Hard Core Logo
Tags: comedy, violence, satire, romantic, storytelling, home movie

Plot synopsis:
The movie is about a documentary team that follows the reunion of Hard Core Logo. Joe Dick gets the band back together ostensibly for an anti-gun benefit after hearing Canadian punk rock legend Bucky Haight, and personal mentor, is shot. They begin the tour in Vancouver and travel to Edmonton, via Winnipeg. On the way the band's dark secrets are revealed. John Oxenberger loses his schizophrenia medication and slowly loses his sanity. Billy Tallent finds out that by going on tour he loses his position in mainstream rock band Jenifur and with that his one shot at stardom. The band stops by Bucky Haight's reclusive estate only to find he was never shot and that Joe Dick fabricated the lie in order to get the band together. The band and documentary crew drop acid and experience hallucinations. Bucky admonishes Joe Dick for using him to get the band together. At Edmonton, Billy Tallent finds out he has another opportunity to permanently join Jenifur. Joe Dick finds out from the film crew and later attacks Billy on stage. Joe Dick destroys Billy Tallent's Fender Stratocaster, which was a gift from Bucky Haight, and the band parts ways. In the final scene Joe Dick drinks with the documentary crew members and shoots himself in the head.

Review: This is a more ambitious movie, and its mood is much darker -- while it has its comic moments, it's not a film to watch when you're feeling down.This particular American viewer had no trouble with the Canadian references -- yes, we can tell Canadian cities apart and know exactly which Quebeckers the bassist was talking about.
Bands in the States lose musicians to L.A., too.At its core, this is a movie about friendship and betrayal, and in the end, betrayal wins.
It's a hard, honest movie, not easy watching but worth the effort.(Parents, this one isn't for the kiddies -- lots of obscenity and some violence, though none of it is gratuitous to the story.).
Yes it is a mockumentary, yes it is follows around a rock band(rockumentary) but for every other reason this really should not becompared to Spinal Tap. It really isn't a comedy, although it has some great moments in it.
It's also not about a band "struggling with fame" which is whatEVERY OTHER rock movie is about (Almost Famous, That ThingYou Do, Spinal Tap, The Doors, you name it).
I always knew Hugh Dillon was really the lead singer for theHeadstones, so I realized it wasn't really a documentary butthought Hard Core Logo the band might still have existed and thiswas a tribute.
Really interesting film for anyone familiar with the hardcore music scene that deals with the problems and moral dilemmas of a reunited band.
Also, this movie has much more of a human heart than a film like spinal tap or fear of a black hat (another movie that got lumped into the "mockumentary" genre).
Let's get it over with right from the beginning: the only thing that "This Is Spinal Tap!" and "Hard Core Logo" have in common is the documentary set up.
While Spinal Tap was a comedy that - as the name of the genre "mockumentary" suggests - mocked the heavy metal scene, "Hard Core Logo" is a character study that takes an honest look at a band and life on the road.
Actually, the whole framework is rather unnecessary in this movie as it serves no real purpose and characters didn't act like they were in front of a camera (unlike say "The Office", where people behaved as if they were aware of being filmed).
The movie gives us a quite real impression of being in a punk band, caught between different agendas, personalities, power struggles and the sheer need to survive.
This is why, apart from a few moments that will make you chuckle, "Hard Core Logo" isn't really trying to be funny, either.
The acting is great and the soundtrack is accurate, two very important things to make a movie about punk rock work.
Apart from maybe the drummer the band members aren't over-subscribed and you can really see guys like Joe Dick or Billy Talent playing in actual bands (guess what, Hugh Dillon actually was the singer of his own band, The Headstones).
Cheers to all those involved: to Hugh, Callum, John, Bernie, and Julian, whose performances are all top-notch; to Noel and Michael, whose writing exemplify true Canadian talent and spirit; and to Bruce, who brought it all together beautifully.
To try and comment on this film without mentioning Spinal Tap would be hard considering not only all the comments that have gone before but also the synopsis provided on this site.
