Weekender (2011) User Reviews

Rave on

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 26 June 2011]

Weekender follows a couple of young guys in Manchester in 1990. The pair of them are petty thieves but soon realise that they can make some money if they begin organising their own raves. Everything starts out well but serious problems soon complicate things.

Weekender is a likable snapshot of the early 90's when dance music as we now know it was just emerging from the underground. Many people started going along to raves and got loaded on ecstasy. While the movie follows the usual trajectory of ascent and descent, similar to films such as Human Traffic it doesn't have a 'drugs are bad' message. Instead the villains of the piece are local gangsters who turn up on the scene and start controlling things with force. Weekender does look back on those early 90's times with a certain amount of fondness and there is an effective soundtrack of house music to emphasise the sense of time. The music isn't the usual familiar array of well known dance anthems from the time; it goes for a more specific selection of tunes that ravers would have encountered back in the day.

In fairness there isn't anything overly new in Weekender. Its story doesn't really offer up any surprises at all. However, it's a good little movie about an important time in British music history.

(no pills were popped in the watching of this film)

Last night a film stopped me from being bored

[jabbajosh · 6/10 · 25 October 2011]

A short satisfying romp. Deceptively satisfying as the ending is not so. I really got to like the characters and would have hoped for a better resolve, alas the pill bashing, money grubbing, bouncer smashing film came to a very bad ending.

Fine good-looking believable cast and a great development of the relationships between characters, especially between Matt and Dylan who I enjoyed watching as a fun boyish pair. There was a lot of good music, pretty girls and heavy drugs which made for an exciting yet hardly novel adventure.

I'm not sure if I recommend this film as it's finalle isn't really a finalle atall. It's like a really well built up tune that once fully ascended drops into nothing but a whistle and rolling credits.

Interesting yet non-fulfilling

[TheSupremeTruth · 4/10 · 12 October 2013]

I watched this film as it was recommended by my brother of 28, it seemed fitting for someone who has experienced the rave days, but as for someone who has not it left me wanting more than it gave. The acting was good for the lead but the for the most part the rest of the crew lacked enough charisma.

Whiles watching the film I felt a bit like I was watching many different types of films in one because it didn't stick to the backbone very well as one minute I felt like I was watching British Teen Film the next I thought it was a gangster film... It didn't stick to a secure theme.

A lot of different scenes popped up with near or no relevance to the story even though it got the viewer interested. The most enjoyable part of the film was Jack O'Connell because I honestly believe he is a good actor and he plays his part very well.

Would I recommend this film? If it's 12 am and you've got nothing else to watch and you see it on the television and you're a fan of skins, I'd say go for it. If you want a good film on the Friday night to watch I would say watch another film.

Overall it was enjoyable and no where near one of the worst films I've seen. It had the potential to be a classic.

Long live The Rave

[Durry_theramones · 19 September 2011]

Weekender takes place in the 90's, following the story of a couple of petty, small time crooks Dylan and Matt who find a new outlet for their fun loving schemes, hosting raves.

As their success grows boundlessly they are swiftly brought back to reality when they begin to attract a more sinister side of rave culture, that of violence and power/dominance. The movie demonstrates these discourse extremely well in my opinion. The acting by both of the protagonists I found to be quite enjoyable, with almost flawless performances. The castings' were great in this film with every actor representing and portraying their characters traits very realistically.

The Weekender may not have the most extraordinary plot in its twists and turns, but is with out a doubt a good if not great movie, with a solid stand up plot-line/narrative and cast. This movie for me was definitely a 6/7 out of 10. I urge you to see this movie because you will not be disappointed. IT'S NOT A BAD FILM!!! (p.s. I don't know how this film could have such a low rating because it is NOT a bad film and not a film that should be 3.7 on IMDb)

Disgrace

[EddieIMDB46 · 1/10 · 6 July 2013]

This film is terrible, anyone that was into the house scene in 1990 will agree. The music is wrong, the fashion is wrong. In fact everything is wrong. There is such a niche to do a film about this era , and some Muppet like Chris Coghill gets the chance and makes a mockery out of it. Someone who lived the scene needs to make a film about this and it could be low budget and be massive(just like it was, no glamour just for the love of the music and scene) Also where was the 20 inch bottom jeans and hooded psychedelic tops we all wore. Eastern block, Afflecks Palace, Spin inn records, konspiracy Club? Not going to mention the hacienda because I think Chris has read a book about the hac and tried to make a film. losers.

