The Guardian
Killing Bono – review
The real-life story of rivalry over teenage bands – one of which turns out to be U2 – makes for an entertaining, fun movie, writes Peter Bradshaw
Based on a true story and written for the screen by Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais, Killing Bono is a good-natured, boisterous comedy with a Likely Lads feel. Ben Barnes plays Neil McCormick, a rock-mad Dublin teenager who grows up with Paul Hewson, later to be the legendary Bono. Both are in sixth-form bands, but when Hewson tries to get Neil’s talented guitarist brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan) to be in his group, Neil secretly scuppers this plan. Cruel fate takes its course. Hewson’s band become the world-famous U2, but Neil’s group remain failures and losers; Neil is convulsed with envy for his old schoolfriend and guilt at stopping Ivan from getting his ticket to global fame. Martin McCann gives an interesting and sympathetic performance as Bono; Peter Serafinowicz has a funny cameo as a hard-faced promoter and Pete Postlethwaite gives a final, gentle performance as gay landlord Karl.
Financial Times:
Films on release: March 31
By Nigel Andrews
Published: March 30 2011 18:53 | Last updated: March 30 2011 18:53
Rock bottom: ‘Killing Bono’
There has only ever been one good way to tell a true story: make it up as you go along. That explains why Killing Bono is a charming, zany rock comedy – tinkering freely with truth as it narrates the real-life Neil McCormick’s (Ben Barnes) near-miss date with musical fame – while the timid, scrupulous, respectful Oranges and Sunshine, recounting how social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) stumbled on the historical scandal of British wartime orphans shipped to misery and abuse in Australia, is literalistic, echoless, dead.
The first film’s ace is its universality. We have all, at some time or other, wanted to kill Bono. There he is, pop’s professional bleeding heart, with those sunglasses and those better-world bromides that can drive a person mad. We like his music, though. So does ex-schoolmate and journalist/memoirist McCormick, though he was less loving as a lad when he formed a rival band, stopping his resentful-ever-after brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan) from joining U2.
That’s it for plot. Neil and Ivan, growing up just a little, scurry after the legend-bound Dubliners’ bandwagon hoping for one last supporting gig or, failing that, one last Bono assassination attempt. The film starts funny, with the decision of the U2 founding fathers to rename themselves. (“The Edge?” asks someone, “the edge of what?”) Then it has the blithe notion of presenting the brothers as a kind of Dublin Withnail and I, Sheehan doing the curly mopped passivity as “I”, Barnes eradicating Prince Caspian memories with his hyperkinetic Richard E. Grant-gone-Irish impersonation.
I also loved Peter Serafinowicz’s doleful ex-Etonian band manager, who surveys a line of off-the-bus musicians relieving themselves at the roadside with: “I’m watching the world’s most depressing water feature.” Pete Postlethwaite pops up in a tiny but touching valedictory cameo. Add a reproachful mention of the Pope for drawing away audiences during his Irish tour – “He has no appreciation of the live music scene” – and we realise that Killing Bono has all its priorities correct. Not just fiction, or comic ornamentation, before fact; also rock before religion.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cbb5930c-5af2-11e0-a290-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1IAp4BWIf
Hey U Guys
http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/04/05/killing-bono-review/
You know how everyone hates Bono? Well, Neil McCormick hated him first. He hated him so much, in fact, that he has a gun pointed at his face. This is Neil’s story.
Flashing back to 1970s Ireland, lax journalist Neil (Ben Barnes) is eager to set up a band of his own after rival Paul “Bono” Hewson (Martin McCann) joins high school rockband The Hype. Using his relationship with Bono to ensure his younger brother’s (Robert Sheehan) rejection from the band, Neil and Ivan instead set up their own group, quickly falling into The Hype’s – now U2 – ever growing shadow. Borrowing money from the local gangster (Stanley Towsend), the McCormack brothers move to London where they begin a near-year-long search for a willing record label. Despite finding an albeit lesser success with producer Hammond (Peter Serafinowicz) and band Shook Up!, Neil continues to undermines his own luck – manipulating his own downfall and endangering already strained relationships with his label, his girlfriend (Krysten Ritter) and with his long-suffering brother.
