Search

Garage Days

2002, Movie, R, 105 mins

Garage Days: Review

GARAGE DAYS
starstarstarstar
A startling about-face for Australian director Alex Proyas, and an unwelcome one as well. A former music-video director best known for delicious dark fantasies THE CROW (1994) and the sadly underrated DARK CITY (1998), Proyas attempts to make a bright rock-and-roll comedy but never gets the good times rolling. Freddy (Kick Gurry) sold his soul to rock and roll at a tender age, but the best he and his band — moody lead guitarist Joe (Brett Stiller), feisty bassist Tanya (Pia Miranda) and chemically altered drummer Lucy (Chris Sadrinna) — dare dream of is one gig in front of a paying audience. But their manager (Russell Dykstra) is incompetent and the state of rock in Sydney is dismal. Radio airwaves are clogged with the synthetic sounds of silicone pop princesses, and places where young bands can play are few and far between. Bars simply hire DJs, or do away with music altogether in favor of noisy, blinking "pokie" machines that transform pubs into mini-casinos. An unexpected break materializes when Freddy spots star-making super-manager Shad Kern (Marton Csokas) at a local hang out, locked in a hot-and-heavy clinch with a young lady (Holly Brisley). When Freddy shows up at Shad's offices to return the wallet he left behind, he realizes the lady in question is dating Toby (Matthew Le Nevez), who fronts Shad's platinum-selling act Sprimp. It's a handy bit of information that gives Freddy a little leverage — Shad agrees to check out the band at their next gig, if they can land one. But mounting tensions within the group threaten what may be their single shot at stardom: Freddy has fallen in love with Joe's pregnant girlfriend, Kate (Maya Stange), while Joe, who's been secretly sleeping with a death-obsessed goth girl (Yvette Duncan), may be heading for a serious nervous breakdown. The trouble with Proyas's film isn't so much that the eternal triangle has been done to death as it is that that we never get a sense of these people as a band. Proyas holds off showing them onstage until the very end for the sake of a kicker that would have given the film some heart, had it been revealed earlier in the film: Freddy's band, it turns out, sucks. Stylistically, Proyas looks far too often to TRAINSPOTTING (1995) for inspiration, but a number of arresting images serve as a reminder of what he can do with the right material. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Advertisement

Shop

Garage Days
Buy Garage Days from Amazon.com
From 20th Century Fox (DVD)
Average Customer Review: nostarnostarnostarnostarstar
Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy New: $9.98

more Garage Days products

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. Dancing with the Stars
  2. The Game
  3. NCIS
  4. American Idol
  5. Wife Swap
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Carrie Prejean
  2. Jennifer Lopez
  3. Susan Boyle
  4. Sammy Sosa
  5. Donald Trump
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. A Christmas Carol
  2. This Is It
  3. Men Who Stare At Goats
  4. The Fourth Kind
  5. Paranormal Activity
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Dancing With The Stars
  2. V
  3. Saturday Night Live
  4. Desperate Housewives
  5. NCIS
more top videos