People are voting emotionally.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Brilliant, innovative telling of the Madchester story.The story of the emergence of Manchester as a major musical centre in the late-1970s and 80s. The story is told through the eyes of Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan), Grenada TV presenter/journalist, owner of The Hacienda, a famed Manchester club, and founder of Factory Records. We see the where it all started - the Sex Pistols first gig in Manchester and the emergence of bands like the Buzzcocks and, most importantly, Joy Division. We see how New Order formed from Joy Division and later we meet the Happy Mondays... Wonderfully entertaining yet edifying. It helps if you're into bands like Joy Division and the Happy Mondays, as I am. Even if you're not, it is worth watching to gain a better knowledge of musical history and the importance of what took place in Manchester in the 80s.This movie could easily have degenerated into a dry, linear history lesson. However, director Michael Winterbottom keeps the audience engaging and entertained through many innovative methods: breaking the fourth wall, humour, Wilson's narration and some interesting visual effects.As you would expect, there is a lot of music in the movie, and it is all great. Well chosen and timed too, as the music gives the movie its momentum.Solid performance by Steve Coogan in the lead role. While mostly a dramatic role, there are quite a few comedic moments, and Coogan is in his element there. Good supporting cast too.

You would think that Hollywood and the music business would be very close, with the executives lunching together every day in the slick restaurant scene that only LA and New York City have to offer. But you would be wrong. The evidence is that on both sides (music execs trying to make movies and tone deaf Hollywood moguls)there has been a massive failure in joining the two art forms. The one big exception is the growing body of work by Scorcese. Which brings me to this film, one of the top music movies ever made. For those of us who have followed music since the birth of rock n roll, it is particularly amazing and satisfying that it took the British to make this masterpiece about the BUSINESS of rock. Since Edison, it is a combination of business and technology that has created the music industry and led to its massive melt down, and the complete hand over to Apple. But that is another story. This film does its best to sum up why and how it has been impossible for rock and roll artists to grow their art separate from a completely insane and out of control money system that sold it down the river. The setting of this film is in the brief but fascinating Manchester music scene and this is the perfect back drop for a goofy, chaotic, and ultimately tragic tale that just never stops moving. Steve Coogan is brilliant in a once in a life time role that must have been written just for him. How else can you explain this funny, hilarious, and absolutely true picture of a music money man gone mad. I am not exaggerating that when movies were invented, they were meant for just this; social and artistic commentary that is moving, funny and absolutely unforgettable. I have seen this movie more than once, and each time I am amazed, delighted and so sad that a artistic world once so promising came to this.

I watched the DVD of '24 Hour Party People' again on the August night in 2007 when Tony Wilson died. I first saw it in 2002, and then I'd never heard of Tony Wilson, Factory Records, Joy Division, and was only vaguely aware that there had been a group called The Happy Mondays and a Manchester nightclub called the Hacienda. Yet, it's the strength of Michael Winterbottom's film that it made me wish I was a film director - the picture is so alive with the genuine possibilities of film-making.7 years later, the film stands up to many successive viewings as a piece of genre defying brilliance, and like the best English films - A Matter of Life and Death, A Hard Day's Night, Monty Python and the Holy Grail - finds fantasy in reality.Steve Coogan neither looks nor sounds like the real Tony Wilson - but that's part of the idiosyncratic point of the film. He's terrific in the part of the Cambridge graduate with ambitious plans for the Manchester music scene. The film follows Wilson from 1976, when he is a TV presenter in Manchester, up to closing of his nightclub the Hacienda in the early 1990s. It's the story of his record label, the groups he signed - Joy Division (later to become New Order) and the Happy Mondays - his epic nightclub and lots of civic pride.'24 Hour Party People' portrays the Manchester music scene of the time as being populated by foul, rowdy, drug fuelled yobs. Other than Wilson, none of the characters are remotely likable. Winterbottom's film is full of the authentic shabbiness and aggression of the late-seventies and the 1980s, but whilst the look is realistic, the directional style has an anything goes brilliance about it. For instance, Coogan's Wilson narrates to camera constantly referring to the fact you're watching a film. Indeed, the first scene is a 1976 Granada evening news report about hang gliding after which Wilson tells us - like the film we're about to watch - it works on a literal and metaphorical level. It's full of memorable moments like Shaun and Paul Ryder on a Manchester roof top, feeding the pigeons rat-poison filled bread then watching the pigeons fly and off and drop from the skies dead - all accompanied to the Ride of the Valkyries on the soundtrack. Or Wilson walking across Hacienda dance floor surrounded by frantic clubbers and saying of the birth of the Rave culture "Something epoch-making is happening, they're applauding the DJ....Welcome to Madchester."Frank Cotteral Boyce's script gives Coogan's Wilson some sparkling dialogue, such as "Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves far more than anyone listening to them."Wilson eventually looses control of his nightclub to drug dealers and has to sell his record company Factory Records after the Happy Mondays spend three months in Barbados spending the company's money on drugs when they should have been recording their new album (they eventually record one, but without lyrics) In the final scene - atop of a gloomy Manchester roof top - Wilson sees a vision of God, who looks just like him. The supporting cast is uniformly good, from Shirley Henderson as his wife, Paddy Considine as Rob, the manager of Joy Division; Andy Serkis as the drunken, drug addicted sound recordist Martin Hannah; even Rob Brydon as a local rock journalist. Winterbottom is an astonishingly versatile director, but this is - along with it's companion piece A Cock and Bull Story - is by far his most entertaining film.