While you immediately want to praise Robert Sheehan, the Misfits star has to be one of the most charismatic young actors working today, his incredulous and endlessly sympathetic Ivan is almost too easy to root for. Far more surprising is the pathos, humour and humility that Ben Barnes brings to the character of Neil. Essentially a selfish and jealous dreamer – verging on delusional, the egoistical acts of deception and betrayal carried out by Neil McCormick should be enough to turn the entire auditorium against his plight, and against the movie in general. Rather than dislike his luckless loser, Barnes’ brings a vulnerability and desperation to Neil that fully acquits a narrow minded attitude and distractingly flappy manner.
Once again fuelling the suspicion that I may be the only human being on this planet – other than Pierce Brosnan, of course – who can’t sing, director Nick Hamm lets Barnes, Sheehan and McCann karaoke their way through Irish pop history. While Neil sets about writing songs about rape and ‘existential angst’, and U2 provokingly confess that they still haven’t found what they’re looking for, the film’s soundtrack is inextricably tied to the character motivations and plot. They could really be bandmates, with their aspirations and inter-relations filling the void between stock band member and human being, creating an exhilarating and massively uplifting amalgam of truth and fiction.
A welcome extension of this is the haunting presence of Bono in the movie, lending credence to Neil’s obsession and growing Bono-complex. Continuously told that they may be “the next U2″, mishearing their landlord’s (a delightfully camp encore for the late Pete Postlethwaite after The Town’s gritty unlikeability) inquisition as to “how long have ‘you two’ been together?” and their rival’s massive billboard presence somehow managing to earn sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.
This is Killing Bono’s finest strength. While it mercilessly sexes up Neil McCormack’s memoir Killing Bono: I Was Bono’s Doppelgänger, Hamm’s film never loses its own solid grounding in reality. Its reality, that is. Yes the gangster, Bono’s butter-wouldn’t-melt persona and the unrealistic rapidity of U2′s fame may require a certain suspension of belief, but as soon as you disregard the source material and take Killing Bono for what it is – a bizarre odd-couple comedy and (most importantly) a movie – the plot takes on a relentless fluidity that leaves you feeling like you’ve just reached the bottom of the very best of waterslides: thrilled and entertained, ready to go again.
And when I say bizarre, I really mean it. From the bonkers wardrobe – Lorna Marie Mugan is either incompetent or ingenious (I suspect the latter!) – to Barnes’ wild gesticulations on stage, this is a film that makes an instant and lasting impression. It raids genres almost as often as it raids wardrobes, with a wonderfully eclectic mix of comedic, dramatic and borderline farcicle elements that conspire to create a surprisingly fulfilling and poignant narrative, showcasing its stars abilities beautifully. That it does this whilst maintaining a delightfully heightened tone is testament to the abilities of screenwriters Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement, who tread the line between fact and fiction with endless finesse.
Raw and more than a little rough around the edges, Killing Bono is an unassuming, yet simultaneously larger than life tale of self-distruction that goes beyond the call of duty to round out a surprisingly honest relationship and tether its more extreme elements with moments of genuine poignancy. You can have your Source Codes and keep your Sucker Punches, as Killing Bono satisfied all of my own cinematic needs with a verve and bombast that never ceased to entertain.
(4.5/5)
Sunday Express
How do you cope with a friend’s fame and fortune? It’s not easy at the best of times, but when that person succeeds doing what you’ve always dreamed of it’s even harder, and when that friend is Bono, biggest rock star in the world, it’s well nigh impossible.
Neil McCormick, now a music journalist, was driven potty by the stratospheric success of his old school chum, Paul Hewson, aka Bono, who casually conquered the world while Neil was struggling to land a record deal.
It’s a story he related in a confessional memoir now the subject of a highly entertaining, knockabout comedy Killing Bono, co-scripted by Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais (Porridge, The Commitments).
Although the tone is broad and light-hearted, the picture opens with Neil in a very dark place indeed – poised to put a bullet in the head of the U2 legend outside a Dublin concert hall.
His dreams are in shreds while U2 are promoting their biggest selling album, The Joshua Tree and poor Neil can’t take it any more.
Needless to say, this is not an incident lifted from his memoir but entirely made-up, as are other key plot developments required to give the story some dramatic shape, including Neil’s involvement with a Dublin gangster (Stanley Townsend) who bankrolls his doomed efforts to make it.
Where the picture is much more accurate, by all accounts, is in its portrayal of Neil as a prize chump – to put it politely – who continually sabotages his band’s efforts through a combination of pride, demented self-belief and bad judgment, rejecting numerous opportunities, including help from Bono himself (played convincingly Martin McCann).
