Hard Core Logo

source: Hard Core Logo

I have enjoyed Bruce McDonald's previous road movies 'Roadkill' and 'Highway 61', both of which I recommend. 'Hard Core Logo' is another winner. I do feel that it has been incorrectly marketed as a punk Spinal Tap, which may disappoint first time viewers expecting something different. The movie shares a similar vague concept of a "rockumentary", but that's about it. 'This Is Spinal Tap' as much as I love it, was a bunch of comic scenes strung together and not much else. '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!

Could someone explain to me what's funny/remotely interesting about this film? I don't get it. Maybe it's a Canadian thing.

Well... I really like this movie! I'm not going to go into the whole "Yay Canada" bit... because, well... we know we make good movies, no need to constantly pat ourselves on the back. Hey, just look at "American Beer"... love that too! Anyway, on to business... this was a great movie... Hugh Dillon is a great actor, as well as an accomplished musician (Headstones rock!!!), and does a great job. He really knows the role... being the lead singer for a band himself... he brought something unique to the role... something a conventional "actor" couldn't have, which I liked. I must comment on the ending... it completely blew me away... I sat there while the credits began to role wondering what had just happened. That is what makes this movie so great... very few movies can do that for me. Congratulations go to Kevin MacDonald, he did a fine job!! **** out of *****

The second best Canadian movie of all time. (The best is Going Down the Road.) Here is why Hard Core Logo ranks so high: 1. It moves. Canadian movies in general are terribly, terribly slow. Hard Core Logo is 100 miles per hour. 2. It deals with places/contexts that other Canadian movies don't, i.e., it is not about growing up in a small town. 3. The heroes, although they are in a band, aren't a group of teenagers trying to make it big. They are "grown-ups," at least in terms of years on the planet. Their struggle, their demons aren't glossy. 4. This is existential stuff. The main characters' struggles aren't confined to the world of music, or to a small sub-culture of it. Pigeonholing the movie as a music movie or as a comedy in the style of Spinal Top misses what is really going on here. This isn't a comedy, not even a black comedy (which is usually code for a comedy that isn't funny.) Instead, here you get to see Sisyphus -- right at the top of the mountain.

Someone once asked me if I were stranded on a desert island and could only watch one movie for the rest of my life, what would it be? Without question, it would be this mockumentary gem from The Great White North. 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. If you haven't seen this movie, FIND IT. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll move you.

After the wit and liveliness of Highway 61 and Roadkill I expected this movie to shine, but it was as bloated and self-deluded as the hard-rock stars it parodied. The pace dragged, not helped by an over-long hallucination sequence, the characters were flat and unmemorable, and Art Bergmann is no Jello Biafra. I had to poke myself to stay awake.

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. It wore thin on me all too quickly. I still love HCL, and that has to be because it is based on Michael Turner's book. Turner's own experiences in the Hard Rock Miners informed his writing and that legitimacy was kept in tact in the film. Also, from a Canadian point of view, I liked it because it was a straight up story and a straight up film. Far too often it seems that Canadian filmmakers feel that they have to go out of their way to make odd/disturbing films that just come across as pretentious and 'faux-Euro', or make films designed to pander to the lowest common denominator of the Hollywood market. MacDonald made his own film for himself and I for one am grateful.

This is a dramatic comedy, and more than any other type of dramatic comedies, it''s dark and very real. Though there are quite a few jokes, many inside jokes, it melts into the tension of the four guys like a fast gliding bird would melt into a brick wall in a cartoon. Worthy to be a classic. Hugh Dillon is a great actor and has perfect chemistry with Callum Keith Rennie.

According to this website, "This is Spinal Tap" was released in 1984. That movie was a satire of Heavy Metal Rock Stars. It was funny, and it had at least a few good tunes that were actually written by the actors who played the 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. About 30 minutes into the film, I had to turn it off as I realized that what I rented was exactly what I expected and GOT: Just someone trying to jump on the bandwagon or milk someone else's cash cow. And there was nothing to laugh at, either. I expect Something to keep me at least remotely intrigued to watch more of this. But, there's nothing. No jokes, no idiocy, no nothing. Fortunately, I only lost one dollar of my money and half an hour of my time watching this feeble attempt to copy a film from 12 years before it was made. This feeble attempt is even worse than "Mac and Me" (feeble rip-off of E.T.), "Battle Beyond the Stars" (one of the many feeble rip-offs of Star Wars), as well as many others. This is not a satire; this is a Rip-Off of a Satire!!! And a weak one at that.