Always Woodstock

A good idea (altough not original) that could have resulted in a good film. But unfortunately it's not the case. So sad, because the plot has some potential.

It's hard to go along with a character when you simply don't care about him/her. Not that the actress is bad, but I think the problem here is poor scripting/directing. The locations are cute, photography is correct, the songs are OK and the film has it's charm, but it can't help feeling somewhat undone or poorly done, at least.

Not the worst film in the world like some people here say, but not a good one for sure. Sadly, the premise could have resulted in a much better work since there's a heart here.

Catherine Brown (Allison Miller) is stuck in her life which has her silently screaming. She has long abandoned her dreams of singing. She lost her parents early in life. Her boyfriend Garret (Jason Ritter) is a self-obsessed actor. She hates her job as a musician rep and then is forced to wrangle hard-partying Jody Sinclair (Brittany Snow). When Jody accuses her of assault, she gets fired. She comes home early to find Garret cheating on her. She's sleeping on her friend Ryan's couch. She decides to go upstate to live in her childhood home in rural Woodstock. Emily (Rumer Willis) is the tough local bartender and Noah Bernstein (James Wolk) is the cute doctor. On the drunken first night at the bar, she proclaims her love to Noah. Coffee shop owner Lee Ann (Katey Sagal) nurtures her music dreams.

Miller and Wolk are a perfectly cute rom-com couple. They are both photogenic and sweet-natured although they are more like sidekick material. I want to like this very much for them. This is director Rita Merson's debut. The newcomer doesn't have all the skills to make this work. The timing is not there. The jokes are lacking. I'm surprised at the number of solid actors in the cast. Even the minor roles have familiar names. It doesn't make this good and may actually hinder the small town feel needed for Woodstock. It feels like Hollywood trying to pretend to be small town. The same can be said of the record company. It's some kind of Hollywood facsimile of a record company from the recent past. A lot of this movie falls flat despite my desire to root for the couple. Even at its best, this is a formulaic rom-com. It's not until Forever Sex when I finally get my first laugh. I still don't understand Emily's motive. This tries to be a fun quirky rom-com. It tries.

This had to be one of the worst movies I've seen in the past ten years. In fact, I can't think of anything worse ever. Poor acting, poor script, very little to redeem it except for Katie Segal, who only had a very small part. The acting is sorely lacking, and the dialogue is poorly delivered much of the time. The ending lines (no spoilers here) are spoken by the main character in such a tone that it makes the bad even worse. Given the poor script, it was difficult to even give this movie a one rating.

I can't understand how this movie was ever made. We tried to watch it on Pay Per View. Everyone gave up except me, but sadly, it got worse and worse. There's nothing to recommend it. I agree with the two other reviewers. It's not good at all. I wouldn't advise anyone to waste money on it since there's so many better movies available. I would almost label this unpleasant. Don't waste your time.

The acting is in the exaggerated style of live stage, high school level. It could be a good story. C'mon actors, you can do better. Who directed this? Isn't the director supposed to direct? The opening scene in the bedroom: tacky, gratuitous, unnecessary; did the director feel the plot and story were so lacking that she had to resort to that?

45 minutes in, kept watching hoping it might get better, the acting got better.

First off, let me say that chances are you have already seen a good version of this movie. The film can be summed up by the following: A struggling writer who is in a bad relationship gets a chance at love. Does that sound familiar? Well, it should because those are the plot points from at least a dozen different movies (The Hanna Montana, Movie, Begin Again, Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect II, A Star is Born, How To Be Single, etc.) However, that isn't the problem. The problem is this movie has no upside to it. The main character is annoying and an awful person. The love story is forced and undercut by a lousy protagonist. And the side characters are all bland. The music is okay but nothing special. Also, the film claims to have Brittany Snow in it. However, she literally only in it for the first 5 minutes, which is a shame because it was cool to see her act against her normal type of character as the whacked-out D.J. I wouldn't even consider it a Brittany snow movie since she is in it so little. They must have just hoped that her name would be enough to get people to watch, and sadly it did. But don't make my mistake. Save yourself. Watch her scene on YouTube and call it good.