Hard Core Logo, is not, however, Spinal Tap......and it's none the worse for it.Hard Core Logo is an intelligent drama (with the occasional comic moment) about the intense love between two friends and their mutually destructive force on each other when their paths once again entwine together years after the dissolution of their band.The copy I watched was pretty pore so I can't really comment on the cinematography but I can imagine, from the fuzzy version I did see, that its strikingly beautiful in it's own slightly decrepit way.
The plot line is almost non-existent leaving the main focus on the four members of the band, mainly founding members Joe Dick and Billy Talent.So without good actors this film would sink.
Dillon's energy and screen presence is quite extraordinary.Billy on the other hand is trying to get out, not just for money reasons but because he sees it as a way of salvaging his life from his group of self destructing band mates.
Billy talks crap but his face never lies.well, at least that was my take on this film...and that really is where Hard Core Logo comes into it's own.
With so much of what the characters actually mean not being said (they chose, instead, to spout the generally expected views of a rock band) it really does depend on the viewer what film they watch.
I love "Hard Core Logo", a fine black comedy.
Hugh Dillon, Callum Keith Rennie, John Pyper-Ferguson, Bernie Coulson, and Julian Richings as Bucky Haight all did a great job portraying an aging band that never lived up to it's own ambitions.
Frankly, I am so tired of "This is Spinal Tap", a film I liked the first two times I saw it.
Also, from a Canadian point of view, I liked it because it was a straight up story and a straight up film.
Hard Core Logo, much like every other Canadian movie, is a purely original movie.
It takes a look at Vancouver's favourite bad boys of punk, Hard Core Logo.
Bruce McDonald's direction is simply amazing and Callum Rennie and Hugh Dillon are brilliant as Billy Tallent and Joe Dick.
Hard Core Logo has been compared to This is Spinal Tap. Although there are similarities, HCL's furious, biting, raunchy humor, wit and believability crushes Spinal Tap and leaves it flapping in the wind like yesterday's news..
One of the best movies about a fictitious rock 'n' roll band ever made.
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is generally regarded as the quintessential rock 'n' roll mockumentarya hilarious look at the inept trials and tribulations of a heavy metal band.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Hard Core Logo (1996), a no frills balls-to-wall look at a fictitious punk rock band.
Where Tap is a funny satire, Logo has a much darker undercurrent that gives it an unpredictable edge.Retired for some years, legendary Canadian punk rock band, Hard Core Logo reunites for a one-off benefit concert for their mentor, Bucky Haight who supposedly had both legs amputated after being shot by a crazy fan.
The gig goes so well that the band's charismatic lead singer, Joe Dick convinces everyone to go on a mini-tour across Western Canada with a documentary crew tagging along for the ride.
As the tour progresses, the friction between the band members becomes more palpable until it achieves a critical mass.Hard Core Logo is the third film in Bruce McDonald's informal rock 'n' roll road movie trilogy that started with Roadkill and Highway 61.
Not a professional actor but rather lead singer of the Canadian blues punk bank, The Headstones, Dillon's lack of formal training gives his performance a certain unpredictability that is perfect for his character.
Callum Keith Rennie plays the gifted, low key guitarist who has clearly surpassed his bandmates, Bernie Coulson is the crazy drummer who seems clueless but knows what to do when it counts, and finally John Pyper-Ferguson is the terminally burnt out bass player whose road diary provides the film's voice-over narration.
The way these guys joke and argue with each otherlike adults who refuse to grow-upis so good that it feels like they've really been in a band together for many years.Filmmaker Bruce McDonald keeps this all together with his solid direction.
He has an excellent sense of pacingthe movie never gets boringand he instinctively knows that the essence of any good rock 'n' roll movie is, as he puts it, "extremely loud music and cool shots." Cinematographer Danny Nowak uses the shaky, hand-held camera-work that documentaries are known for and he also shoots the band in cool slow motion shots that emphasizes their iconic status.Along with the aforementioned Spinal Tap and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, Hard Core Logo is one of the best fictitious rock 'n' roll movies ever made.
