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Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The first must-see film of the year.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This film would probably be enjoyed more by people who are very into music or actual musicians that play in their local music scene. At times you'll witness musicians that are growing with you and you see that they're far greater than you and your band mates. Something simple as that can make for an incredible drama/comedy that deals with the downfall of an individual trying to beat a friend's band named "The Hype" in every way possible in terms of success. They all grow up in the same town and aspire to become rock stars, Neil McCormick makes his band with his brother while his schoolmate Paul Hewson starts up his own band. While still being friends Neil feels his band is as good if not greater than Paul's but he can clearly see that things are going much better for Paul's band. Things speed up even further when "The Hype" decides to change their name to "U2" and also adopt nicknames to have a different stage persona. From there on out, Neil's band "Shook Up!" spends the next few years trying to catch up to a band that has been destined to super stardom. The pathos created for the main character is so well executed you cringe at every missed opportunity and mess up he encounters, I almost started rooting for him even though I knew he was going to fail. The music is a big element to this film and it's done very well, it represents an early "U2" without going too much into what they're now more well-known for and showcases music by "Shook Up!" that sounds just as good as U2's. You can definitely hear the bands are starting to create their own sound with great execution and makes you love both bands so much. The acting is superb on everyone's part, not a single beat is missed which makes the comedic elements break the much needed tension from the character's failure. The environment accurately depicts living in the early 80's in an emerging European rock scene while the camera work is used to really bring out the energy in the concert scenes to great perfection making you feel like you missed a great show. Overall, I related to this movie in the sense that we all have dreams. Whether big or small you want to try everything in your power to achieve them even if it takes a lifetime. I felt that this character did have a gift but had so much bad luck from the beginning that he was destined for failure. The envy he felt for his friend could've been transformed into positive energy to maybe learn from him and even be greater than him, but we'll never know and never will.

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!

... given that I went watching it without reading a book, seeing trailer, heard which actors are involved or anything else about it. In case you don't know what is it about, let me repost the plot: "Two brothers attempt to become global rock stars but can only look on as old school friends U2 become the biggest band in the world."Story is the best part of this movie. Throughout it's entire length I was wondering which way will it go. Will it keep it's mild comedy tone from start to the end, or will it turn to tragedy, given the main character's auto-destructive nature ... or maybe, could it even have some alternative history ending like in "Inglorious Bastards" ? Well, it could have gone either way, and because I don't wanna spoil anything for you, I'll just say I'm most satisfied how it finished.Also, I have nothing but praises for the cast. Ben Barnes... I'm surprised you still aren't big thing in Hollywood. Weekest link might only be his on-screen brother, the guy with curly hair, but he's not bad enough to ruin the movie ... go watch !

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