my Movie

Movie Details

Title:   Almost Famous
Director:   Cameron Crowe
Year:   2000
Genre:   Non-Musical Music Film
Times Seen:   4
Last Seen:   04.28.22

Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- Aloha
- Elizabethtown
- Pearl Jam Twenty
- Singles
- We Bought A Zoo

Notes History
Date Viewed Venue Note
04.28.22Internet I'm reading a bunch of books about rock music in the 70s and it's got me in a mood to watch this again. The problem is, I remember the "Untitled" extended version of this to be far superior so, rather than dig out my old DVD I went searching and found a fan "Bootleg" edit where he upscaled the untitled scenes to match the Blu-ray HD scan. At least that's what I thought. As it turns out, "Untitled" has become "The Bootleg Cut" and is available in HD formats, while this fan edit actually re-inserts the deleted scenes from the original DVD. In some cases, it's kind of cool (Like actually having the movie turn into a 3-song concert film when they hit Cleveland or stop to play Stairway to Heaven in its entirety) but they all ruing the flow of the film and in some cases (like the "Leslie" scene or where Gram Parsons is singing in a Riot House hotel room) they completely take you out of the movie and it's very clear why the scenes were cut in the first place. Plus it put the running time up to three hours fifteen minutes, so it's pretty clear that my preferred version is the normal 2.5 hour Untitled/Bootleg/Whatever-you-call-the-non-theatrical-version. But as someone who's already a big fan of the movie, watching it again because I want to feel those 1973 rock star-dom vibes, I didn't mind the extra footage in there and the hiccups in flow.

This is Cameron Crowe's best movie, right? While I'm sure Say Anything and Jerry Maguire still hold up but this is the one that defines his career. I'd still like to see him pull another gem from his hat but I think this also marks the beginning of his unfortunate creative decline. But, you know, I really feel this movie is fantastic. It doesn't feel 20 years old at all. Jesus I'm old.
04.03.09  It was time to see this again. What a great movie. It's amazing how awesome the young version of the kid is and how great the first 5-10 minutes is... It feels like a whole movie in the first reel so when it zooms ahead to teenager years you're like "i dunno... that was good to the point where the rest of the movie might not live up to the prologue" but then? BAM! Phil Hoffman devil horns in the radio station. Good stuff.

Even better on my new TV.
07.14.07DVD felt like time to watch this again. good movie.
11.26.04DVD the Untitled Director's Cut. Still love it. Oh how i love it. Love love love.