Like Spinal Tap, McDonald's film isn't afraid to make fun of these conventions and like Almost Famous, there is an authenticity to how the band is portrayed and the music they make.
I do feel that it has been incorrectly marketed as a punk Spinal Tap, which may disappoint first time viewers expecting something different.
'Hard Core Logo', while it has plenty of laughs, has much more ambition, and is ultimately a much more serious movie.
The unexpected ending, which I won't spoil, takes it to a much different level.So leave your preconceptions at the door, sit back and experience this superbly acted rock'n'roll morality tale(?) One of the best music related movies in YEARS!.
The quality of this film is so high on every level...What more can I say...See Hard Core Logo again and again and again..
I was in Vancouver in the early 80s at the time that Hard Core Logo would have been breaking out it they had been a real band -- spent lots of time at the Smilin' Buddha watching Pointed Sticks and DOA and whoever-the-hell was on stage.Re this movie, watch it and enjoy it, but DO NOT MISS the book "Hard Core Logo" if you can help it.
It lives up to the spirit of the movie and the 80s Vancouver punk scene, but it is also touching and very funny.
Okay I've never really been into the punk scene, but I loved this movie.
A small-budget but still very impressive film like Hard Core Logo makes one wonder what could be coming out of Canada if Canadians would actually support their own film industry, instead of running out to spend their hard-earned cash on mass-market pulp like "Armageddon.".
Director Bruce McDonald has crafted, well  crafted is too decent of a word, he has actually jumbled together a mess of a film that attempts to give us that raw, cutting edge, emotion that demonstrates that corporations don't own the music we listen to.
We have seen the punk band film recreated in Hollywood over and over, and this takes no new punches.
While McDonald may be attempting to make the point that punk rockers hate the publicity and media hype, it seems as if the members of "Hard Core Logo" want nothing more than to be ever-present on the camera.
When I watch a film I expect to see an actor bring something new to the table with their character, or better yet, at least bring their character to the table, but in Hard Core Logo, nobody did.
I kept seeing actors playing the part of the punk rock band members.
Thanks to the poor direction of Bruce McDonald (and the complete lack of meaty characters), nothing felt honest, real, or even emotional about these guys.Finally, another issue with this film is that it feels dated.
There are better films out there that depict the punk rock era than Hard Core Logo.
The director was poor, the production was generic, and the full disrespect to the genre of punk rock was hitting me so hard in the face I nearly wanted to get angry at this film.
(The best is Going Down the Road.) Here is why Hard Core Logo ranks so high: 1.
enjoyable punk rock fake documentary, but *not* like Spinal Tap. I don't know if this movie is meant to be a mockumentary in the sense of satirizing punk bands or punk music documentaries.
I've also seen this director's Highway 61, which was a lot of fun.I wouldn't say it's like Spinal Tap, which while I enjoyed it, was more silly than funny.
I liked Fear of a Black Hat more than Spinal Tap, perhaps because I was more familiar with the music it was poking fun at.
Spinal Tap and Fear of a Black Hat have more in common than with Hard Core Logo.
HCL has some funny moments, but no more so than one would expect from a documentary of a real band.
The songs are not goofy either: there's no "Big Bottom" (Spinal Tap) or "Booty Juice" (Fear of a Black Hat) here.I'm not sure what some have identified as "Canadian" about this film, apart from the locations.
This Is Definitely Not Spinal Tap. I've seen most of director Bruce McDonald's films.
He's pretty well-known in Canada, and almost all of his films are "road movies" in one sense or another.
In this film, he follows Hard Core Logo, a Vancouver punk band reunited for one last tour across western Canada.
Though there are lots of laughs, This Is Definitely Not Spinal Tap. Even though his characters look like typical rocker louts, there is so much going on under the surface that it breaks your heart.
