It's a movie. Opens April 10th. Like Spinal Tap, except Anvil is a REAL band. This is the true story of two 50-year-old guys who have been fronting an obscure heavy metal band since they were 15. Go see it.

[www.anvilmovie.com]

I believe I read about them in Classic Rock sometime towards the latter half of last year. Two dudes who just didn't know when to quit. The fell hard.

Went to see this film in London when it came out about 6 weeks ago. Being a rocker myself, I've got a few of their albums on vinyl and seen them in concert - last time was a sweden Rock Festival which was featured on the documentary.

Great movie, very much like Spinal Tap. I found it inspiring and moving. Was great to eatch, and many long haired rockers will be touched in the same way I feel. It speaks a lot about the music and not letting go to whatever it is you value highly.

Talking of the Tap, they've announced a date at Wembley Arena - SWEEEEET.

it's been out for a while, now.
It's very good - highly recommended.

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tatters
It's a movie. Opens April 10th. Like Spinal Tap, except Anvil is a REAL band. This is the true story of two 50-year-old guys who have been fronting an obscure heavy metal band since they were 15. Go see it.

[www.anvilmovie.com]

I don't think so, Scooter.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-04-08 16:38 by tatters.

makes me wanna jump in my camper van with my guitar and do a pub tour!!!!

Only your dreams can limit you!! go watch it and feel good

Anvil were the first band I EVER saw - supporting Motorhead at the old Glasgow Apollo (June '83). Lips played his guitar with a vibrator. My brother turned to me and said "I think he's holding a plastic willie!" Hey we were young (I was 12 years old). Happy days. I couldnt believe they never split up when I heard about the movie recently. Must pick it up on DVD

Letitloose: what a great story man. love the 'plastic willy' line.

I gotta tell you, I got a feeling your going to like this film. Definitely check it out.

Keep on rockin

My brother and I went to see "The Anvil Experience" last night. What a complete blast. First of all, the movie is absolutely brilliant. Just check it out, wherever you can. You won't be disappointed.

After the movie, the band played a 5 or 6 song set, including drum solo and encore! They rocked and we loved it. The boys hung around afterward and sold shirts and CDs, took photos, and signed autographs. They deserve incredible amounts of credit for sticking with their principles and fighting the good fight. Not always a pretty story, but a very compelling one.

I must say, I felt a strong sense of compassion for these guys. I hope this brings them some happiness and even better, some money!

I think this is going to be shown tonight on VH1. Just a "heads up" for anyone who might be interested.

Saw it on a plane a few weeks ago. Fantastic film, one of the best rock documentaries I've seen. Wish Scorcese had decided to make something like this instead of "Shine a Light".

Drew

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drewmaster
Saw it on a plane a few weeks ago. Fantastic film, one of the best rock documentaries I've seen. Wish Scorcese had decided to make something like this instead of "Shine a Light".

Drew

Come on.....

Just saw a commercial for it on VH1. It's on tonight, 10 PM EST, 9 PM CST. Out on DVD Tuesday.

everybody who has seen it loves. definitely have to see it too.

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More Hot Rocks

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drewmaster
Saw it on a plane a few weeks ago. Fantastic film, one of the best rock documentaries I've seen. Wish Scorcese had decided to make something like this instead of "Shine a Light".

Drew

Come on.....

Not sure what you mean by that. With "Anvil" I got a fascinating look at the personalities and day-to-day lives of the band members (even though I don't care for their music). "Anvil" gave me an intimate view of the challenges the band faces and how they deal with them, and I ended up feeling like I really knew them as people. With "Shine A Light" the only intimacy was with Jagger's dental work.

Drew

We finally saw this tonight - couldn't wait

but for us - disappointed

seems odd to me I have zero recollection of a band with TWELVE albums in the 80s-90s but okay, there were lots of crappy, forgettable bands then. The Spinal Tap references in this, from "11" to "Robb Reiner" to Stonehenge to Japan to on and on got tiresome for me, I thought most of it felt weirdly staged, contrived and oddly convenient--also, things like the guy being a "painter" felt false as did much of the female "casting" -- if they were in fact cast.

And I'd love to know--did you think it was


a- totally real

b- totally fake

c - somewhere in the middle (they dredged up a rotten band and built a story around them - ie Slash and Lars gushing about how great they were, a la The Rutles - come on) (Rutles - best mock-doc EVER)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 10:09 by hbwriter.

Of course its real, the evidence of their "real" existance is easy to find, do you think that for example they manafactured real vynyl albums and distressed them, then placed them in random second hand shops, I've seen them.

The staging of the archive scenes alone would stretch most Hollywood budgets, it would have been easier to stage the moon landing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 14:43 by Nanker Phlegm.

i have yet to see the movie, so i can't vouch for how many scenes were some what staged. that being said...

anvil are certainly a real band. about 7 years ago, i was really sick over the christmas holidays. i had much more music on (kind of an adult mtv in canada) and at 4am I saw a video for metal on metal by anvil.

i wasn't sure if it was the flu medication or not, but i was blown away in the weirdest way. here is a band with a cheesy sound, grade 2 lyrics and a million screaming japanese fans. i found it entertaining but at the sametime really good.

later that day i googled them, and found out not only that they were canadian, but still playing shows. i felt kind of bad for them because most of their shows were at small bars in and around the suburbs or toronto. i wondered to myself how could a band have been so big in japan and now playing 100 person bars in whitby?

i downloaded a bunch of their music, but then never really thought about them again.

7 years later i see this flurry of activity about them and feel glad for these guys. i remembered on their website a few years back the contact page had each member of the band's home e-mail addresses, saying if you want us to play, we'll play anywhere. it made me really want to root for the band.

anywho i know the dvd is coming out real soon and i plan on buying a copy.

