EricInAdelaide Guys, take the movie at face value - it is funny with a touch of pathos that maybe those close to the music industry might be able to chuckle at a little more than others.I noticed a comment elsewhere that suggested it might have been written my a wannabe - I suggest you do your homework. Dave Warner was one of Australia's original punks and an icon of the Western Australian music industry in the 70's (and 80's). And they did it the hard way "back then". Maybe this is how he dreamed it was.You can see touches of this "reality" everywhere.For everyone else. It is funny and it is fun. If you think young musos come from another planet... welcome aboard the spaceship Garage Days... enjoy the ride as a bunch of mates try to live the rock'n'roll dream (or is that nightmare). But it ain't a documentary (rockumentary) - that would be boring. Almost famous? Maybe.It will leave you feeling a little warm and fuzzy and maybe feeling like you are now IN on some of the IN jokes.Don't take it so seriously.Great music and some great new (and not so new) Aussie acting talent.

hokeybutt GARAGE DAYS (2 outta 5 stars) I suppose every rock music fan who doesn't actually join a band wants to write about how cool it *would* be to join one. Thankfully, not all of them succumb to the temptation. Unfortunately, all too many of these paeans to this imagined "coolness" are foisted off on unsuspecting movie-goers (or book readers). Practically every one of these "tributes to the spirit of rock and roll" is exactly the same story. The hero is a nice guy who devotes his whole life to the band (most likely the alter ego of the author). There is a wild and crazy drummer (most likely patterned after "Animal" from "The Muppet Show") who likes to drink and/or take drugs. There is the band's second-in-command who gets jealous, thinking that the hero is taking advantage of him (though of course the hero would *never* be that despicable). There is a chick in the band, too... every fictional rock band has to have a token chick in it... who sleeps with at least one male member before the story ends. Then there has to be the slightly inept manager who keeps making funny mistakes (like sending the band to the wrong gig) and gets the major blame for the band's lack of success... but, when all is said and done, gosh darn it, he was there from the beginning and he's as much a part of the band as anyone so they can't just boot him out. Find all these clichés and MORE in this by-the-numbers effort by talented director Alex ("The Crow", "Dark City")Proyas. About the only thing this movie has going for it is a nice selection of songs on the soundtrack. There are lots of wild, flashy camera tricks and needless SFX... but all they signify is that Proyas saw "Trainspotting", too. The most annoying thing about this movie is that it's big punchline (when the band finally does get its big break we find out that the band really *does* suck) is given away in the advertising taglines on the posters and the DVD covers: "What if you finally got your big break and you just plain sucked?" The one original moment in the movie and they give it away in the advertising. No wonder this movie never got a theatrical release to speak of.

noizyme This movie is just plain fun that takes a pretty average, well-known look at the music industry and the hike that bands take to get to where they want to be. But Alex Proyas adds some CGI effects (pretty funny ones, I might add...like Mellie the "baby") to make up where this average movie was headed. ALl of the actors are pretty unknown in the States (where I am), but it all doesn't matter because they were all vivacious enough (and good-looking enough) to make you believe that they encountered this past themselves.This movie tries to take you on an emotional roller-coaster of relationships between band members and their girl/boyfriends, but where that comes up short, the movie just throws more fun at you. My favorite parts are the melon-baby and the hallucination scene where the band's bassist tries to get money from her parents and finds herself tripping out. I hated the where-are-they-now ending and cutesy-poo looks back on life and love and careers and whatever else, but the movie as a whole was OK. I gave it a 6/10.

LilyDaleLady I had to check the DVD box three times to be sure that it was the name ALEXPROYAS as director, because this is just such an unbelievably bad andamateurish film. It would be more believable with its odd tone, jokiness andmusical/fantasy elements if it were a hitherto undiscovered, very, very very early Baz Luhrman project."Garage Days" is a whimsical look at a contemporary Sydney, Australia rockband. For an American viewer, the first obstacle is the slangy, heavily accented Australian dialect. I do understand that is the setting, but for anybody in another English speaking country to understand even half of the plot, they needed totone down the accent and the words that are incomprehensible to the (muchlarger potential) US audience. Like "pokies"...I guess they are slot machines but it certainly was not clear.The story is so aimlessly told that although it's about a rock band -- I did get that -- I have no idea after watching the whole film what the band's NAME was. They don't play a whole song until the very end, and then we are told that they really suck -- although actually they are not that terrible. So all the sturm and drang is for absolutely nothing, because they are talentless and as the tie-ups at the end tell us, all the members went on to other careers or get married.The overall tone of the film is very like an old episode of the Monkees or The Partridge Family -- very jokey and cartoon-like, with lots of stylized action. Of course, because this is the 2000's, we have to get the requisite CGI effects: bullet time, slo mo, CGI monsters and drug trips and other comical moments.None of this really pans out or seems to work. The emotional tone is so sixties and caricaturing, and yet the story is supposed to be very "now" and thecharacters wouldn't have even been born in the 60s.Some of the lamest moments involve "drug trips", portrayed like something out of Reefer Madness.I can only scratch my head wondering why Alex Proyas, who made two of themost stylish, influential and original sci fi fantasy movies of the 90s would have stooped to this embarrassing garbage. It can't have been money, because this is a pretty low budget affair and it can't be fame, because it seems to be aimed mostly at the Aussie film market. Perhaps Mr. Proyas was himself once in aGarage Band and wanted to relive it a bit, although he would have to be at least 20 years older than the characters in the film."Garage Days" suffers quite badly also when compared to rock band films like"Almost Famous" or "The Committments". Although the idea of a bad, untalented band is quite funny -- think "Spinal Tap" -- there is an inherent problem that no one wants to listen to really bad music for 2 hours. Also, "Garage Days" is just plain unfunny, with tired sitcom-like jokes.The sound track has a mixture of oldies and contemporary music, played loudly and over every scene, apparently to compensate for a lack of any original music or even covers played by the band in the film. While some of this music isenjoyable, the loud overwhelming presence of other, more talented rockersmusic only draws attention to the lack of any interesting qualities to thecharacters or the plot, and doesn't allow the action to slow down enough for us to develop any intimacy with the characters or the romance between the twoleads.If shown on MTV as the senior project of an wannabe film director, this would still be lacking in quality, but more understandable and maybe forgivable. As the work of one of most respected sci fi fantasy film directors of the last decade, it is actually disturbing. Since "Dark City", Mr. Proyas has only made two films, this and the dull, derivative "I Robot". WHAT HAPPENED???? I'd give ten dollars to know...but the answer would probably make me very very sad.