Please don't spend money on this.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I hope the movie makers read these reviews as lessons to be learned. I guarantee the reason the movie did so poorly was the title. If you have no clue what it means--like me, then you lose a majority of your audience right there. Try a re-release with a new title, with more advertising. Maybe then more people will show up. It's a shame too, when a film flops it should be on merit, not a poorly chosen title. I need more lines to satisfy IMDb's requirements, so I'll just keep typing, but you can stop reading now. Two more lines??? Okay, still typing, stop reading! STill typing--are you still reading? Have you considered that you might be a little OCD? Maybe?

Hilly Kristal (Alan Rickman) starts the legendary NYC club CBGB as a place for Country, BlueGrass and Blues. He's divorced with two kids and with two bankruptcies under his belt. The place is a hole and the neighborhood is a dump. The manager of Television Terry Ork (Johnny Galecki) approach him to play on their stage. Hilly's only demand is that they play original music. He doesn't like the music but there is something there. He only has his friend Merv Ferguson (Donal Logue) and junkie Idaho (Freddy Rodríguez) who Hilly is trying to help. His daughter Lisa (Ashley Greene) quits school, and hates his latest endeavor. When Television gets a writeup, she comes back to help him.This is a mess of a style. There is the insistence of the comic strip visuals which only serves to distract. There isn't much of a story. Maybe that's why this movie needs the distraction. It's mainly a series of famous names. There is a side story of a bunch of kids starting a magazine. Again this is just another distraction that contributes nothing to the narrative. At least, this has some good music. Other than that, there is a story later in the movie as Hilly tries to manage a punk band The Dead Boys. By then, it's a little too little and too late. Also by concentrating on them, the movie loses its ace card, the great music. There is an obvious 'It's a Wonderful Life' story here. Instead Hilly Kristal is portrayed as a disinterested slob. The praise from The Talking Heads at the end of the movie is so much more compelling. That Hilly Kristal sounds like somebody that this movie should be about.

When I finished this movie my first reaction was - WoW - what an experience CBGB would have been. Of course I realize the movie is not a historical chronicle of life and time of Hilly and his CBGB. The movies first intent is to entertain the viewer - and it does entertain very well.I think the director and writers wanted to show the beginnings of the Punk Rock phenomenon paralleled by the beginnings of CBGB which would grow in fame just as the punk movement grew internationally. So the focus of this film is the beginning of three things - CBGB, punk rockers, and Hilly's personal beginning finding his way through his vision.Alan Rickman gives a top notch performance as Hilly and the supporting cast do just as well, which makes this a diamond of a movie. The music may be too 'studio perfect' but how many people that will see this movie actually heard these bands live in their early days. Most all of us know these bands by their records.Give this a look - it's quite a story with a really lovable dog too!!

'CBGB': Four Stars (Out of Five)A biographical comedy film about the New York club CBGB and it's founder Hilly Kristal. It was directed by Randall Miller and written by Miller and Jody Savin (who worked on multiple screenplays with Miller). The film stars Alan Rickman as Hilly Kristal and co-stars the likes of Ashley Greene (of 'TWILIGHT' fame), Donal Logue, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Zuckerman, Ahna O'Reilly and Richard de Klerk. It also features a number of other actors as famous rock stars; like Malin Akerman as Debbie Harry, Joel David Moore as Joey Ramone, Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop, Mickey Sumner as Patti Smith, Kyle Gallner as Lou Reed, Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators and Rupert Grint (of 'HARRY POTTER' fame) as Cheetah Chrome. I found the movie to be highly entertaining and informative.Rickman plays New York club owner Hilly Kristal, who opened CBGB in Manhattan in 1973. He originally planned to have country, bluesgrass and blues bands play there (which is what the name stands for) but instead turned it into an underground Rock 'n' Roll venue. It played only new and original music, from mostly punk and New Wave bands (like the Ramones, Misfits, The Dead Boys, Blondie, Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group, The Police and Joan Jett & The Bleackhearts to name a few). It's largely seen as the birthplace of American punk rock music. The film focuses on Kristal's struggles to keep the club open as he deals with many financial issues. He later became known as the 'godfather of punk'. The first genre of music I really got into (as a young adult) was punk and alternative music (mostly pop punk and ska punk bands at first but later more traditional punk rock music as well). One of my all-time favorite bands is the Ramones and I've always been fascinated by CBGB and the early 70s punk rock scene; so this movie was really interesting to me (I also found it to be highly entertaining). I was expecting a more serious biography film and was quite surprised to see a cartoonish style comedy flick (that takes a lot of creative liberties). Some punk rock fans might be upset by this but I liked it. I thought Rickman was great and Bartha, Grint and Moore are all scene-stealers as well (all of the performances are good in fact). I think it will go down in film history as a cult classic among film and music fans! If you're into the same style of music you're almost sure to be entertained.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJalgBjCCrg