This is the only movie I ever walked out on
because my MOM made me. I was 11 years old and we were only about 1/2 way through and she made me and my sister get up and leave! hahaha!
shareLOL...yeah, it's funny, occasionally I read the negative reviews on this movie and have basically come to the conclusion that this is not a movie that most people go "ehh, it was okay" or "pretty good"...it seems to be movie you either LOVE or HATE.
Personally, I love this movie, and I am not a huge fan of the Who (and I am a professional musician, so this may be sacrilege!!). I really like the updated, poppier-sounding songs (I do not care for the Who's original version of "Pinball Wizard" nearly as much as I like Elton John's). I think some of the negatives about the movie & its music stems from the fact that "the song doesn't sound the same as when The Who did it", etc. But I think that if a person can forget that the songs were originally done BY The Who and listen to them in the movie on their own merit, they sound rockin'.
But I also think that it's perfectly easy to see how someone CAN not like this movie, especially if they are used to seeing fast-moving, gripping, thrill-every-10-minute movies like are shown today. A movie with no spoken dialog, only music, is a bit tough for alot of people anyway.
I remember seeing the movie for the first time in the theatre a few years after it came out, I was probably about 16 or so, and I hated it...in fact, I don't think I made it thru it either! It was only after watching it again as an adult that I began to really appreciate the story and to actually like it.
As a Who fan, I suggest you check the original album of TOMMY and pretty much all the WHO'S early stuff bwt 1966-1978--very much worth listening to/mandatory if you like old-school rock.
As for the movie---eh, typical Ken Russell over the top madness/garishness---didn't care that much for it. Interestingly, my brother, who's not a WHO fan either, checked out the film while I was watching it years ago, and said that there was something sadistic about the film--he was right,actually. I mean, a lot of things in the film that happened to Tommy were kinds of hard to watch,actually, and the film did revel in doing mean,messed.-up s*** to its characters---I see enough of that in Stephen King TV adaptations. Didn't know that the dude playing the crazy uncle was Keith Moon (the Who's legendary drummer,and one of my fave rock drummers) until I read about the film in some book. He was crazy/funny as hell, just plain fun to watch as he played/tore the s*** up out of those drums, and it's a shame he wasn't able to do even more movies before his untimely death. I'd like to get both TOMMY and QUADROPHENIA (another good movie based on the WHO's album of the same name you should see--they don't play in it, but it still stands alone as a good film in its own right.) have fun!