Palatable 'punk' for the Hot Topic generation

You can recreate what was going on at the time. Sid and Nancy proves that. Great movie and great actors. This movie was *beep* and Bijou Phillips? She is a horrible actor. I cringe every time she is on screen.

<<It turns out that Repo Man is the most acurate portayal of the punk rock years... >>

True -- West Coast, though. For East Coast, for New York, try Smithereens. That does a pretty good job.

I agree that "Repo Man", "Sid and Nancy", and "Decline of Western Civilization" are all better documents of that era (and no one mentioned "Suburbia", Penelope Spheeris' fictionalized follow-up to "Decline"). But they were also made during or shortly after that era. Like it or not though, about thirty years has passed and the snarling punks of that time are now middle-aged people my age or older (and the really hardcore ones are probably dead). A movie that sincerely tried to adopt the punk attitude of that time might not appeal to a lot the original punk fans that have grown up and/or grown old and look at life differently than when we were adolescents. And it wouldn't sell to today's kids either, who have probably never heard of the the Germs.

I did think the movie was a little too sentimentalized. This was the same band after all that in "Decline of Western Civilization" talked about posing for polaroids with a dead Mexican house painter who had keeled over in their yard. When Spheeris asked if they felt bad about it, they all paused until one girl (Lorna Doom or a girlfriend of Darby's) replied, "No, cuz I f#!*!n hate painters!" Now, that's REAL punk attitude! But I can't speak for anyone else, but I wouldn't have lived this long if I still felt that way.

Ha! A friend of mine commented to me the other day how he'd seen the Germs movie and thought it was horrible. I then remembered writing this angry post after seeing the flick and thought I'd check up on it..

It's gratifying to see that I'm not the only one who felt this way about the movie. The guy who made it had a lot going for him.. MONEY, some name actors, carte blanche by the remaining Germs.. He was in the scene at the time, from what I hear, which would've helped add credibility.. And he still turned out this hunk of crap.

The only person I care to respond to on here is "ndiezel" and I have this to say:

I see your point about how some of the young kids today might see this and be inspired to pick up an instrument.. That, of course, would be a good thing. But this movie still blows, and almost all of the acting was quite bad.. I expected more from the director, who was a long-time fan and supposedly was around in the scene back then.. When I heard this, I thought "Well, I guess this is the guy to make a movie about the Germs!" I had high hopes for the flick. This is why I was so angry after seeing it, and why my original post reflected that. Also, never once did I say "back in my day" or anything like that.. And my kid likes "Rise Against" and referred to them as "hardcore" to me. I gently but firmly told him why they aren't hardcore at all, and left it at that. While I'm not impressed with the band at all, I keep my thoughts about them to myself because one of my goals is to not be too much of a "curmudgeon-y" Dad. My parents hated the stuff I listened to, and the cycle continues!

I think you are a bit abrupt (and wrong) in referring to me as a scenester elitist. I like all kinds of stuff.. But I know when to cry "bullsh!t" and after watching this flick, I felt it was time to do so. I believe that if you liked this movie, you either haven't seen better movies of its ilk, or you are very easily amused.

Tell me, were you so excited to read all the "back in my day" posts because as you watched the movie, you realized that it was a sub-par depiction of those days and that people who were around at the time would feel compelled to say so? We old geezers are SO predictable, aren't we?

Rodney WAS going to play himself, but there were scheduling conflicts, so at the last minute they brought in JP Manoux.


... and that was the second time I got crabs.

the movie wasnt very good and tried to be romanticised or something.
but what really bothered me was the way it dissed on THE SCREAMERS. the screamers were amazing! they were far more original and at least as influential. which is saying alot for a band that never recorded. i would way rather see a film about the screamers than the germs.