The Commitments (DVD)

'''My Reasons For Purchasing The Commitments Film:'''
This has to be one of the best Comedy-Dramas of 1991 in my opinion. The Commitments is a really great film and it is based on the novel written by Roddy Doyle. It was released on August the 14th 1991 in Ireland and in the UK. The Commitments runs for 118 minutes. It was directed by Alan Parker who also directed "Fame" and Pink Floyds "The Wall" This film was also produced ...
...very successful in the box office and introduced a new generation of rhythm and blues singers at that time. It is full of humour, great music and has plenty of unexpected little pleasures along the way.

===Space lol===
The Commitments film is an infectious story about a group of unemployed young people from the north of Dublin in Ireland who start up a rhythm-and-blues band. It really has a very good storyline to it, with lots ... more

My Reasons For Purchasing The Commitments Film:
This has to be one of the best Comedy-Dramas of 1991 in my opinion. The Commitments is a really great film and it is based on the novel written by Roddy Doyle. It was released on August the 14th 1991 in Ireland and in the UK. The Commitments runs for 118 minutes. It was directed by Alan Parker who also directed "Fame" and Pink Floyds "The Wall" This film was also produced by Lynda Myles and Roger Randall-Cutler. The Commitments film was very successful in the box office and introduced a new generation of rhythm and blues singers at that time. It is full of humour, great music and has plenty of unexpected little pleasures along the way.

Space lol

The Commitments film is an infectious story about a group of unemployed young people from the north of Dublin in Ireland who start up a rhythm-and-blues band. It really has a very good storyline to it, with lots of great acting, funny scenes and has plenty of great songs performed throughout it also. I first watched this film as a teenager and I really was amazed by how similar some of the characters where to myself at that time. I went straight out when this film was released and bought it on video cassette, as I thought it was excellent. I also bought the soundtrack to "The Commitments" also a few years later (as it makes this movie in my opinion) and if you enjoy this film, I would suggest buying the soundtrack also, as it contains all the music from the film and is very well produced and performed in my opinion.

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Well I just recently bought and upgraded "The Commitments" film to DVD, to add to my "favourites collection" so thought I would review it to let others know that watching it is still certainly very worthwhile ever after 18yrs from when it was released. It is full of swear words from the characters though, but you cannot help but laugh at them all because of the way they are used in this film. The newer DVD made in 2005 (I believe) has a new bonus DVD included, full of extras and is a great added bonus to watch in my opinion on the Special Edition of this film that I own also.
The Cast:

• Robert Arkins as Jimmy Rabbitte the bands Manager.
• Andrew Strong as Declan Deco the Lead Singer.
• Bronagh Gallagher as Bernie McGloughlin, a Backup Singer.
• Angeline Ball as Imelda Quirke, a Backup Singer.
• Maria Doyle Kennedy as Natalie Murphy, a Backup Singer.
• Glen Hansard as Outspan Foster, who plays the Guitar.
• Johnny Murphy as Joey The Lips Fagan, who plays the Trumpet.
• Félim Gormley as Dean Fay, who plays the Saxaphone.
• Michael Aherne as Steven Clifford, plays the Piano.
• Dave Finnegan as Mickah Wallace, on the Drums.
• Dick Massey as Billy Mooney, on the Drums.
• Colm Meaney as Elvis Jimmy Rabbitte Dad.
• Andrea Corr as Sharon, Jimmy's young sister.

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Plot Of The Film:
The Commitments film is set in a 90's working-class area of Dublin. The film begins with the main character named Jimmy Rabbite (Robert Arkins) who is constantly trying to better himself in life by avoiding his parents many bad habits and the dole-powered life that encloses him. Jimmy is from a small town called Barrytown, a slum area of Dublin. Well Jimmy really loves his soul music a lot, but has a job trying to get his friends to believe that soul music is actually really good for your soul and a great style of music to listen to. His friends and family do eventually warm to it though.

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Well the story continues on a little with Jimmy having a sudden brain wave one day. He tells his friends and family that he is going to try to set up and manage a band with some of his friends from School. Jimmy places an advertisement in his local Shop window asking "Have You Got Soul?" and when he gets replies to his advertisement, he auditions everyone that turns up for them, in his back garden. This scene is excellent as many untalented and hilarious characters turn up.

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Jimmy eventually builds up a group of musicians and hopes to succeed with them and hit the top. He picks up Dean who will play the saxophone and lead singer Deco who he actually picks up by chance. He also chooses three attractive young ladies (Maria Doyle, Angeline Ball and Bronagh Gallagher) as the backing singers for his band. He also picks up a drummer Billy and Joey "The Lips" Fagan who claims he played for the great artists of his day, but no one really believes him. Well Jimmy has now put his band together and this is where the fun begins.