If you were there, you'll like this!!

[dazski · 7/10 · 20 September 2011]

Charming little bit of early 90's nostalgia that deserves far more than the 3 out of 10 currently being offered up by IMDb users.

I can only assume that the people giving this film low ratings were not the people who were partying in the early 90's - if they were they'd be rating it far higher just from the nostalgia perspective.

Great soundtrack that pretty much corresponded chronologically (except for Kendo Nagasaki which was a much later track, but hey its a great track so who's complaining!!).

No where near as dark as Trainspotting and less schmaltzy than Human Traffic this is well worth a watch if you are looking for a trip down memory lane or if you fancy an glimpse of how it was.

Utter garbage!

[stevemolyneux28 · 1/10 · 17 January 2014]

As other reviewers have already pointed out, this film is a million miles away from the rave scene in 1990. The fashion and music are both completely incorrect for the time. How can somebody making a film get the simple things so wrong? Chris Coghill is a clown. He obviously has no first hand experience of the time and has clearly compiled a film from reading accounts from people who weren't there either. To add insult to injury his other offering is 'Spike Island'. Another film in which he gets things completely wrong. There's enough material on the internet if you want to see and hear what things were really like in the late 80's / early 90's, just don't rely on any of Coghill's work to paint a true picture. Back to the film. Not much I can say really. Badly acted with a poor plot. The list of mistakes is endless. Did the makers not consider watching some videos from the time? Watch how the people danced back then. Look at the fashion and the hairstyles. Sorry, I'm starting to rant again. It's just so frustrating when someone gets something so simple completely wrong and misleads those who didn't experience such a great time in British youth culture. Do yourself a favour and save 90 minutes of your life by avoiding this rubbish.

Enjoyable nostalgia for those of us that were there, but some flaws

[pauljaymes · 7/10 · 27 January 2021]

I had a short stint as a club promoter and DJ in different parts of the UK in the early 1990s, and I enjoyed 'Weekender' - it's clearly been written with some knowledge of the scene back then; the unbridled optimism, the conflicts between DJs, promoters, drug dealers and gangsters, and the associated tensions between different music styles.

But there are some flaws. The boys seem to pick up a massive following immediately and easily by accident - the growth element of their events in terms of size and success feels like it was intended by the writers but doesn't come through in the production. A more realistic portrayal would have shown the earlier events as noticeably smaller, even thrown in one where hardly anyone showed up but everyone still enjoyed it.

This becomes incongruous when they're courted by Gary Mac (Stephen Wright) - Why did Gary suddenly offer them lines of coke and a trip to Ibiza? Presumably because it took time, energy and effort to build a following of massive crowds spending all night dancing, and Gary wanted access to sell his drugs, but this wasn't clear. Was the following all supposed to be down to Captain Acid (Tom Meeten) and his pirate radio show? Why wasn't this character courted by Gary as much as Dylan and Matt? He would be the talent that's drawing the crowds, not them.

The Ibiza sequence fails to explain why Gary has flown them all there. He's having a party, what was the occasion? Why does he have a villa there in the first place? Does he run a club there? What's motivating him? Drug sales? Revenge against John? Why is John at his party? Gary repeatedly says he wants to talk business but none seems to ever be concluded. Are the boys are just supposed to be so out of their depth they're ignoring Gary's offers? We don't get to see enough on-screen to know whats really going on. Weak jokes about Captain Acid getting stuck at the airport seem to take the place of proper narrative.

The historical gaffes are there too - most of it can be overlooked, but the banknotes are such a prominent part of the story that it's unforgivable and pure laziness to not use props with historically accurate designs.

