Ordinary World

If only the first hour of this film was as good as its final twenty minutes. I felt there was a better movie in here somewhere that never really emerged, as the film got mired in awkward and flat humor, plus some plot elements that just didn't ring true.

Billie Joe Armstrong (the lead vocalist for Green Day) stars here as Perry, a former punk rocker who left the band some years before to start a family. Now he's quite a scatterbrained but decent guy going through a midlife crisis. He's having trouble, as he's ready to celebrate his 40th birthday, accepting living in his "ordinary world", as a husband and father of two, and mired in a job with his brother in a family owned hardware store. Thus, the film will follow Perry for one day,as he ends up spontaneously arranging a birthday party at a very fancy hotel, in NYC.

Overall, the movie, written and directed by Lee Kirk, just took way too long to get unraveled, but at least the final parts of the film prevented it from being a complete clunker, in my opinion.

This movie was as expected, it wasn't great but wasn't bad. It was a simple and light hearted movie about a guy going through a mid life crisis and ended as you'd expect. It's a decent enough watch.

Ordinary World stars Billie Joe Armstrong as a middle-aged divorced father approaching his 40th birthday and yearning for his early days as a punk rocker. It wasn't just the premise that drew me to this movie. It was also the fact that it was being played out by an actor whose day job is a punk rocker. And not just any punk rocker. Billie Joe Armstrong is the lead singer of the famous punk rock trio Green Day, which formed back in 1986 and broke into the music scene in 1994 with the album Dookie. I've been a Green Day fan since they put out "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", and I've grown up listening to Dookie, American Idiot, and 21st Century Breakdown, which are some of my favorite albums ever. This year, Green Day has put out an album titled Revolution Radio, and it includes a track called "Ordinary World", which this movie not only features on the soundtrack, but also got named after. While "Ordinary World" is the best track off of Revolution Radio, this movie isn't quite on the same par as that song of the same name. It is a pretty solid movie, though. It's a nice, meaningful middle-aged story that comes from director Lee Kirk, but fits Billie Joe's perspective quite well. And although the story doesn't have a clear mission that our main character goes on, it's easy to understand what it's aiming for. Also, while Billie Joe Armstrong doesn't have a lot of acting experience, he does give a quite convincing performance. Putting into consideration the time he went to rehab during the band's 2012 trio release era that was as unstable and disastrous as the ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré! albums themselves, you can understand his character's thinking and feeling, and it definitely relates to his own life. It may not be a perfect film (not that it was trying to be one), but Ordinary World is a pleasantly harmless movie that serves as a good side-project from a famous punk rocker.

Score: 68/100

Recommendation: Any fans of Green Day

Midlife crisis? Will we have it? is this it? these are the questions that this movie wakes up in you. i'm a green Day fan, i think it wasn't the best acting but its a real rockstar who plays a rock star. and that makes the real life experience realistic. that's why when you watch the movie you make these questions. for every person who like's a drama movie this one will pass your time.

I really wanted to like "Ordinary World". The comedy stars Green Day front-man Billie Joe Armstrong as Perry, a just turned middle-aged singer/guitarist on indefinite hiatus from his once-promising rock group. This cat is a fish flung FAR out of water as domesticated husband, father and feckless hardware store sales guy. When presented with the opportunity to celebrate his 40th birthday in grand style he does it up right in a posh New York City hotel suite, together with his ex band-mates and a pack of party animals he's heretofore never met. Natch, shenanigan's soon ensue.

While the hard driving original music Armstrong contributes is fantastic, particularly the amped-up onslaught that mule kick starts the story, the superlatives for this largely lukewarm effort pretty much start and end there.

Writer/Director Lee Kirk thrusts it completely upon Armstrong to carry his movie, as the brilliant musician performs in practically every single one of it's scenes. Now granted, Armstrong's Perry is of decidedly docile demeanor, having ostensibly fallen into the mostly uneventful life he now leads. However, he proves to be just a little TOO passive in this role. To the point where Armstrong's underplaying of his understated character never managed to amplify and fully engage me. In all candor, the same can be said of the turns turned in by the flick's supporting stable of actors, which includes a trio of highly capable pros in Selma Blair, Chris Messina and Fred Armisen.

Still, despite the earnestly honorable intentions, and in keeping with the film's title, all involved here wind up coming off as not much more than...yep...you guessed it.

Ordinary.