It's All Gone Pete Tong

Considering the beating this film got in some reviews, I went to see it the other day, not expecting much from it. Surprisingly though, the film was pretty damn good! Paul Kaye (some of you will remember his often hilarious Dennis Pennis taking the mickey out of celebrities at film premiers) plays Frankie Wilde a mega famous DJ who's bringing dance music to Ibiza. All's going well for Frankie, he's rich, successful, has a wife and a string of sexy ladies on the side. All this goes down the drain when Frankie starts to lose his hearing, which of course, is not that good for a famous DJ. Kaye delivers some funny, upbeat lines throughout the film and so long as you don't mind his gurning for laughs, you'll enjoy the flick. Despite his arrogance and dirty coke and drink habits you find yourself cheering Frankie along and when he meets Spanish lip-reader Penelope you almost want him to get his hearing back for good. Although a gag-fest, filled with dirty humour and teenage-boy jokes, It's All Gone Pete Tong is a funny, witty film which will happily fill an hour or two in the coming summer months.

It's all gone Pete Tong is the story about an Ibizian DJ, Frankie Wild (who is a loud mouthed, cocaine addicted party animal). The mockumentary tells us quickly about his rise to fame in Ibiza and how he loses it, literally. Years of doing sets in the loud drug scened clubs are starting to set their toll on Frankie who is losing his hearing much to the annoyance of his agent, who cant seem to get a word of him. Suddenly Frankie loses the 20% of the hearing he has left so he barricades himself away from mankind in his Ibizian villa. It's all gone Pete Tong is hilarious when it's funny and if anyone was going to play Frankie Wild it had to be Paul Kaye. The film slightly slows down in the 70 minute mark, but still i'd recommend it to anyone even if they are not into the clubbing scene. The film capitulates the true meaning of a feel good summer film. 7/10

P.S It's all gone Pete Tong means (forthose of you who don't know) "It's all gone wrong".

This movie has been entirely under my radar until Sound Of Metal came out and made waves last year. A few different people brought this movie up and called it "the original Sound Of Metal". While the primary plot point is generally the same (professional musician goes deaf and tries to deal with it in the best way they can figure out how), the movies couldn't be more different tonally - and guess what, they are both completely worth watching. While Sound Of Metal is a hyper-realistic, bleak, tasteful film - It's All Gone Pete Tong is almost the polar opposite. It's fully over-the-top, comical, loud, in your face, lightning paced, and hilarious.

I was entirely unfamiliar with lead actor Paul Kaye but his performance as cocky Ibiza resident DJ Frankie Wilde floored me. He perfectly captures the highest level of comic character acting while simultaneously capturing a very real, very depressing element of a man completely lost in the sauce (his head all the way up his own ass, you could say). The film uses a mish-mash of filmmaking styles to conjure a very unique vibe when viewed as a whole - when I first turned it on I thought that maybe I was about to watch an actual documentary, but that very quickly transformed into something else, but even then, I still found myself wondering if this was in fact based on a true story or not. It felt like it had to be! (It's not).

The first half of the film is such a riot that it demands a score as high as I've given it. However, I did find the second half to be less fulfilling as it very much turns into a sappy sort of happy ending that honestly feels a bit too far of a stretch from reality to be effective, and also a bit too far from the masterful hilarity of the first half of the film - like, why ditch it? If it would have kept the same tone all the way through it could have been a complete masterpiece.

Now, I've gotta ask... why the hell is this movie called It's All Gone Pete Tong??? Pete Tong is an actual DJ and film producer in real life, and only appears once at the beginning of the film, interviewing Frankie Wilde - and then we only see his name once more, as the support act on a show flyer. That movie has almost nothing to do with him - why is his name in the title?! Second, I feel the need to add that this film was the follow-up to FUBAR - the second film from that director. I had no idea until doing research, but, it makes sense tonally & stylistically - it seems that this is his most acclaimed film, and I can see why. It stands out big time. The Fubar guys have small roles as absurd Austrian musicians too! I recommend this to those who are into absurd, over-the-top comedy.

This film played the second night at Gen Art's 10th Annual Film Festival. I was expectedly waiting for the "big name" films Standing Still and Southern Belles but one of the Gen Art staff recommended I watch Pete Tong. Knowing a little bit about dance music (Moby, Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim) and having watched just a couple of flicks (Go, Groove, 24 Hour Party People), my expectations were low. The theater was packed. Within the first 10 minutes, I was hooked. The opening sequence has Paul Kay (Playing the famous DJ Frankie Wilde) descending from the ceiling of a Ibiza club on a guide wire and then falling into a pool! The music THUMPS THUMPS THUMPS and the theater had the volume jacked so that you could feel the bass and vibrations. The plot is fairly predictable but the main actor does an amazing job. The film is well shot with beautiful colors, but lots of close-ups. Don't sit too close to the screen on this one. The furry Coke Badger gives us a humorous glimpse at the personification of addition. All in all, a fun show with a (Happily) cheesy ending. The film ended up winning both the Best Picture and Audience Awards.

This amazing movie just won the grand prize at this weekend's US Comedy Arts Festival and it totally deserved it! I normally would have written this movie off without ever seeing it because I figured I'd hate it since I'm not into the DJ thing, but the audience in attendance, myself included, at the two screenings were floored! I even went back the second night to see it again and Ben Stiller had volunteered to introduce because he loved it so much and wanted to give it some extra attention. I think they said it's coming to theaters around April but I'm not sure. Anyway, you MUST go see it. Paul Kaye (he won best actor for the film, too) was supposed to be there but I never did see him. Too bad... This film wouldn't have been the same without his spot-on portrayal of DJ Frankie Wilde and I'd like to have seen his acceptance speech.