Telstar

He heard a new world...
Hey, what do you know? Someone finally thought that Americans would pay to see the Joe Meek story on the small screen. For those who haven't heard of him (nearly everybody), Joe Meek was a forgotten legend of rock history--the most famous producer you've never heard of. Working in his home studio in the pre-Beatles 1960s, he wrote and produced a string of hits, misses, and completely berserk productions; the most famous single he wrote was the namesake of the film, "Telstar". It sold five million copies worldwide, was the first song by a British group to hit #1 in American, proved to the British Invasion bands that a great deal of money and fame awaited them in the States, and was named after a communications satellite.

The movie compresses the last six or seven years of Joe Meek's life into an hour and a half of frenetic activity, doomed romance (Meek was gay at a time when it was criminal to be a homosexual in Britain, whether or not one actually had sex with members of...

Moments of greatness
3.8 stars

This started out so well that I thought I might be in for one of the best movies I'd ever seen. The exceptionally crisp opening scene stuffs about five minutes of exposition into one, then a truly exemplary credit sequence not only provides endless split-screen eye candy but also clues us into the basics of where we are and how we got there. Genius, one of the best opening few minutes of any film I can think of.

Buuut, then things begin to slow down and never really pick up. Con O'Neill is very good indeed, as are almost all of the actors, but the script is about 30 minutes too long. The story drags on and as Joe's life unravels so does this film. By the end I was just glad it was over.

Spacey's opening scenes are wonderful and you'd hardly recognize him. But then his Brit accent seems to fade as the film goes on and his role loses its lustre. It was funny to see portrayals of the young Ritchie Blackmore and Mitch Mitchell (his gun scene is a...

Sad but Enjoyable!
Although it left me feeling rather sad, I enjoyed this biopic of record producer, Joe Meek's tragic and muddled life. Well cast characters with Con O'Neill playing Meek himself. From the early days with John Layton, the film documents Meek's rise to fame. When Billy Fury's backing band, The Tornados, who recorded Telstar, had the biggest hit to come out of the shabby studio, all should have been rosy, but royalties were hard to come by and there was no money to pay the musicians. Things get even worse when a French composer accuses Meek of plagiarism and royalties are kept on hold, leaving Meek slipping further into debt. The ill-fated affair with Heinz Burt, depression, drug addiction, all took their toll and led to murder and eventually suicide.

Lots of familiar faces appear in the cast, Kevin Spacey (Major Banks), Pam Ferris (the landlady) JJ Field ( Heinz Burt), James Corden (Clem Cattini) Ralf Little (Chaz Hodges).
Well acted, and the sixties soundtrack is great...

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