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Jimmy decides on the name "The Commitments" for the band and they get to use a local pool room to rehearse in. There they practice all the great cover songs they have chosen like "Mustang Sally" and "The Midnight Hour" They really are quite bad at first, but they practice at their songs continuously and they really do get much better. The group do not get along very well though and they are always fighting and complaining to each other, which does not help them at all at times, as they are just starting out. ~
My Thoughts:
The Commitments really continues on as a succession of favourite numbers and with a hilarious storyline. There is also plenty of new characters collected up along the way and they are also very interesting to watch. This film really grabbed my full attention from the word go as the one liners by most of the characters are fantastic. It is full of unexpected little swear words though, but the way they are used and put across is brilliant. I found it was the smaller moments from this film that really did make it and also the fantastic songs performed by the band and sang incredibly by Andrew Strong who played the lead singer that really won me over.

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The Commitments is a very energetic film really, that does a great job 'in my opinion' of covering poverty in Dublin at that particular time and those with a lower-class life, especially with Jimmy Rabbites family. It shows a run down town with not much money about or jobs really and one group of young peoples determination to try and better themselves. They all have high hopes and dreams. It is like watching a real life documentary unfold because of the way this film is directed.

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This Commitment film can be really very funny at times. One great scene I personally enjoyed was when the band got a Gig to perform, but the only transport they had to get to it, was in the back of a Fish and Chip van, which is certainly not cool at all, but this scene and the words used in it are hilarious. The constant arguing of the band is great to watch also with plenty of good one liners hurled back and fourth. The Trumpeter "Murphy" manages to seduce all of the females in the band also and his character is great to watch.

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Whenever I first heard that this film had been made and what the storyline was all about, I thought to myself that it would be just another typical story of the rise or fall of a music band, but after watching it I can honestly say that it is somehow very different. It really is an honest and very lifelike film and nothing like the big Hollywood movies that we see today really. This to me makes it more enjoyable knowing that this could actually all be a very true story.

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Well I personally loved the storyline to The Commitments, the witty swear words (although this will not suit everyone) and mostly the continuous procession of fantastically performed and well sang music that this film has throughout it. It was a pleasure to watch this and it is certainly a film I will never, ever forget in a hurry.

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The Characters:
Well some of the acting by a few of the cast members is not that great to be honest in The Commitments and one bad example of this acting is from the lead singer Andrew Strong. He does make up for his performance by his singing vocals in this film though and pulls it off really with his bad temper and very likable character also. A few other members of the cast are real musicians and do a little bit of poor acting also, but honestly, I think it all pulls together well to make a great film overall.

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The Characters to me, really are all very different and there is plenty of them in this film to fall in love with or really take to personally. For me it was the Lead singer Andrew Strong I liked best and his lack of acting skills was quite funny at times, but he shone with the incredible singing talent he has. Jimmy Rabbite is very likable also. He takes on the character of his own self made manager and laps it all up. His wit, his style and the way he sees things differently from the other characters at times, really makes him quite unique. Colm Meaney an Elvis fanatic and Jimmys Dad, is absolutely hysterical in The Commitments film also.

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Setting, Costumes And Special effects:
There really is no special effects in this film. There is great scenes and photographs though from Dublin and realistic shots of run-down Areas, boarded up and demolished buildings and upswept streets. It portrays life really, in the City of Dublin at that time. Costumes are from the early 1990's and are fun to look back at and see the style of that time, whenever I watch this film now. The characters are made to look cheaply dressed to suit the film though and the character Deco looks likes he needs a good wash to me at times. The backing singers started off looking cheap in this film, but by the end of it they look quiet amazing and more sophisticated in little black numbers. The guys go from scruffy looking lads in dirty clothes, to looking like well presented young gentlemen in their smart suits and tuxedos. It is great to see their transformed images also.

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Shots of the band actually performing on stage made me cringe at the start of The Commitments film as they are so bad at performing together at first, but as they practice and get better, so does their overall performance. The sound of the band really is incredible to listen to and is a real pleasure to watch them perform eventually. The approach the director took with this film also shows it more like a real documentary and I think it worked very well indeed!

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The Most Funniest lines And Quotes I Liked:
(1) The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. North Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin." from Jimmy Rabbite.

