Almost Famous (US)

A hybrid of a movie. It won some awards as a comedy, but I really think it should`ve been categorized as a drama or even a semi-documentary.
The movie tells the sad story of the music industry - the groupies (or maybe "sluts who say they love music"). The acting is good. Actually, the movie is extremely irritating. Come on, just HOW DUMB these girls can get. Incredible!
The video transfer is very good. The colors are nicely saturated and there are no compression signs at all.
The DTS and DD 5.1 soundtracks are both very nice. The surrounds are mainly used to create the sound envelope for the live stage performances, but dialog scenes are also treated nicely.
The menus are all animated with music.
The extras include an almost half an hour look behind the scenes, a music video, some production notes and some "Rolling Stone" articles. Nothing too exciting.
Bottom line - definitely not a comedy, but rather a sad movie about rock n` roll stars and the way they exploit VERY dumb girls.

William Miller(Patrick Fugit) is a misfit, he doesn't belong at school and he seems too young for his age group. His Mother (Frances McDormand) a feminist University lecturer is against the youth of the 70's, with their drugs and rock and roll. His sister is into what ever his Mother isn't, resulting in her leaving home to be a airplane stewardess and leaving her secret rock records to William when he is 11. William, 15, becomes a reporter for Creem magazine by submitting his pieces to Reporter Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and meets touring Stillwater on his first assignment. He also meets the enigmatic Band-Aid, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who he immediately becomes infatuated with and the befriending Lead Guitarist of Still water, Russell (Billy Crudup). And because of his article William lands an assignment with Rolling Stones to go on-road with Stillwater and their entourage, including Penny Lane. This is where William feels he finally belongs and it becomes alot more than just an assignment.

The amazing part about the movie is that it is based on a true story. Director Cameron
Crowe as a teenager actually experienced alot of situations that happened in the film. He also wrote the songs for the "fake" Stillwater - and interestingly enough by what I can work out in the featurette, the actors were the actual band who recorded the songs. Just an AWESOME film with a great soundtrack, watch out for the Elton John's "Hold me closer tiny dancer" scene on the bus. It'll bring tears to your eyes, because it's so real!