Product Description

Import only Blu-Ray/Region All pressing. Writer-director Cameron Crowe brings the 1970s music scene to life with his semi-autobiographical story of a teen journalist who goes on the road with a Rock band. Uncool 15-year-old William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is living every teenager's dream. He's touring with Stillwater, an up-and-coming Rock band featuring lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) and charismatic lead guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) and writing about it for Rolling Stone magazine, whose editors are unaware of his young age. Though Miller's mentor, legendary Rock critic Lester Bangs--portrayed with humor and heart by Philip Seymour Hoffman--cautions him not to befriend the musicians, Miller takes it a step further and befriends both the band and the Band-Aids--the girls who hang around with the band because they love the music. Sony.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65956 in DVD
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Blu-ray, Import
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, English, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Thai, Turkish
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 162 minutes

Features

• UK Import
• Blu-ray
• Region-Free
• Extended Edition

Amazon.com
Almost Famous is the movie Cameron Crowe has been waiting a lifetime to tell. The fictionalization of Crowe's days as a teenage reporter for Creem and Rolling Stone has all the well-written characters and wonderful "movie moments" that we expect from Crowe (Jerry Maguire), but the film has an intangible something extra--an insider's touch that will turn the film into the ode to '70s rock & roll for years to come. We are introduced to Crowe's alter ego, William Miller (Patrick Fugit), at home, where his progressive mom (Frances McDormand, just superb) has outlawed rock music and sister Anita (Zooey Deschanel) has slipped him LPs that will "set his mind free." Following the wisdom of Creem's disheveled editor, Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman in an instant-classic performance), Miller gets on the inside with the up-and-coming band Stillwater (a fictionalized mixture of the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and others). A simple visit with the band turns into a three-week, life-altering odyssey into the heyday of American rock. Of the characters he meets on the road, the two most important are groupie extraordinaire Penny Lane (Kate Hudson in a star-making performance) and Stillwater's enigmatic lead guitarist (Billy Crudup), who keeps stringing Miller along for an interview. From the handwritten credits (done by Crowe) to the bittersweet finale, Crowe's comedic valentine is an indelible, heartbreaking romance of music, women, and the privilege of youth. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
Cameron Crowe's genial but remarkably undramatic account of his life and not very hard times as a fifteen-year-old rock critic in the early nineteen-seventies. Crowe's stand-in, William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a freckle-faced music lover, leaves home against the wishes of his college-professor mom (Frances McDormand) when he accepts an assignment from Rolling Stone to cover a mid-level band called Stillwater. He falls into an intense admiration of the good-looking lead guitarist (Billy Crudup), who is ambiguously friendly, and receives gentle treatment from a trio of groupies, the Band-Aids (led by Kate Hudson). Philip Seymour Hoffman appears as the legendary real-life rock critic Lester Bangs, who mentors William, and Jason Lee rants as Stillwater's infantile lead singer. Much of the movie plays easily and well as a record of good times, but there's no particular point to it. William is never put in enough danger-morally, spiritually, sexually, or any other way-to become a hero for us, and the music of Stillwater is not meant to be great. What's at stake? -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Review
Almost Famous is the movie Cameron Crowe has been waiting a lifetime to tell. The fictionalisation of Crowe's days as a teenage reporter for Creem and Rolling Stone has all the well-written characters and wonderful "movie moments" that we expect from Crowe (Jerry Maguire), but the film has an intangible something extra--an insider's touch that will turn the film into the ode to '70s Rock & Roll for years to come. We are introduced to Crowe's alter ego, William Miller (Patrick Fugit), at home, where his progressive mom (a superb Frances McDormand) has outlawed rock music and sister Anita (Zooey Deschanel) has slipped him LPs that will "set his mind free." Following the wisdom of Creem's disheveled editor, Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman in an instant-classic performance), Miller gets on the inside with the up-and-coming band Stillwater (a fictionalised mixture of the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and others). A simple visit with the band turns into a three-week, life-altering odyssey into the heyday of American rock. Of the characters he meets on the road, the two most important are groupie extraordinaire Penny Lane (Kate Hudson in a star-making performance) and Stillwater's enigmatic lead guitarist (Billy Crudup), who keeps stringing Miller along for an interview. From the handwritten credits (done by Crowe) to the bittersweet finale, Crowe's comedic valentine is an indelible, heartbreaking romance of music, women, and the privilege of youth. -- --Amazon UK - Doug Thomas