by simon baird

Thursday, September 22, 2005

End of the Century

I watched this last night on Movie Extra. I never really got the Ramones. I mean I can respect them for their massive contribution to the birth of punk etc, but I always thought they were kind of boring. But after watching this movie I understand better what the Ramones were about. The fact that they are aren't that good is part of why they are so important. The three (now dead) stars are Joey, the painfully insecure, obsessive compulsive; Dee Dee, the depressed ex-rentboy junky; and Johnny - well he was the "Spinal Tap" guy who didn't really like the others. (Johnny comes across as a heartless bastard towards the end of this movie). They showed that anyone could be a rock star no matter how 'uncool' you were. Highlights include great footage of the early days of CBGBs, the story of their first UK show, their encounter with a crazed gun wielding Phil Spector, Joey never forgiving Johnny for stealing his girlfriend and marrying her, the band being mobbed by fans in Brazil. The movie keeps you interested to the very end and somehow manages to avoid cliches and any resemblance to one of those VH1 rockumentaries. Anyway I give the movie a solid two thumbs up and recommend it if you have even the slightest interest music.

3 comments:

PiB - Nicarra said...

Good review but I'm not sure I'll bother with the movie. :)

simon said...

That's the good thing about having pay tv with movie channels. You stumble across plenty of good movies that probably you would never have bothered to rent.

Anonymous said...

This was the greatest documentary ever, it's a must-see for anyone, rock fan or not.