-When you have to choose between the truth and the legend, print the legend-Very recently I wrote my IMDb comment for the -bad- movie Mr. Woodcock, in it I wrote that in my most recent visit to my local Blockbuster I found in the used DVDs (basically new DVDs, certainly cheap) a real gem: the R1 DVD of 24 Hour Party People. I wrote that without even watching 24 Hour Party People, certainly I really wanted to watch it and I knew this was a gem or better I wanted that this could be a real gem in my book and now I can say this: it is gem!24 Hour Party People opens in 1976, 3 years after The Dark Side of the Moon, 3 years before Unknown Pleasures, in 1976 we meet Tony Wilson (Steve Coogan) and we know he will be our man, our narrator, he will say to us that he should mention this or that and he will lead us into the music of Manchester, England. At one point, near the very last scene of the film Tony Wilson's club La Hacienda offers its very last night of service and Tony tries to give something more to the people, he says that they can take all from the offices, music equipment and stuff, he hopes people can use that stuff wisely. Near the very first scene of the film we see the Sex Pistols, small crowd, big impact, first Sex Pistols appearance in Manchester, certainly a historical moment and then Tony knew that. So we have that Tony's show is basically the only TV show that shows the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Iggy, etc. There will be the Factory night at the Russell club, there will be a record label, Factory Records. The anarchists, soon the band called once Warsaw will be in the studio, this whole session with Joy Division is really memorable, from the problems with the drum kit, the parts of "She Lost Control", the hilarious stuff with the drummer on the roof to the final product. The death of the man who for Tony was the musical equivalent of Che Guevara, the end of Tony's marriage with Lindsay (Shirley Henderson), the end of the first act, my favourite act of the film for sure. You are reading the thoughts of a fella who is not a really big fan of the Sex Pistols and Joy Division, who had certainly heard and liked a lot certain songs by those bands and who before watching 24 Hour Party people never heard before about the Happy Mondays. So the second act begins and Tony introduce to us the boys that will be the Happy Mondays, second act is about a new high point for Tony and company, this time more excesses, still very memorable and very entertaining. I think "Blue Monday" is a really terrific song, successful single yet the financial problem for Tony and company was always there just as the drugs.I saw a film with Steve Coogan for the very first time when I saw the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes, he was great in that wonderful short with Alfred Molina. I think Molina says only good things about 24 Hour Party People to Steve but anyway this was only the fourth film with Coogan that I see, for sure I need to see more of his stuff but meanwhile here he is just fantastic. Each actor here is doing a great job, I have Control yet to see but meanwhile I really liked Sean Harris as Ian Curtis. So I strongly recommend this picture, certainly after this I would like to see my second Michael Winterbottom film, I think I will start by giving a chance to the 2004 film 9 Songs. 9.5 out of 10PD: curious for me that posters of my two favourites bands of all time (The Doors and Pink Floyd) can be seen in this film. First is the poster of The Dark Side of the Moon, it is remove by one of Tony's friends after seeing the Sex Pistols live. Later we can see a Jim Morrison poster in Ian Curtis' house. DVD special features: "Manchester the movie", "About Tony Wilson", deleted scenes, commentary with Tony Wilson, commentary with Steve Coogan and Andrew Easton (producer), trailer and photo gallery.