Aside from Neil, the biggest victim of his behaviour is his younger brother Ivan (the likeable Robert Sheenan) who plays bass guitar in the band and loyally does his brother’s bidding, albeit with increasing exasperation.
What Ivan doesn’t know is that, when at school, Neil turned down a chance on his behalf to be in Bono’s band, a secret that eats away at Neil’s conscience and, inevitably, is revealed at a key moment.
Neil is no loveable loser then but, played with considerable verve and a spot-on Irish accent by Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian in the Narnia films), there’s something infectious about his manic desire to succeed that sweeps you along, much as it does Ivan.
As the pair arrive in London “to become famous” what follows is a rambunctious comedy of errors as opportunities are missed, bad luck strikes (staging a concert on the same day as Live Aid) and relationships fray, enlivened by amusing supporting characters (notably Pete Serafinowicz’s ludicrous record producer and Pete Postlethwaite, in his last role, as their gay landlord).
It’s important to believe that the brothers really do have the musical talent to succeed as otherwise there’s little point to the tale – and Neil would be an even sadder individual – and the evidence here supports that, although tellingly Neil’s own music isn’t actually used. New tracks were specially recorded.
It’s overlong and loses some charm and credibility with a rather contrived, melodramatic climax but this is an extremely enjoyable, very well performed romp that extracts surprisingly mileage from a story about failure.
This is Fake DIY
With a title suggested by Bono himself, it’s clear from the outset that this is actually a good-natured comedy without an ounce of spite for the U2 frontman.
Blurring fact and fiction, Killing Bono is based on Neil McCormick’s memoir I Was Bono’s Doppelganger, charting the Telegraph music critic’s failed attempt at rock stardom – made worse by his friends’ success as U2. The Hole director Nick Hamm brings us a lively bout of good old-fashioned farce that sends up both the record industry and Neil’s dreams.
Last seen as Narnia’s Prince Caspian, Ben Barnes lets loose with Neil like an Irish Withnail. In anyone else’s hands, this idiotic, selfish poser (no offence Neil) would have been unbearable, but Barnes and his puppy-dog eyes – and surprisingly brilliant comic delivery – have you rooting for him throughout, despite his foolishness. We follow him from his Dublin school, where a certain Paul Hewson is putting a band together. The credibility of the film hangs on how they manage Bono’s presence, and they have a godsend in the form of Martin McCann. The Belfast actor is uncanny (and disturbingly likeable) as both fresh-faced Hewson and the eventual rock god.
Not to be outdone, the burgeoning success of The Hype (pre-U2) at the school disco spurs Neil on in his pursuit of stardom. Cruelly preventing his younger brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan) from joining Bono’s crew, the siblings stumble along for the best part of a decade, having relocated to London. A unfortunately important subplot involving Stanley Townsend’s textbook gangster, who lends Neil the money to get started, is stretched to breaking point. Much better is Peter Serafinowicz’s aggressive A&R man, who takes the character beyond parody to deliver all the best, snidey lines and all the memorable moments. Also along for the ride is Krysten Ritter’s Gloria, as Neil’s girlfriend and the manager of Shook Up – the band Neil and Ivan eventually get quite good as.
The late Pete Postlethwaite makes his final film appearance in a role written especially for him. His camp landlord is full of affection, and delivers a hugely poignant farewell to his young tenants; he’s just a touching example of a film where the cast and crew’s warmth are conveyed onscreen.
Killing Bono may be overlong (pushing two hours) and slightly repetitive (how many times do we need to know they’re shite and that Neil ruined Ivan’s life), but is hugely enjoyable. This is largely thanks to the chemistry between Barnes and Sheehan, who convince as squabbling brothers and borderline rock stars. Misfits star Sheehan has the straight man role, bouncing off Barnes and passionately venting his frustration with tremendous screen presence, while Barnes’ raw energy is contagious, and his lack of vanity gratifying – he’s an absolute riot.
Crammed full of both knowing nods to the industry and outright jibes, it balances goofy, obvious humour with an account of youthful ambition, armed with Joe Echo’s vibrant and suitably cheesy soundtrack (performed by Barnes and Sheenan). If you’re looking for a serious discussion on sibling rivalry and narcissism, it’s not to be found here. Those wanting Bono to actually be shown lying in a pool of blood at the end can also look elsewhere. U2 fans will have plenty to enjoy, as Neil and Ivan’s misery increases with Bono’s fame explosion, nicely charted throughout. Exaggerated and slightly ridiculous, but always charming.
RATING: 8/10
http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/film/killing-bono
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