All that said, I'm still glad to have stumbled on this while it was available on Netflix. It was fun and reminded me of what was in many ways a simpler, more hopeful era.

Awful

[samweaving · 1/10 · 27 April 2012]

Why Chris Coghill even attempted this as a film is beyond me. To say it's a 'poor man's Human Traffic' or 'an account of the rave scene as seen by your Great-Aunt' are complete understatements. It's features range from bad acting to badly chosen music (it's meant to be 1990, and half the tunes are from '92 onwards) I'm surprised i lasted watching it as long as i did. I put this down to being ill and couldn't be bothered to move. It's also a who's-who of annoying telly actors... I'm surprised Coghill didn't cast himself. IMDb say i must write ten lines about this film, but I'm really struggling without swearing. It's bad... Don't watch it... Human Traffic made me miss the 90s, if this film was true-to-life it would make me feel like I had missed the 90s.

Appropriately lively, bouncy but unfocused rave culture thriller

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 7/10 · 10 January 2012]

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Manchester, 1990. Dylan (Jack O' Connoll) and Matt (Henry Lloyd Hughes) are two scallywags who get by nicking fruit machines from pubs, until they spot a marketing opportunity in the shape of the emerging acid house/rave culture that is springing up in towns and cities across the UK, with hordes of disenfranchised, disaffected young folk breaking into abandoned warehouses to get off their faces and dance the night away, only for the authorities to clamp down on them. Dylan and Matt propose the biggest rave yet, and enlist the help of a top DJ to help see them over. However, it's not long before drugs arrive on the scene and the criminal element involved plunge the lads into a new and dangerous world that threatens to destroy everything they've worked to build.

Ever since it arrived over from Ibiza in the late 80s, rave culture has played it's inimitable part in the music, fashion and style of a certain generation of young people, and what it went to lead on to was arguably it's greatest achievement. Weekender attempts to be a story based around this phenomenon and is squarely aimed at the audience the film is depicting. At the beginning it starts out as sort of style over substance, opening with the start of what promises to be a funky, lively soundtrack featuring just the sort of tunes that made that period in musical history so memorable.

The soundtrack remains the best asset of the film, but it's worth sticking with the story, because although it retains it's sense of being frenetic and sort of jumbled and incoherent, it does develop into a more engaging portrayal of two lads living in a very recent time, caught up in an emerging world with unexpected dangers cropping up in it. The manner of the film is in line with it's style, with it's sped up shots and blurry camera moments giving it it's added authenticity.

Performances wise, O' Connoll is convincing in another notch to his resume, while Hughes, best known as the bully in The Inbetweeners, is pretty decent support. Emily Barclay and Zawe Ashton are the chicks on display, and they make their mark on the film.

The problem with Karl Golden's film is it sometimes (most disasterously at the beginning) gets lost in it's own style and doesn't have an engaging story to follow. But it still comes off as a fairly decent thriller, inspiringly set against the back drop a lot of people young back then can remember. ***

the needle did not hit groove

[mala-12 · 1/10 · 1 October 2011]

OK, we're 40 seconds in and Kariya, Baby Let Me Love You For Tonight, one of the greatest records from this era is playing.

This movie is going to be amazing, I can tell...

This however is the highlight.

The acting starts, if you can call it acting. The characters are pathetic, and it's not the actors fault as I have looked at their bios on IMDb and they have done decent work before, so the fault can only be laid at the feet of the director.

The character development stopped and started at loading a stolen cigarette machine into the back of a van. All other characters were ugly, uninteresting, and offered little to no acting skills also and can only think they were friends of the director that had an afternoon spare.

After 45 minutes I was struggling to think of a reason not to press stop on the remote. I lived through this era, and not for a second (after the intro) did the movie transport me back.

Stick with Human Traffic to see how it should be done.

Weekender - A Cult Classic

[Valithanithizum · 10/10 · 6 October 2011]

First off, let me say that I'm absolutely shocked that this is rated only 4.8/10. This movie is bloody fantastic.