(2) The band opens the window of The chippie van they travel in to be asked by Rock Salmon Man: "Excuse me, would you have any Rock Salmon? "Dean Fay: "No, I'm sorry - we only have "Soul"!"

(3) Jimmy Rabbitte: Soul is the music people understand. Sure it's basic and it's simple. But it's something else cause, cause, cause It's honest, that's it. It's honest. There's no f**kin b*llshit. It sticks it's neck out and says it straight from the heart. Sure there's a lot of different music you can get off on, but soul is more than that. It takes you somewhere else. It grabs you by The balls and lifts you above the sh**e.

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Awards Received By "The Commitments" Film:

• 1992 it won a BAFTA award for Best Film.
• 1992 it also won a Brit award for the best soundtrack.
• 1992 it won a Peter Sellers Award for Comedy.
• 1992 it also won ALFS Award for Producer of the year.
• 1991 it won an award at the Tokyo film festival for best Director.
• 1992 it was also nominated for four other awards.
  

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Film Extras Are Only Available On The Special Edition:
The Commitments DVD in the special edition contains two discs also that I have of this movie and thought I would show the difference between the two. This is one time I am really going to recommend watching DVD extras of a film as it really is very good. You do need to buy the Special Edition to receive this though and it is slightly more expensive than the older version. There is over 22 minutes of great information from the director Alan Parker who talks about the film in more depth. There is also a great documentary about Dublin itself and about the people, the culture and the area which is very good and interesting to watch to see some of the characters that live there.

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There is also a short trailer about all the Radio appearances, TV appearances and talk shows that The Commitments have appeared on over the years. This is the newer DVD and it is good to see this all added. Also included is the making of The Commitments which is a great behind the scenes look. There is some funny bits and pieces, but nothing more to add really that is not already in the film. I found the trailer looking back at The Commitments, which was recorded in 2005 a great bonus to have on the Special Edition DVD and a good added touch. It tells you about all the cast and what they are doing now or where doing in 2005 actually.

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Overall this is a great DVD extra that I am pleased was made on a newer version of the DVD. There is just one CD that comes in the older version of The Commitments film so it is certainly a DVD to buy to upgrade to if you are a big fan of this film also in my opinion. Great added extras I really enjoyed watching also! If your not into extras then just buy this older version. I have both copies and would recommend buying the Special Edition though, second hand from Amazon as it is much better.

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My Overall Opinion:
Overall it is very hard to believe that "The Commitments" is not a true story because of the way this film comes across, like a real documentary, telling you what happened to the stars in their lives really does make you believe that this story actually happened. The musicians are not real actors in this film, but the real actors really make up for it. There really is some very "laugh out loud" scenes and the music in this film will have you on your feet dancing and will have you singing along to it also. I can watch this film and never grow tired of it at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. It is a real feel good type of film indeed.

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I really do love this film a lot and it was the best Movie of that year in my opinion. I would say it is high on my list of the best ever films I have actually watched. It did hit the box office big time, which really surprised a lot of people, but not me, as I loved it and thought it fantastic. I really enjoyed every aspect of it, from the witty storyline to the excellent songs that where sang in it and I would highly recommend this movie to everyone just to even listen to them all. Anyone who likes soul music, rhythm and blues and rock and pop will love the songs performed by the band. Those who like a little bit of comedy will love this film also.

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The Commitments really is pure pleasure to watch on every level in my opinion and to me the Star of this film is the actual music. The acting is a little bit off at times, but honestly the witty one liners really do make up for it a lot. It really is outrageously funny at times. Well I think anyone who really loves music, must see this fantastic film, even if you are not familiar with soul music in anyway. I honestly think you will be hooked after seeing The Commitments! I really do.

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Well to me The Commitments is a very cheery and uplifting film and certainly is one of the best music type of comedy dramas of that time. I really will have to award it a full five stars as I loved every one of the 118 minutes that made up this fantastic film. It really is a fun, laugh out loud and a very memorable film to me. I really do highly recommend it to others and if you have never seen or heard of it before please give it a watch or check out some clips on you tube first.

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The Commitments Movie is rated 15. This certainly is appropriate as it has many swear words throughout it and is certainly not for young ears or those who would be offended by the overuse of them.

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The Commitments film can be purchased online for just under £5 at the moment from Amazon. To me this is a really good bargain for such a great film in my opinion. You can also buy the special addition that I also own in a used copy, on Amazon for just a few pound also and is certainly the better one to buy if you are thinking of doing so. You can of course buy it new, but it is very expensive.

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Summary: It sticks it's neck out and says it straight from the heart!

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©hildas/hillhead

 

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