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From:Billy Crudup , Frances McDormand , Kate Hudson , Jason Lee , Patrick Fugit , Paramount , Cameron Crowe , Dreamworks Video ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#960 |
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3 of 0 customers found the following review helpful:
 Robbed of a Best Picture nomination, 2007-05-25
Uplifting coming-of-age stories generally don't do it for me. That is, unless they include great dialogue, comedy and drama, top-notch performances and a fantastic soundtrack. And that's exactly what multiple Oscar nominee "Almost Famous" has going for it. Of course, the fact that the main character lives out my dream of touring with a rock band doesn't hurt, either.
"Almost Famous" takes place during the early '70s, an era when rock legends such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and The Who were in their prime. It's into this milieu that William Miller (Patrick Fugit), an earnest 15-year-old, finds himself thrust when he scores a Rolling Stone magazine assignment to cover a rising rock band called Stillwater. Against the odds, Fugit works his way into the inner circle of the band, initially winning their respect through his knowledge of their music.
What begins as a short assignment turns into a multiple-month odyssey during which Patrick follows the band as it tours and grows from a second-tier rock group into superstars. Several compelling relationships develop along the way, including a unique friendship between William and the band's guitarist, Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), and a touching bond between William and Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a Stillwater groupie who prefers to be referred to as a Band-Aid. As dissension brews and excess rages within the band, Patrick is faced with a difficult decision: tell the band's real story and sell-out its members, or write a powder-puff boring article that might end his journalistic career.
If the characters and their relationships with one another seem startlingly real in "Almost Famous," that's because director/screenwriter Cameron Crowe ("Say Anything," "Jerry Maguire") based the story on his own experiences. As a result, Crowe gets every little detail right, from the band interactions to family dynamics to the music itself, to the point where you may start wondering whether this Stillwater band is real or fiction. Was "Almost Famous" robbed of a Best Picture nomination? You bet your a--.
The brilliant ensemble cast wonderfully compliments Crowe's razor-sharp writing skills. In the lead role, the underrated Fugit is utterly believable. Academy Award nominee Hudson gives a performance that's simultaneously sexy, strong and vulnerable. Crudup is by turns obnoxious, kind, egotistical and funny. And Jason Lee again showcases his fine comic touch as Stillwater's lead singer, especially when he attacks Russell for hogging too much of the limelight: "I'm the frontman, and you're the guitarist with mystique!"
The best movies often draw you into their world and allow you to share their characters' fears, loves, sadness and joy. In "Almost Famous," we share William's exhilaration as he lives the life of a rock star, and his sadness as he experiences the darker side of life and love. Ultimately, William loses his innocence, but manages to maintain his hopefulness. "Almost Famous" is the rare film that earns its feel-good sentiment by showing us the humor and heartbreak along the way to achieving it.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
Do I really need to review this?, 2007-04-29
Just buy it. Yeah, it's unreal expensive. What do you care anyway? I dare you to count all the useless crap within ten feet of you that you never use and tell me it costs less than this DVD.
You're really missing out if you miss this.
 Over-rated, ego driven "true story" of Rolling Stone, 2007-04-27
writer on the road with typical big ego's rock band of the 70's, stupid groupies/with/or without veneral disease, and assorted hangers on/drug dealers. With all this "glamour" to deal with can a 15 year old boy cope without getting involved with all these "bad" people? It's amazing how Kate/Goldie Hudson/Hawn "act" exactly alike, it's almost scary. Notice how equal everything isn't for the "free wheeling anything goes generation". These are the people in charge now, who want to ban everything and can't think up laws fast enough to take our rights away. Scary isn't it???? You ain't seen nothin yet!!!!!!! Peace and love generation, ha, more like they want a piece of everything and love being greedy.
2 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
Rock 'n' Roll through the eyes of an average teen, 2007-04-13
Cameron Crowe's (Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky) light hearted comedy drama about a young teen spending months traveling around with a bunch of big-ego rising rock stars really hits home.
The beginning of the movie starts off with a very creative way of listing out the credits via William (played by Patrick Fugit). From the start you know that music - more specifically rock 'n' roll - is very focused upon because all the ticket stubs from rock concerts and stickers as well. You next get to see how William's mom (played by Frances McDormand) is very controlling and strict...and Crowe likes to make point of that as often as possible throughout the movie.
After his older sister leaves with her boyfriend, and he also figures out that he is eleven years old in the seventh grade while everyone else is thirteen the movie skips four years until he's fifteen. But, before the flash-forward, William is instructed to look under his bed from his sister. He goes to find a collection of (what we now know) as some of the best rock albums of all time. He puts on The Who's "Tommy" and then flashforward 4 years.
Anyway, William becomes incredibly interested in Rock 'n' Roll as you next see him as a fifteen year old high school student sketching the hot rock bands of the time on his notebook. He then gets a little job offer from Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymor Hoffman) to write a small editorial on Black Sabbath because they were playing a show that night. At the show, William runs into Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) along with Stillwater (The blooming rock band) and hooks up with them. Afterwards, the movie picks up and the story starts to unfold.
As the movie goes on, you really get to see Kate Hudson fill in a role that was so made for her its scary...actually, she was made to be Penny Lane. Billy Crudup really shines as the "hey, I'm the good guy who'll befriend everyone" but who really has a lot of issues of his own. William Miller is the kid in all of us as we watch - very relatable to the viewers. Cameron Crowe really makes William a solid character as the only solid member of the whole tour. He is what a lot of us are like, at least I really relate to him. He is an innocent fan in a world of drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll - all foreign to him. The way he really grows up in the movie is awesome, and one of the most enjoyable character developments I've seen.
I really enjoyed this film overall. The acting was so dead-on, It was like watching a documentary. The soundtrack tops most all other soundtracks in recent memory. Led Zeppelin is the highlight band in the soundtrack, as songs like Tangerine and That's The Way are played a few times throughout. Actually, its been said that Stillwater (the fictitious band in the movie) is actually somewhat molded after Led Zeppelin. This is Crowe's best achievement to date - topping Jerry Maguire. I have to say that anyone who is a fan of classic rock, or is someone who has always been the odd man out...watch this film.
5/5 Stars
I'm Will Black, and that's my review of Almost Famous.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
my favorite, 2007-04-05
this is my favorite movie of all time. basically its about a boy that just loves music, and he went to a radio station and was given a report to write about a band, and he goes to a concert. ends up getting in with a band called still water and goes on tour with them and tries to interview them. if anyone hasnt seen this movie, its a must have. especially for the price
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