Garage Days (2003)

44% of critics liked it
(52 reviews)
61% of users liked it
(6,167 ratings)

Alex Proyas, director of The Crow and Dark City, switches gears for the lightweight romantic comedy Garage Days. Set in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, Freddy (Kick Gurry) really wants his band to make it big. The band consists of his girlfriend Tanya (Pia Miranda) on bass, the drugged-out Lucy (Chris… More Alex Proyas, director of The Crow and Dark City, switches gears for the lightweight romantic comedy Garage Days. Set in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, Freddy (Kick Gurry) really wants his band to make it big. The band consists of his girlfriend Tanya (Pia Miranda) on bass, the drugged-out Lucy (Chris Sadrinna) on drums, and the mopey Joe (Brett Stiller) on guitar. Their inept manager, Bruno (Russell Dykstra), thinks they can get successful if they hook up with record executive Shad Kern (Marton Csokas). However, the band develops personal problems when Joe's girlfriend Kate (Maya Stange) announces she's pregnant and falls for Freddy, then gothic girl Angie (Yvette Duncan) seduces Joe, and Tanya gets involved with Lucy. Garage Days premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 45 min.
Directed By: Alex Proyas
Written By: Dave Warner, Alex Proyas, Michael Udesky
Genres: Romance, Musical & Performing Arts, Art House & International, Comedy

In Theaters: Jul 18, 2003 Wide
On DVD: Aug 3, 2004
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Critic Reviews

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
A movie of shopworn riffs and borrowed noise, dressed up with considerable surface polish and glam production values.
Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News
The jokes are as lame as they are tame.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Though the storytelling is a bit lopsided, the slapdash quality is charming overall, and the movie benefits from colorful characters and a couple of hilarious scenes.
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
The characters are often sketchy at best.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Amiable but oddly amateurish.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
The whole thing seems to fall victim to the failed sitcom syndrome.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...While the narrative is slight and trite, it is also well-observed
Wesley Lovell, Apollo Guide
A fantastically fun film even though it lacks lavish spectacle.
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com
I wouldn't want to hang out with these cats and I certainly wouldn't want them practicing in my garage, it's bad enough to sit through their movie.
Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
Its sense of fun is infectious enough that it doesn't make a huge difference that it's light on the story side. Coupled with the visual style and the top-notch choice of music, it makes for a fun, if lightweight, experience.
Adam Nayman, eye WEEKLY
Proyas is relentless in his attempts to infuse the material with visual zip, and in doing so, he only exacerbates its flimsiness.
Mark Umbach, FilmStew.com
While the plot line may not be overly complicated and Lynchian, it is in no way formulaic or simple either. Proyas leaves you wanting you to see his characters thrive, not necessarily as a band, but as friends.
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
The music in it is uniformly lousy, but one doesn't notice because everything surrounding it s even worse.
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
Its tricksy stylishness... is more of a distraction than a tonic for the feeling that we've seen all this before.
Spyder Darling,
Despite plenty of drugs and a fair amount of sex, Garage Days asphyxiates from a lethal lack of rock'n roll.
Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium
Proyas strays from the formula just often enough to keep us on our toes. The remainder is too slight and harmless to really condemn... even when it slips into cliché.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...[Alex Proyas'] over-the-top sensibility keeps this admittedly routine storyline from becoming an all-out bore.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Ken S

Imagine Trainspotting developed into a network TV show, then sold to HBO at the last minute so they could add swearing. Also the tag line, "what if you finally got your big break, and you just plain sucked?" totally spoils the movie. Imagine the tag line for planet of the… More
Imagine Trainspotting developed into a network TV show, then sold to HBO at the last minute so they could add swearing. Also the tag line, "what if you finally got your big break, and you just plain sucked?" totally spoils the movie. Imagine the tag line for planet of the apes being "what if you found a planet inhabited by monkeys, and it turned out it was Earth?"
Dean M

Spectacular Aussie comedy on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Pia Miranda's cool in her 'angry management' performance.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic][color=darkorange]Alex Proyas is mostly known for being a director of such cool fantasy films as "The Crow" and "Dark City". So, it would seem like "Garage Days" is quite a departure for him because it is a relatively modest film… More
[font=Century Gothic][color=darkorange]Alex Proyas is mostly known for being a director of such cool fantasy films as "The Crow" and "Dark City". So, it would seem like "Garage Days" is quite a departure for him because it is a relatively modest film about a wanna-be rock band in Sydney, Australia. But when I thought about it, it didn't seem like that different a movie after all because the characters are having this rock and roll fantasy. Even more telling is that Proyas cannot get away from using digital effects.[/color][/font] [font=Century Gothic][color=#ff8c00]"Garage Days" is almost a good movie. It has a likable, young cast playing the band members but there is too much going on that has little to do with the actually playing of music.(We really don't get to see them playing until the end of the picture or ever know what the name of the band is. The first thing anybody always comes up with is the name of the band.) That's where the movie derails - some of the plot strands work, but one is frankly bizarre and another suffers from every romantic cliche in the book. I liked the ending, even though there is a deus ex machina lurking in there somewhere. [/color][/font]