Haven't seen it yet. It's on my Netflix cue for when it's released on dvd (soon if not already)... but I know the "contrived" feeling of a lot of these movies. Without a doubt, there is some movie direction in some of these "documentaries" that probably emphasizes and exaggerates certain ideas and occurrences. It can take away from the experience. From what I've read and heard, it is indeed a real metal band... the sort I hated with a raging passion back in the day, but I have to say it looks like a really fun movie, embellishments or no.

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hbwriter
The Spinal Tap references in this, from "11" to "Robb Reiner" to Stonehenge to Japan to on and on got tiresome for me.

The guy's name really IS Robb Reiner. I understand what you're saying, but the whole point of the movie is that if there IS a real-life band that IS Spinal Tap, then Anvil ARE that band. No doubt this is something that has been pointed out to them over the years, and, maybe, some friend of theirs suggested to them that their last, best, chance of EVER making it big, would be to have someone make a documentary about them, a sort of "This Really IS Spinal Tap". There's even a scene in the movie where Lips and Robb are talking about how their history is "worth money". In other words, selling their story was the one card they had left to play. And to some extent, it seems to have worked. They recently got to open some shows for AC/DC.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 15:58 by tatters.

--I know the band exists--option A was a bit tongue in cheek - but what about all of the mega-artists talking about them--that wasn't a spoof? The scenes where the club owner won't pay them--that was real? Sorry--I get that they're a bit-player band--but so much of the movie felt staged to me that it felt like a con job versus a real life look at a bunch of guys still trying to make it happen (I vote for option c)

"what? they won't PAY us??"

the obligatory "fight" scenes between band members

the soul-searching walks along the beach as 7 week recording session fall apart

I think the director juiced this thing and used the band as shills for his idea



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 16:43 by hbwriter.

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Tate
I know the "contrived" feeling of a lot of these movies. Without a doubt, there is some movie direction in some of these "documentaries" that probably emphasizes and exaggerates certain ideas and occurrences.

The scene where Lips gets a little physical with a club owner who refuses to pay him, and the scene in which Lips and Robb accuse each other of being willing to settle for mediocre takes when recording their thirteenth album (as if they had the ability to do anything OTHER than mediocre takes), and then appear to briefly break up and then get back together, certainly appear to have been staged. Scenes like that help to tell the story. They don't take away from the telling of the story.

Funniest moment: They arrive at a club, find out they're not gonna get paid, and Lips says "Look, we're here anyway. We may as well go out there and play. Besides, the place is packed!" Cut to a scene that shows Anvil performing in what looks like someone's basement, for an audience of about six people, one of whom is sitting in a chair that looks like the chair you might have in your living room. He's got it parked right in front of the stage. He's playing air drums, and he is rocking out.

--yeah, that *one second clip* was funny

but the "Monster of Transylvania" festival or whatever it was called - you know, the one where the "HUGE hall has only a 74 people in it" bit - I think the whole was concocted to help "tell a story" that doesn't exist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 17:18 by hbwriter.

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hbwriter
--I know the band exists--option A was a bit tongue in cheek - but what about all of the mega-artists talking about them--that wasn't a spoof? The scenes where the club owner won't pay them--that was real? Sorry--I get that they're a bit-player band--but so much of the movie felt staged to me that it felt like a con job versus a real life look at a bunch of guys still trying to make it happen (I vote for option c)

"what? they won't PAY us??"

the obligatory "fight" scenes between band members

the soul-searching walks along the beach as 7 week recording session fall apart

I think the director juiced this thing and used the band as shills for his idea

Yeah, I get all that. Also the scenes where Lips is trying to reminisce with bigger stars like Carmine Appice and some guy from the Scorpions, and they appear to not remember him or know who he is are straight out of Spinal Tap. But so what? It's still a good telling of an enjoyable story. Also, I don't think a bunch of movie people went out and "dreged up" a rotten band to build a story around. I think the movie was an Anvil project right from the git go, and was directed by a friend of the band's.

I think the movie was an Anvil project right from the git go, and was directed by a friend of the band's.
---

I dunno--the director roadied in the early 80s--then became a hollywood hotshot, Speilberg credits, etc. - the movie is very polished- not exactly an honest, gritty doc - I guess that's what I expected - a real story about real guys in real experiences - I thought every scene - from the "Email from the promoter who books a european tour!" to "Walking at stonehenge!" felt so over the top it wasn't even funny

About as real as most "reality" shows.

Elmo-- if that - I love quality docs and this one sounded good - hailed by so many - didn't it bother anyone that so much was/is staged? I see none of that reflected in reviews.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 17:18 by hbwriter.

There was a great review in the New Yorker magazine. I think I may have left it at the laundromat one day, but it said something about how what this movie is REALLY about is TIME. "Time runs out!", Lips says. "So we've got to do this NOW while we still can!" Robb talks about how short life is, how all of a sudden it's over, and it didn't seem like it lasted that long. It's a movie about how time runs out and casts you aside. And it's about trying to hang on as best you can for as long as you can.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-10-04 17:43 by tatters.

I was very stoked to see it, and was somehow let down. Saw the whole movie, nd yes the guys are pretty likeable, but...I just did not think the film captured much of anything. What was the message here? Stick to your dreams and it still won;t happen? Often in pathetic-ness one can find a sort of greatness and life; yes Lips has a lot of that. I loved how he always stayed positive, still...
I think to make a point, even a subtle one, done in an intelligent way for thinking audience, you still have to resort ot archetypes and radical examples. I did not get it. The producer e.g. - he did not give them sh*t. The condemnation of the music biz was hollow. Anvil hasn't been done "wrog". They are not very good. Their dedication is touching, and honest, but there are thousands of bands like that. I don't know..