You won't be disappointed!

Very well executed

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

As a British person, I felt a personal connection to this film - trust me, it got everything spot on! I liked this film a lot - it was your typical film bout a group of friends going on an adventure (Think Stand By Me if the characters were older and a lot more obsessed with girls and pop rock bands). It was fun, there were lot of laughs. But it was also more than that. It dealt with a lot of issues, subtly at least. The emphasis was on the music, but the underlying angst was there. I can't exactly put my finger on why I enjoyed this movie so much, but there it is: I liked it. Definitely worth a watch, and, of course, a listen to that soundtrack.

I was not that young in the 90's and I am not from Manchester and was not a great Stone Roses fan but I loved this film. In a nutshell it is about a band, Shadowcaster and there efforts to see Stone Roses play at Spike Island, the band consist of Tits, Dodge, Little Gaz, Zippy and Penfold. The story also weaves each individual plot and in my opinion the sub plots work effectively . This is a coming of age movie, good acting, good pace, funny and poignant. It faithfully reflects the 90's and the music of the 90's, it works on a lot of levels and The story has several threads and I have un-ticked the spoiler box as I do not want to spoil anyone's enjoyment of this excellent film.

'Spike Island' takes place in 1990 and follows a teenage band as they prepare to attend a concert given by the Stone Roses rock group. The characters are strictly two-dimensional: there's the good-looking one who gets the girl, the shy sensitive one who's the only member of the band with any musical talent, the elder brother idolised by his younger sibling but who turns out to have feet of clay, etc. Nor are the situations they get into particularly new or inventive. Worth watching once, but not again. It stars lots of people Britons have seen on television (Elliott Tittensor - 'Shameless' - in the leading role probably accounted for the large number of men in the audience when I saw the film, but don't get excited - Tittensor strips to his boxers, but that's as far as he goes). Lesley Manville provides a bit of acting class.

'Spike Island' is clearly a labour of love: love for the '90s, for Manchester, and for the Stone Roses. These are loves which I share with the filmmakers. However, I have a feeling that this is what carried me through a great portion of the film. From the outset the cinematography is slick and fun, the cast are likable and solid, and it goes without saying that the Roses soundtrack elevates the film whenever it is utilised. The major downfall of the film is the script. It's not terrible by any means, and is wonderfully funny and charming throughout. Unfortunately, it feels like a first draft for what could have been an excellent final film. It suffers from trying to cram in too much, which ultimately has the opposite effect and leaves the viewer feeling like we haven't really covered anything. All of the characters, even the protagonist, are extremely thinly sketched, each with different a Coming-of-Age cliché stuck to them in place of actual character development. The setting has been painstakingly reconstructed, and in a sense the aforementioned scantiness leaves us with an impressionistic, unfocused but very accurate glimpse of the time and place. Which is nice, but cannot sustain an entire feature film. A major plotting fumble which could have been corrected in a redraft is that it drags on for far too long after the actual gig has taken place. This is the focus and the high point of the film. Afterwards it just feels like a slow decline in which you can't see the bottom, as the film wraps up the myriad plot strands which it never successfully committed us to in the first place. The adulation also gets a little cringey at times, even for a film which was made with the purpose of adulation: lines like 'I feel like they made the record just for me.' 'Don't be daft, they made it just for me.' really could have been rewritten. I don't often roll my eyes to Stone Roses praise. I've focused a little more on the negatives of the film than I wanted to, because after a single viewing those unfortunate flaws are what have left the biggest impression. The overall experience was positive, though. The timing of the release couldn't have been better. I'm glad the film was made, and I'm glad that I saw it. At the premiere, no less, where there was a lot of goodwill and anticipation from everyone, myself included. It's just a shame that I couldn't love it as much as I wanted to.