Plenty of Potential, yet Ultimately Disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 1999)

Sadly this film could of been much better by simply trimming 20 to 30 minutes out of it. I watched it on DVD and noticed there were no "deleted scenes" in the special features - you know why? Because they didn't delete any scenes...they left them all in whether they worked or not! The movie was like watching a series of interesting videos surrounded by meaningless and empty dialogue (what was the point of the Oscar Wilde set-up?)
The music was fair to good, although a greater effort should of been made to get David Bowie's permission to use his music. I'm baffled by Bowie fans who found this acceptable. I would think it would be frustrating.
A similar movie that works much better than Velvet Goldmine is SID AND NANCY. Here is a movie that deals with the London music scene where the story is more important than the music. Perhaps Alex Cox is just better able to handle absurd and outrageous characters.
And finally, I think Ewan McGregor demonstrated that he's the front runner to play Kurt Cobain if they ever decide to make a movie about the grunge music scene.