A funny but heartfelt exploration of perpetual adolescence, male bonding, ambition and desperation, Hard Core Logo is even more enjoyable for anyone who's ever been (or wanted to be) in a band.
So, in a way, they were a real band.All I see in this movie is that 12 YEARS LATER, someone decided to try to jump on what was hardly a bandwagon; the success of "This Is Spinal Tap" hardly created a new genre.This is what I expected when I first rented the film, as I love Punk music, among many other genres.
Didn't know what to expect from this film, but it was recommended by a friend who I spent lots of time with in the Melbourne punk scene, so I thought it would be worth a shot.
However, this film really manages to capture the punk rock scene to a T!
The relationship between the two main characters, (singer and lead-guitarist - a relationship that is often tense in most bands) gives this film something more than if it had just relied on the 'road-movie' genre to keep it moving.
If you listen to punk rock, especially if you listen to early 80's punk rock and are perhaps a fan of the Canadian punk band D.O.A you'll probably enjoy this movie a heck of a lot.
If you are not into that punk rock scene, you will still enjoy the drama, the pathos and the fun, it is a well made movie with believable characters and a logical plot.I won't put a spoiler in this review but it is a fine plot that is taken from the real life of small bands who face the struggle of remaining true to their indy roots and the inevitable changes that life forces all of us to deal with.We cannot stay the same, friendships change and sometimes it is for the better but most of the time it doesn't feel that way, we yearn for simpler times.....
Much better than Spinal Tap. Hard Core Logo is a mockumentary about an aging rock band struggling through a tour.
Having said that, it is nothing at all like This Is Spinal Tap. It is a million times better.
Or maybe that's just great acting.The four main characters, members of the has-been rock band Hard Core Logo, are each fantastic to watch, and could not be more different from each other.
While the mentally unbalanced John Oxenburger and the flat-out stupid Pipefitter are both well-played, they stay in the background, giving excellent support to the unfolding dynamic between the two main characters.While Hard Core Logo is shot in documentary style, McDonald frequently strays from this for dramatic effect, for example, the acid trip scene.
Such a stylistic choice would be hard to fit into a conventional film, but can be excused in the context of a documentary.Although this film, and all other rock-and-roll mockumentaries, will always beg comparison to the high standard, This is Spinal Tap, there really is no comparing them.
Where Spinal Tap is slapstick and goofy, Hard Core Logo is smartly funny and primarily dramatic.
Where Spinal Tap is over-the-top, Hard Core is small and real.
Most importantly, where Spinal Tap is boring and unfunny, Hard Core is a fantastically well-written and acted look at strained friendships and dreams that will never come true..
Hard Core Logo is one of the better Canadian independent films made.
I liked Hard Core Logo and I do not like indie style films which says a lot.
Hugh Dillon, who is the lead singer of the headstones, added many real life experiences in the movie.
When Hard Core Logo plays, there is an real life performance.
While I was watching my ultra rare, bootlegged, wide-screen edition of "Hard Core Logo", ( that I actually came into possession of just one week after the film's theatrical release in October of 1996) a couple of punk songs kept running through my mind.
That the film is about an aging Canadian punk band trying to make a comeback, makes my mention of the songs all the more appropriate.
The film is a bleakly cynical look at the state of Canadian music.
When at the end of the movie, band frontman Joe Dick (played by real life Canadian punk rocker Hugh Dillon, of  "The Headstones") cleans his head out with a bullet, it is not only symbolic of the death of the golden age of early eighties Canadian punk, but also Canadian music's selling out to The States.
The film's director, Bruce MacDonald's next film was also about a rock band, but it was the superficially stylish TV movie "Platinum".
"Hard Core Logo" is not only too Canadian for most Americans to take, it is also too good, too honest, to strong and too smart for most of them to understand..
What can you say about a movie like Hard Core Logo?
I've seen almost everything he has been in and Hard Core Logo really breaks the bank.