Divine - Shoot Your Shot / Live At The Hacienda DVD

Advantages: Funny, Good Story, Good Music
Disadvantages: Doesn't show the success of Madchester in the UK

...direct addresses to the audience. This is all intercut with Wilson's dayjob as a local TV reporter complete with pointless news items such as a dwarf who cleans elephants. Winterbottom shoots the film in Digital Video and it works, there wasn't a time when I actually noticed I was watching something not shot on film. That's because the story holds your attention all the way through and juggles characters equally. My only negative point would be that the film doesn't really sell how big the music scene had become across the country and in the press etc. The Factory decline is spectacular but perhaps more so if you saw the amount of money that could have been made if things were actually run in a proper way. This is a film I'd definitely reccomend watching or even buying on DVD as there's some great bonus stuff and this is one of those films... Read review

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Advantages: One of the best British films to be made so far
Disadvantages: Jumpy, Jerky opening and closing credits....headache city (which I guess was the point after all)

...), with not a single iota of dynamism lost. Concerning Coogan's casting as Wilson, Hooky (New Order) said it best, (only half-jokingly) "...The second biggest w**ker in Manchester playing the first". I was actually expecting to see a rehashed Alan Partridge, but was pleasantly surprised, and after a certain point, I even forgot it was Coogan I was watching, so believably did he make the character his own. Was Wilson *really* that arrogant? The sets on this movie are fantastic, the set of the Hacienda interior being the best, having being built as the real Hac had been demolished before shooting started, You can believe it to be the actual club itself. All in all, with the exception of the necessary dark moments (Curtis' death being the most poignant) 24HPP is a most enjoyable and irreverent romp through and over the annals of Manchester's phenomenal... Read review

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Advantages: A concise snapshot of the enigmatic mancunian pioneers
Disadvantages: Was made during a low point in their career

...Gretton, the heart and soul of the band, Factory, and The Hacienda. The music & promo clips, edited down in the broadcast version are mostly extended to full length. This has the effect of breaking up the documentary and rather ruining the continuity and pace. It would have been better to leave the full clips as DVD extras. Oh, and of course, the clips you want to see in full (Early live TV appearances on Granada TV etc) are cut short. The amazing clip of Joy Division playing Transmission on BBC2 Something Else is given a cheesy monochrome tint (it would have looked much more effective in its stark, Colour Videotape version), and is cut short by an annoying intrusion by Bono of all people, just as Ian Curtis is about to let rip...how ironic. The film trades on the myths surrounding the band, and masks and obscures as much as it reveals... Read review

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