I can guarantee that this will become a cult film in the future the same way Requiem for a Dream is today.

While not without flaws, this movie has so much to offer someone looking for a good time. It starts out with the 2 main characters Dillon and Matt getting into the UK underground rave scene. They meet up with Captain Awesome and begin hosting their own raves. That's when the fun begins.

There are so many twists and turns, and epic moments in the film that I won't spoil anything. Give this movie a chance and you may find that you really enjoyed it, a guilty pleasure with a great ending.

Much better than the rating gives credit

[barkerj-874-410111 · 7/10 · 29 December 2013]

I've just finished watching this film, and it greatly surpassed my expectations that previous reviews/ratings had given.

The film is essentially about a group of mates who decide to host a warehouse rave in the early 90's, realise that they made easy money from partying so continue with it. For a while all goes well until eventually it all gets a bit much for them as fights over drug dealing begin to escalate, with the stress of the situation eventually tearing the characters apart.

All in all this film is entertaining to watch, and if you have knowledge of the scene you'll easily be reminded of some of the best times of your life. As well as entertaining some of the characters were fantastic, I won't go into detail, but you really can't help but hate the antagonist, especially as we've all had experiences with people like that, thinking they're better than other people and forgetting what made the party great in the first place.

This film isn't perfect, but definitely worth watching if you enjoyed Human Traffic, although it is noticeably darker

Very disappointing! :-(

[perditor · 2/10 · 28 April 2015]

I was there and this is not what it was like at all, this movie fails to capture the rush of it.

Poor acting, bad plot & poor choice of music. The reviewer who said it will become a cult classic is having a laugh, maybe he wrote this rubbish.

Not very original and poorly executed. Not worth wasting your time, just watch Human Traffic. I struggled to stay with it until the end.

Character relationships and development were not believable, a sorry effort all round.

I went in with high hopes but it was very disappointing.

Great era, miss them days

[rosskiwrongun · 28 September 2011]

I don't think they nailed the drug scene accurately, but its a cool film none the less.

I liked the music and sound track.

I liked the venues and different locations.

The plot was easy to follow and I didn't get bored at all.

Difficult to compete with the original Human Traffic movie but I collect clubbing movies so I can happily add this one to my movies shelf ;-)

I don't really have much more to say about it. i have no idea why I must write 10 lines of review.

A poor attempt at an edgy film.

[Darkskynet · 5/10 · 21 February 2020]

A poor attempt at an edgy film.

The plot wasn't gritty enough to be passed off as a druggy film and with some areas, particularly the acting of a few, felt unrealistic.

A film to have on in the background, nothing more.

Pills, thrills, and bellyache.....

[FlashCallahan · 6/10 · 30 October 2014]

It's 1990. The rave scene has arrived, and warehouse parties are exploding across the UK bringing wealth to the organisers.

Matt and Dylan long to be more than just punters. As the government moves to outlaw the scene, it's now or never and they quickly rise through the ranks to join the promoting elite.

They are taken on a journey from the VIP rooms of London to parties in Ibiza, and the hedonism of Amsterdam.

But as their success continues to grow, they attract a dark and sinister world. Matt and Dylan start to drift apart as they are forced to question the dreams they set out to achieve and their once solid friendship......

Again, nostalgia is the order of the day here to enable the viewer to enjoy the film that little bit more, because, as with all these films, the story, and narrative has been done a dozen times before.

Lads start to make it big in the rave scene, get noticed by some bad lads, and then get too involved, and then it's too late. As always, one goes over the top, and then the other decides to go straight, because he has a girlfriend.

We've seen it before, and before you can say 'injected with a poison' one owes lots of money to the character who is constantly angry for no reason.

But it all ends as you'd expect, the cast are great, especially O'Connell, and it's well paced.

It's just a shame that the makers didn't do more research into 1990, as some of the music wasn't released until much later (Ken Doh: I Need A Lover, wasn't release until 1995), and makes you roll your eyes a little.

But worth seeing.

