered here. I have to admit I am not a fan of punk music. I did like the Police and some songs by the bigger named artists but overall it's not one of my favorite genres. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this going in but I really ended up liking it. Alan Rickman is great in this (as always) and the story moved fast enough that there really wasn't a boring part in this at all. The actors they picked to play the bands were spot on, Malin Akerman, Rupert Grint and Kyle Gallner are all interesting choices. I really ended up liking this much more then I thought I would. Overall, this is not just a good movie about music, this is a good movie period. I give it a B+.