Still Crazy

Starring: Billy Connolly, Stephen Rea Director: Brian Gibson Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 11th October, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding Subtitled In: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish Dubbed In: German

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Still Crazy is a 1998 film starring Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy & Jimmy Nail. Still Crazy was Directed by Brian Gibson The film was released in 1998 by Columbia Pictures It is set around a band called Strange Fruit who split up 20 years previously because of disagreements within the band, now coming back together to perform on the very stage which split them up. It sees them playing at various gigs in europre before fianally performing a song which they swore not to perform without the original lead guitarist. The film was mainly given positive reviews as it was written by the same people who wrote Auf Wiedersehen, Pet Still Crazy at the Internet Movie Database.

This gently satirical British comedy chronicles the quixotic reunion of a late, arguably not-so-great & unlamented 70s rock band, Strange Fruit, with a winning mix of humour & poignancy. The Fruits, as the survivors call themselves without irony, had disbanded after the tragic loss of one member, the mysterious disappearance of another & the aftershocks of internal rivalries, but 20 years later they warily reassemble for a Dutch club tour, a warm-up for a proposed festival appearance. Between that seemingly hare-brained proposal & the fateful festival, director Brian Gibson, working from a sharp script by Dick Clement & Ian LaFrenais, captures the absurdities of middle-aged rockers trying to recapture that lost cockiness.

Breathing life into the band is a terrific cast, including Stephen Rea, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall & Bill Nighy, each managing to juggle deft archetype with believable character traits: Spalls cheerfully crass, flatulent drummer & Nighys preening, slow-witted lead singer exemplify the approach, grabbing chuckles yet making you actually care about them. Equally impressive is Billy Connolly as the wily roadie, Hughie, at once pragmatic & devoted to his charges. All are well-served by production details & script points that get the groups lost world of late 60s & early 70s rock exactly right, from costuming & stage moves to the long-forgotten bands they name-check, Blodwyn Pig, anybody?

The bands music likewise benefits from inspired insiders, cowriters Mick Jones & Chris Difford , who hit a nifty combination of bombast & earnestness. When Gibson & his cast risk the storys amiable glow on a darker, more dramatic final act, the music rises to the challenge & the whole project, like its fictional subject, achieves an unexpectedly touching victory.

William Billy Connolly, is a comedian, musician & actor. Billy Connolly was born in Glasgow, Scotland to Mary & William Connolly, the son of an Irish immigrant. Connolly was brought up in the Anderston & later, Partick districts of Glasgow & attended Saint Gerards Secondary School. He started his working life as a welder in a Glasgow shipyard but left that trade to become a folk singer. Together with Tam Harvey he started a group called the Humblebums, which later included Gerry Rafferty. Connolly sang, played banjo & guitar & entertained the audience with his humorous introductions to the songs. Eventually the duo broke up & Billy went solo. His first solo album in 1972, Billy Connolly Live! on Transatlantic Records, features Billy as a singer, songwriter & musician. His early albums were a mixture of comedy performances with musical interludes, but by the late 1980s Connolly had all but dropped the music from his act, though he still records the occasional musical performance. It is as a comedian that Connolly is best known. His observational humour is idiosyncratic. Posters Of The Man Who Sued God

Editors Choice: Billy Connolly, The Man Who Sued God, Beautiful Joe, The Debt Collector, Still Crazy, Her Majesty Mrs Brown, An Audience With Billy Connolly, View DVDology

Stephen Rea is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Rea is a Protestant married to a woman who was a member of the Irish Republican Army. After appearing on the stage for many years in Ireland & the UK, Rea came to international attention when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Crying Game. Other films include The Company of Wolves, Princess Caraboo, Interview With the Vampire, Prêt-à-Porter, Evelyn, FearDotCom, Citizen X, The Musketeer & The End of the Affair. Posters Of Angel

Editors Choice: The End Of The Affair, Double Tap, Still Crazy, Trojan Eddie, Angel, The Good Shepherd, View DVDology

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