Poop

[tommytomato-15522 · 3/10 · 12 March 2020]

Film was ok at best, acting was poor and even tho it was set in early 1990s they had money from today, clothes and over all style didnt fit the time they were trying to share, I know it only a small things but it's not hard to get right, small things have added up to make this film a shamble, nothing felt real just empty, zero heart and passion went into this movie.

A pointless film

[harry-31155 · 4/10 · 26 January 2024]

Much like Chris Coghill's other film "Spike Island" the plot is merely an excuse to drive a nostalgia trip forwards, there's no substance to it at all. I think the main driving point is that two young men in their 20s are organising a rave as if that's some sort of unique story, I'd argue that almost all rave organisers at that time were young men in their 20s.

It's also a poorly executed and anachronistic nostalgia trip at that, the fashion and overall aesthetic is very much a mashup of different periods of the rave scene from 1988-1999 that has been appropriated for the early 2010s, which many "period" films particularly low budget ones are guilty of. The music is also all over the place but that's the same with the slightly superior "Beats" from 2019, I kind of get it as the vague setting makes it appeal to a wider audience but it also paints a false picture of the rave scene, I promise you that no one in 1990 was listening to Mentasm by Joey Beltram because it hadn't come out yet.

The film would have never survived on its plot alone but I feel like it would have been more valid as mindless nostalgia if it had more direction, I. E the early illegal acid house raves of 1988-1990, the big legal breakbeat hardcore raves taking over in 1991-1993, the decline in the mid-late 90s etc. Because the setting is so jumbled and inauthentic it means the film doesn't work.

It scores some points because the two lead actors do the absolute best with the fairly shallow roles they've been given.

Also poor effort including that VERY obviously modern stock footage shot of Amsterdam.

Well worth buying

[CreedsFarm · 10/10 · 26 September 2011]

This film is far better than I expected it to be. I thought it would be OK having read some of the press reviews, but the storyline was far better, the characters interesting, intriguing and you definitely cared what happened to them as it got darker. OK I've never been to a rave or taken the drugs, but am of that generation - but have been to plenty of clubs, all night parties etc so think they recreated 'the scene' OK. It was very well shot & edited, and some really cool little bits of camera action that take things a bit further on than Guy Ritchie might do to tie trips abroad etc nicely into the rest of the film. Saw it on DVD - reckon they'd be wicked on Bluray! Anyway well worth buying - I shall be recommending it highly to friends... Great soundtrack too!

disappointing

[wheres_lee-181-462483 · 9 October 2011]

I saw this film in the local DVD hire shop and thought 'wow' this looks good acid house music, 1990, the guy out of Eden lake, it should be good. This film could have been amazing,there were too many anachronisms (the phone box, the bank notes, the vehicles that can be seen on the Amsterdam scene and the majority of the soundtrack! notably Nakasaki from 1995 ). The warehouse scenes were poor, no gurners, no sweaters no wide eyed crazy dancers. The costumes could have been better I was expecting acid face t shirts, shell suits, baggy jeans and some curtains or mushroom haircuts. On the plus side I liked Dylan's hair do, the acting was good from the main characters, John the rat and his mob looked the part. younger audiences will probably enjoy this but as someone who was around in 1990 wearing a shell suit and listening to tunes on a Walkman I wanted more.

Absolute must watch!

[tompidduck · 10/10 · 15 May 2014]

I'm not sure how i come across this movie but i can safely say, it is a must watch. From start to finish its amazing. You follow Matt and Dillon through highs and lows.

I don't want to spoil it for you so watch it, you wont be disappointed. Plus the music is great, makes you want to go out and party!

Things start off with M+D (Matt and Dillon) doing what they can to make money with their friend to pay into a rave.

M+D then come up with the idea of holding their own rave and thats when the trouble starts but also the good times.

You follow their journey from Warehouse party kings to the up and coming mass raves in Amsterdam but the money comes at a price.

Anyway, thats all i have to say but like I've said, watch it and see for yourself.

MY favourite movie of all time and a must watch. You WILL NOT be disappointed.