Weekender

source: Weekender

It's 1990. The rave scene has arrived, and warehouse parties are exploding across the UK bringing wealth to the organisers. Matt and Dylan long to be more than just punters. As the government moves to outlaw the scene, it's now or never and they quickly rise through the ranks to join the promoting elite. They are taken on a journey from the VIP rooms of London to parties in Ibiza, and the hedonism of Amsterdam. But as their success continues to grow, they attract a dark and sinister world. Matt and Dylan start to drift apart as they are forced to question the dreams they set out to achieve and their once solid friendship...... Again, nostalgia is the order of the day here to enable the viewer to enjoy the film that little bit more, because, as with all these films, the story, and narrative has been done a dozen times before. Lads start to make it big in the rave scene, get noticed by some bad lads, and then get too involved, and then it's too late. As always, one goes over the top, and then the other decides to go straight, because he has a girlfriend. We've seen it before, and before you can say 'injected with a poison' one owes lots of money to the character who is constantly angry for no reason. But it all ends as you'd expect, the cast are great, especially O'Connell, and it's well paced. It's just a shame that the makers didn't do more research into 1990, as some of the music wasn't released until much later (Ken Doh: I Need A Lover, wasn't release until 1995), and makes you roll your eyes a little. But worth seeing.

I was there and this is not what it was like at all, this movie fails to capture the rush of it. Poor acting, bad plot & poor choice of music. The reviewer who said it will become a cult classic is having a laugh, maybe he wrote this rubbish. Not very original and poorly executed. Not worth wasting your time, just watch Human Traffic. I struggled to stay with it until the end. Character relationships and development were not believable, a sorry effort all round. I went in with high hopes but it was very disappointing.

A short satisfying romp. Deceptively satisfying as the ending is not so. I really got to like the characters and would have hoped for a better resolve, alas the pill bashing, money grubbing, bouncer smashing film came to a very bad ending. Fine good-looking believable cast and a great development of the relationships between characters, especially between Matt and Dylan who I enjoyed watching as a fun boyish pair. There was a lot of good music, pretty girls and heavy drugs which made for an exciting yet hardly novel adventure. I'm not sure if I recommend this film as it's finalle isn't really a finalle atall. It's like a really well built up tune that once fully ascended drops into nothing but a whistle and rolling credits.

A poor attempt at an edgy film. The plot wasn't gritty enough to be passed off as a druggy film and with some areas, particularly the acting of a few, felt unrealistic. A film to have on in the background, nothing more.

I had a short stint as a club promoter and DJ in different parts of the UK in the early 1990s, and I enjoyed 'Weekender' - it's clearly been written with some knowledge of the scene back then; the unbridled optimism, the conflicts between DJs, promoters, drug dealers and gangsters, and the associated tensions between different music styles. But there are some flaws. The boys seem to pick up a massive following immediately and easily by accident - the growth element of their events in terms of size and success feels like it was intended by the writers but doesn't come through in the production. A more realistic portrayal would have shown the earlier events as noticeably smaller, even thrown in one where hardly anyone showed up but everyone still enjoyed it. This becomes incongruous when they're courted by Gary Mac (Stephen Wright) - Why did Gary suddenly offer them lines of coke and a trip to Ibiza? Presumably because it took time, energy and effort to build a following of massive crowds spending all night dancing, and Gary wanted access to sell his drugs, but this wasn't clear. Was the following all supposed to be down to Captain Acid (Tom Meeten) and his pirate radio show? Why wasn't this character courted by Gary as much as Dylan and Matt? He would be the talent that's drawing the crowds, not them. The Ibiza sequence fails to explain why Gary has flown them all there. He's having a party, what was the occasion? Why does he have a villa there in the first place? Does he run a club there? What's motivating him? Drug sales? Revenge against John? Why is John at his party? Gary repeatedly says he wants to talk business but none seems to ever be concluded. Are the boys are just supposed to be so out of their depth they're ignoring Gary's offers? We don't get to see enough on-screen to know whats really going on. Weak jokes about Captain Acid getting stuck at the airport seem to take the place of proper narrative. The historical gaffes are there too - most of it can be overlooked, but the banknotes are such a prominent part of the story that it's unforgivable and pure laziness to not use props with historically accurate designs. All that said, I'm still glad to have stumbled on this while it was available on Netflix. It was fun and reminded me of what was in many ways a simpler, more hopeful era.

I'm not sure how i come across this movie but i can safely say, it is a must watch. From start to finish its amazing. You follow Matt and Dillon through highs and lows. I don't want to spoil it for you so watch it, you wont be disappointed. Plus the music is great, makes you want to go out and party! Things start off with M+D (Matt and Dillon) doing what they can to make money with their friend to pay into a rave. M+D then come up with the idea of holding their own rave and thats when the trouble starts but also the good times. You follow their journey from Warehouse party kings to the up and coming mass raves in Amsterdam but the money comes at a price. Anyway, thats all i have to say but like I've said, watch it and see for yourself. MY favourite movie of all time and a must watch. You WILL NOT be disappointed.

I've just finished watching this film, and it greatly surpassed my expectations that previous reviews/ratings had given. The film is essentially about a group of mates who decide to host a warehouse rave in the early 90's, realise that they made easy money from partying so continue with it. For a while all goes well until eventually it all gets a bit much for them as fights over drug dealing begin to escalate, with the stress of the situation eventually tearing the characters apart. All in all this film is entertaining to watch, and if you have knowledge of the scene you'll easily be reminded of some of the best times of your life. As well as entertaining some of the characters were fantastic, I won't go into detail, but you really can't help but hate the antagonist, especially as we've all had experiences with people like that, thinking they're better than other people and forgetting what made the party great in the first place. This film isn't perfect, but definitely worth watching if you enjoyed Human Traffic, although it is noticeably darker

This film is far better than I expected it to be. I thought it would be OK having read some of the press reviews, but the storyline was far better, the characters interesting, intriguing and you definitely cared what happened to them as it got darker. OK I've never been to a rave or taken the drugs, but am of that generation - but have been to plenty of clubs, all night parties etc so think they recreated 'the scene' OK. It was very well shot & edited, and some really cool little bits of camera action that take things a bit further on than Guy Ritchie might do to tie trips abroad etc nicely into the rest of the film. Saw it on DVD - reckon they'd be wicked on Bluray! Anyway well worth buying - I shall be recommending it highly to friends... Great soundtrack too!

Film was ok at best, acting was poor and even tho it was set in early 1990s they had money from today, clothes and over all style didnt fit the time they were trying to share, I know it only a small things but it's not hard to get right, small things have added up to make this film a shamble, nothing felt real just empty, zero heart and passion went into this movie.