Sack the director

Rating: 4/10 (29 February 2008)

A very familiar story of getting together and forming a band and then it all goes wrong movie. Nicely acted. Looks nice. Music nice. But it was oh so slow. There was practically no script and every time a scene was flagging it was time to play the same song yet again. All the music played was very good and in keeping with the era, but it was so often used as a filler so that the movie wasn't 30 minutes long. This was a case of the studio bosses thinking Tom Hanks could do no wrong and they dare not annoy him by criticising. It happens so often. Superstar want's to make a picture and the studios allow total freedom, even though they really know it's not working, but it's worth it to keep Tom Hanks happy. The idea was nice, it just needed re-writing. But the main flaw was Tom Hanks as Director. It needed someone with sparkle. Hanks has no sparkle as a Director. It plodded on so slowly I almost fell asleep.