Spinning Gold

A colorful and moving tribute to Neil Bogart, "Spinning Gold" is about fulfilling dreams and life itself. A somewhat sedate and less manic "Vinyl" the movie is a cruise through mid - 20th Century America and the ascent of a young Jewish man from humble and troubled beginnings in New York to the pinnacle of success in Hollywood and beyond. Jeremy Jordan livens the party as the glib and amiable Bogart who navigates his way through debt and hairy personal situations in making his record label Casablanca Records the most successful independent music company. Along the way we're witness to music history as Bogart discovers or signs KISS, Donna Summer, Gladys Knight, The Village People, Parliament, etc.., and the rest is music history. One aspect missing here is the failure to bring life to the times and the music. Too much focus on the interpersonal relationships charts this tale into tunnel vision that misses the fun parts of a fun time. Perhaps the most glaring sin is the miscasting of the music legends featured. The actors are either too tall, too short or too fat. Considering the nature of the film they should have damn well made the actors look like their characters as much as possible. All in all a fine tribute to a man and a time that altered and enriched and whose legacy endures potently to this day.

I had high expectations here and this movie didn't come close to meeting them. At it's core is an amazing story, but they failed to tell it with any suspense, compassion or coniction. The trailer sells you on inside details of every act on the label, but for the most part, we only get to know Kiss and Donna Summer.

The biggest problem with this film is none of the talent looks like who they are portraying. Kiss has 5 decades of Cosplayers and every one of those fans looks better than the clown squad they assembled for this film. Not a single member looks like the actual band member and Gene Simmons looks like he's about 5"6' and that is with the platform boots. Tall talent in real life is portrayed by short people. Thin people like Gladys Knight are portrayed by a fat woman, and short people like George Clinton are portrayed by talent a full foot taller.

As much as I tried to get into this movie, the poor portrayals kept pulling me out. The music also was poorly done again removing me from the fantasy.

There are two reasons this movie is going to tank. 1) its target audience is most likely retired or pushing it. 2) it's not true enough to the people to satisfy the crowd. This was a watered-down remake of Rock of Ages. A poor parody or of poor movie. That's what happens when you allow the family of the subject to run the show. These kids are not film makers and it shows in every scene.

It was apparent that the production took inspiration from Wolf of Wallstreet and Bohemian Rhapsody. It wanted to show great musical moments from the highs and lows of a man's career; although a lot of it was taken out of context and not entirely true, and the cocaine infused chaos of the 70s but with a Party City wig.

Bad: Casting choices (that's the least convincing Gene Simmons I've ever seen), Hair and wardrobe choices (I want to puke every time I see the pubes I mean chest hair from Neil), and the green screen and vfx.

Good: The music is real good! Tayla Parx is a new discovery for me, has bits and pieces of fun though they fail to sustain it multiple times, Jason Derulo with a surprising performance.

At the end of the day, you can't fault a family wanting to honor a legendary family member but it would have been better had the creative direction been given to someone with experience. Just didn't seem worth the 10 years of pre production for this level of output.

A mediocre film that is neither overly bad nor overly good.

The casting is mediocre, some actors are solid in their roles and some are simply miscast. We follow the life of music producer Neil Bogart, his rise, as well as some famous musicians who collaborated with him.

The film is interesting at times, but it's simply mediocre, it's not that bad overall, but unfortunately it didn't live up to its potential.

Some of the supporting characters are interesting, like Big Joey, played by the excellent Vincent Pastore. But there is too little of him in the film, which simply doesn't look cinematic enough, it lacks the look that a different camera or perhaps a better director would give it.

The movie isn't a complete failure, but it's not the kind of movie you watch and think you'll watch again. This is a movie that you watch once and that's it.

There was a lot of potential, the seventies, the music, various famous musicians, but none of it was fully exploited. I don't know how to explain it other than that the film is too polished, it doesn't have the intensity it should have.

Jeremy Jordan isn't that bad as the main character, but he isn't great either. Some actors are unconvincing in their roles and don't even look like the famous characters they portray.

The film also lacks a bit more original music from the period and the story is incoherent at certain points, the script just isn't good enough. It's watchable, but that's all, it leaves the impression of another mediocre achievement that could have been much better.

In the end, it's a shame that this movie didn't live up to the potential it had.

I didn't know anything about this movie going into it. But I was not pleasantly surprised, more so unpleasantly annoyed.

I gave it a 5 stars because it is not a terrible movie, some of the musical scenes I enjoyed a bit. And I generally do see a lot of work has been put into making this film hence I don't like to give it lower. However I didn't enjoy this movie at all.

The whole film I found myself annoyed with the main character (forgot his name, I think he was called bogard, which I know is ironic since It is even mentioned in the movie that everybody knows kiss but nobody knows this guys name). I'll just proceed to cal him bogard in this review. Normally I could enjoy a movie about a flawed character and since it's a biopic I was willing to give it a go. But the writing of this character is just laughable, I felt as if the movie wasn't aware of the way the viewer would feel about this character. And then in the end I felt it getting better but then there was this horrible scene made to make us feel pity for him but it was done in such a unsubtle, forced and rushed way.

Everybody in this movie is overacting, nothing feels genuine and real. I felt no connection to the characters and lost interest in the story very soon.

I didn't understand what was happening Sometimes, I didn't know what the movie wanted to be or wanted me to feel. One second it felt like a drama, the next like a comedy, then it had some darker crime moments and none of it blended together to make one cohesive film.

I wouldn't recommend watching it in cinemas.