i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The music inheritage of CBGB and the history of PUNK in a movie. Simply outstanding.

Okay first of all if your a big fan of one particular artist or more in the story and are expecting their role (or even their personality) to be fleshed out, chances are you will be disappointed. They are all (aside from the Dead Boys) limited to cameos and as such some people find they are a little generic. I'm not sure how much depth people expect in what often amounts to less than a minutes screen time, but there you go. It is not a long movie and it would have been impossible to do justice to everyone involved in that music scene in such a short time. In the restraints they had, I believe they did well enough.Secondly there are some liberties taken with the actual music. It didn't matter to me as it was all great music, but if your picky on such things that may irritate you. An example of this is that the Ramones don't actually play any Ramones tracks, instead they player a Joey Ramone solo track that was released later. I don't really understand why they made those choices, but that is the way it is. Some people may feel the "live" sound isn't gritty enough. Again, I had no problem here, I wanted to hear good music and I did.Perhaps those that get the most out of this films are those that like the music but aren't huge fans of anyone in specific. This is where I fell and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I laughed and I cried and when it finished I was happy. Alan Rickman is the centrepiece of this film and that I think will make this enjoyable to the majority of viewers (as the IMDb average suggests) as he is as solid as ever. The rest of the cast is reasonable but no one stands out. The sets look very accurate (from what I can tell at least) and the whole thing is quite believable.Taken out of the historical context this is basically a light hearted comedy about a growing music scene and a guy with passion, kindness and absolutely no business acumen. It feels like a "British Comedy" which for many will be fine, but given the topic is a New York club some may feel it inappropriate. If you read this review and still want to see the film then you will no doubt enjoy it as much as I have (or more).

First off, I love Alan Rickman so it pains me to say this - why was he cast in this role? He sleepwalks through the whole thing. And I was told he was supposed to be all New York-y. He's about as New York-y as the Queen. A jew-fro, 20 extra pounds and a wardrobe of overalls does NOT make a character.Now on to the real problem: who wrote this thing? Did YOU get any sense of the importance or significance of CBGB watching this dumb movie? Because I didn't. Mostly it seemed to be a movie about a guy who steadfastly refused to pay his rent for no particular reason whatsoever. If the real Hilly was this much of a moronic aye-hole nobody would have had anything to do with him and history would not have been made.Now onto the "famous acts." These characters were paraded on in a ridiculous fashion. Oooo, there's Blondie. Oooo, there's Taylor Hawkins being Iggy. Oooo, there's the Ramones and the Talking Heads and a glimpse of Annie Golden and Harry Potter's friend in the Dead Boys. And why were those polished studio recordings used every time someone "played"? Where was the rawness? There was no sense of the growth of these bands or the growth of the club and there was no sense of what Hilly really meant to anyone. Remember in the final credits and they show Tina Weymouth at the RnR Hall of Fame bringing Hilly on stage with them and she talks about how Hilly FED them, and NURTURED them and blah blah blah. Did you see ANY of that in this movie? No.Finally...what was up with that comic book style? What in the world has this got to do with comic books?

I have no emotional investment in the time, place, or music represented in the movie CBGB. If anything, I prefer the Country, Blue Grass, and Blues Hilly original meant to present in his bar. But, never having been to CBGB or having any great interest in the bands who developed there, I can react to the movie as a movie instead of worrying about whether the CBGB in the movie really matches up with what I saw there or whether the actors chosen to play my favorite band really look or sound like the people they're playing.So? I liked the movie. I liked Hilly, the main character in the movie who started CBGB. The film is frequently amusing, such as when Hilly's mom (played by the same actress who was George Costanza's mom on Seinfeld) enjoys a bowl of the chili.The acting is fine. Rickman does a good job and I didn't realize until the credits that it was Freddy Rodriguez very convincingly playing the junkie Idaho.I went to see a screening with a musician who'd played CBGB in the early 90s and he said, yes it was that filthy and Rickman does a pretty good job as Hilly. One of the producers and an actress who'd had a small part in the film were also there and added a lot of information.If you're interested in the start of Punk and weren't there, you'll probably like the movie. If you were there, it may depend on how much historical accuracy you expect. You shouldn't expect a lot of historical accuracy in any movie though, so take it for what it is: a fairly entertaining movie.