Great story to keep me interested. Hoping there was going to be cameos by The Stone Roses but none the less still a great film. The story of 4 guys wanting to start a band always sounds cliché. "Maybe if we start a band we can be big and tour the world!" Not exactly like this here. They just pure and simply want to give there demo to Ian Brown which is somewhat unrealistic in my opinion but you know what? It's different. No one else thinks to do this with a plot line. It is a change. Whether it's language, accent, scenery etc. I just got really interested on every characters development. Knowing they can do better than what they are already doing. Working with the sources they have to build up a sense of what recording music and producing music is like. I give this a solid 10 for that!

I didn't watch this movie for the Stone Roses reference, The Stone Roses are of no particular interest of mine, I have nothing against them it's just the music simply isn't my scene. Having read reviews on here after watching this movie, I seemed to rate it more than many others and the factor which I believed allowed me to enjoy it more, was ironically, my non-existing interest in The Stone Roses. If you went into this movie solely on the basis that it is marketed with the Stone Roses i believe you would be disappointed. Spike Island is a run of the mill, coming of age, British indie flick. It's a very familiar story, Five lads from Manchester who are all in their last year of school travel to Spike Island in hope of watching the Stone Roses in concert. The usual story of falling outs, romance, friendship, loyalty and most of all growing up are covered in this movie. The Stone Roses are really a back story, a focal point of their interests but it is not relevant in the story or character development. The acting is good, but the characters lack any real substance. They all seem very clichéd and predictable, the manc accent is also overdone at times, we get that you're from Manchester, its based around the Stone Roses!Overall Spike Island is a feel good, entertaining watch with good acting and a pleasant if not clichéd, storyline.7/10

I was not that young in the 90's and I am not from Manchester and was not a great Stone Roses fan but I loved this film. In a nutshell it is about a band, Shadowcaster and there efforts to see Stone Roses play at Spike Island, the band consist of Tits, Dodge, Little Gaz, Zippy and Penfold. The story also weaves each individual plot and in my opinion the sub plots work effectively . This is a coming of age movie, good acting, good pace, funny and poignant. It faithfully reflects the 90's and the music of the 90's, it works on a lot of levels and The story has several threads and I have un-ticked the spoiler box as I do not want to spoil anyone's enjoyment of this excellent film.

The only reason you would go to see this film is if you're a Stone Roses fan, that much is obvious. Fortunately for the director this is just enough to carry you through a disjointed, underdeveloped and cliché riddled script. The intended demographic is clearly people like me, 40 + year old men who lived through the period and hold dear the Roses and whole Madchester scene. Yet the film plays like a film aimed at teenagers, with set pieces used merely as an excuse to overlay a Roses classic. Although the characters are likable their development is soap opera at best, their dialogue hugely clichéd and dishonest and when the script does enter interesting territory it is quickly dismissed to cover another bullet point on the 'coming of age movie' tick list. The Stone Roses reformation has been such a wonderful thing for thousands of fans all over the world. This film actually annoyed me as it belittles real emotion and makes honest affection appear contrived.