But if you're hoping to hear Andrea Coor sing, sorry. No such luck. I only broke down and watched this after all these years because I found out she's in it. I might be able to give this a 7 someday after I get over my disappointment. It has an OK story, some nice eye candy, some now familiar faces and some pretty good tunes. I'll probably be able to watch this again in 10 years or so.

First, if you're looking to buy this, do not buy the cheaper DVD on Amazon. It is a bootleg from China. This is a movie every music lover should have in their collection. Andrew Strong and crew make better versions than the originals in their covers. It is offbeat and quirky and there's a lot of trivia that may be unfamiliar to USA viewers. It pays to read the trivia notes. The acting is genuine and above par in so many scenes. I was amazed to learn it was a debut for so many of the core characters. The best trivia were 2: Andrew Strong's dad auditioning only for his 16 yr old son to get one of the lead roles and the kid on the skateboard is an older cover album favorite.

In my book, The Commitments really does get a 10/10! At the risk of sounding like a squealing fan, I really can't think of anything I didn't like about it.The film as a whole is refreshingly free of the clichés you usually find in movies of this sort - the characters are original, there is no cheesy romantic subplot (THANK you!), no predictable plot twists. It is all tied together into a remarkably light, funny, and ultimately hopeful movie.The music is fabulous as well, and I believe it is actually the actors singing their own songs - they do a wonderful job on both accounts.The Commitments is such a great little movie. It's too bad it doesn't get more viewings.

A couple of working class kids in Dublin decide to put together a band that mirrors the soul music of the USA in the 1960s. Not the Beatles, not Elvis, but do-wop and Motown. "The Irish are the blacks of Europe. Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And North Enders are the blacks of Dublin!" As they audition other young semi-hoods of varying talents, I kept thinking of what a curious diffusionary path this musical style -- with its African rhythms and call-and-response technique -- had taken: from West Africa, on slave ships to the Southern US, morphed into Christian gospel music, adapted by Detroit, and back across the ocean to Dublin.It's not a style I groove to. The three young ladies who are backup singers are, by and large, okay, but the lead singers screeches and shouts and weeps with simulated transport. The sidemen on alto sax and trumpet are kewl, however, although one chides the other for spiralling -- "That's JAZZ." It's a movie that elicits smiles rather than laughter. The young folks are all pretty quirky and have problems dealing with unemployment and baby sitting. There's an almost constant use of a word pronounced "fook" or "fewk," which I take to be some kind of Dublin slang, possibly relating to fish and chips.And there ARE a number of smiles in it. They watch tapes of performances by one of their heroes, James Brown, who does his emoting on stage, then falls to the floor after one particularly strenuous number, as if knee-capped. Aides rush to him, help him to his feet and guide him off stage. "Fluke!", says one of the kids, "Oi'd bust me knees!" Another assures him, "It's all part of the ACT." If you enjoyed "The Full Monte," which appeared six years later, you'll get a kick out of this. Also if you grew up during the Motown era.