One of the best films i have seen

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Fresh and Exciting

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The narrative framework is folk singing, but this is a movie made by a bunch of friends who have a genuine love of performing. All the dialogue is improvised, the humor is inspired.Bonus points for the "Up With People" sendup.

Christopher Guest and company tackle the super-cheesy folk music scene of the '60s in their own unmistakable way. While its status among Guest's other pictures could be debated, I don't think there's any question it's his most complete effort. Tremendously funny at points, it also tells a straight, coherent story and ties in a stunning successful emotional hook. The laughs aren't quite as loud or as rapid-fire as they were in Spinal Tap; however, the tone also isn't nearly as flippant, which is a major reason why it's able to settle down and deliver something truly sweet at the climax. Of course, the original music is once again outstanding, with lyrics that are more subtly funny and not nearly as brazen, and is spectacularly performed by the cast of ad-lib legends. It's an ensemble piece in every definition of the word, with the mockumentary style of the first sixty minutes providing more than enough background to emotionally invest its audience for the grand finale in Town Hall. Effectively funny and heartwarming in even doses, A Mighty Wind is a great continuation of the troupe's legacy.

There are two substantial problems with this film, neither making it unwatchable, although I confess they did make me feel uncomfortable. The first is that director Guest cannot capture any of the various "documentary" camera styles widely known with the necessary degree of accuracy; this isn't cinema verite, nor do we get successful sequences of talking heads. Even the concert scenes fail to emulate concert documentaries. Visually, then, we are always reminded that we are not watching a documentary but a mockumentary - we can't really allow ourselves the 'willing suspension of disbelief' such a satire requires from us. This problem is exasperated by some of the actors' performances who are trying way too hard to be funny, rather than play straight and let the ridiculous situations call out laughter.The second problem is more troubling; the music is too good! Most of these songs are not "mock folk music," they ARE '60s style folk songs. Take even the title track: "A Mighty Wind" as a title is amusing in that it evokes flatulence; but by the time you get to such lyrics "a mighty wind of freedom/ blowing for you and me" you wonder where the joke is? That is after all exactly what many folkies thought was going on in the '60s, which makes the song dynamically expressive of that era.Comparisons with "This is Spinal Tap" are of course unavoidable. The songs of "Spinal Tap" came to within a hair's breadth of real heavy metal, but push comes to shove, most real heavy metal songs escape their own pretentiousness by 'rocking out,' they are, bottom line, just variant forms of traditional rock songs; Spinal Tap, to make their point and remain funny, kept their pretentiousness meter pushed to 11.Another issue in comparison indicates where "Mighty Wind" goes wrong. Both heavy metal and folk music had substantial sub-cultures develop around them. But when "Spinal Tap" was released the heavy metal sub-culture was alive and thriving, about to receive new blood with bands in NYC ad LA. The folk music subculture was dead by 1977; a lot of folkies did end up in business or academia and moved quietly into the suburbs (those refusing this route gathered 'round the Grateful Dead, a phenomenon requiring a whole other movie to explore). Consequently, a "where are they now" satire about folk singers ultimately requires a satire on 'midddle America,' and of course that's really too broad a subject for a film that wants so much to highlight the music involved.In short then, "A Mighty Wind" fails to explore humorously the historical dissonance between where folk musicians came from and where they ended up - a dissonance captured powerfully (with much unintentional irony) in the study of Jerry Garcia's friendship with David Grisman, "Grateful Dawg." It's a dissonance strong enough to have fueled the addiction that killed Garcia; it is a dissonance that still quietly influences our current politics and cultural reference points. And while director Guest clearly tries to stab insightfully into the the heart of this dissonance, he doesn't even scratch the surface; that the Folksmen are last seen playing in the foyer of a casino maybe ironic, but since they are, in the last analysis professional musicians trying to earn a living, the irony is all about the casino, not the musicians. Their talent, and the entertainment value of their songs, remain untouched; it is simply not the '60s anymore.Entertaining, but more for the music than the comedy, which is faint praise indeed.

This is THE worst movie I or anyone else I know has EVER seen. I almost slept through it. It was extremely boring and fake. I'd give a negative rating but that's impossible. This movie is the worst movie you will ever see. I think everyone else slept through the small part we saw. This movie was a total waste of time, and it made me never want to see a "mockumentary" again. You should get paid to see this horrible movie. It did get better for about two minutes, but then it got even worse. After wasting an hour which felt like ten million on this movie, I didn't want to see any more of it. I stress again, do not see this movie unless you want to watch a movie so bad you can sleep right through it....