Groove (2000)

Parties are not always as fun as they look like they should be. The distinction lies in the realm between watching people have fun and actually having fun. Case in point: Groove. Set in San Francisco over the course of one night, this is the story of a rave, plain and simple. Preparation includes inhabiting an empty warehouse, finding the power supply, and sending out coded invitations. The movie kicks in as the party does, when people start arriving and the DJs start spinning. There's a nice moment early on when a cop shows up asking for the owner of the building, who is then taken on a tour of "a new Internet start-up." It becomes even funnier when the cop turns out to be smarter and more compassionate than anyone would expect. Writer-director Greg Harrison does a smart thing by focusing the story on David, a novice who's never been to a rave before, which breaks the story out of what could have been the suffocatingly insular world of rave culture. Unknowingly dosed by someone (his brother?), David is adopted by Layla, an attractive but lonely East Coast transplant who has begun to regret her party lifestyle. Other characters include a guy who's just proposed to his girlfriend, a college teaching assistant selling his own manufactured drugs, a nefarious lothario, a DJ who gets to meet his idol, and a gay couple having trouble finding the party. If the characters turn out to be just character types, that's OK because the movie itself floats by on its own high-octane enthusiasm. Groove is light and frothy entertainment with a beat you can dance to. --Andy Spletzer Amazon.com

I like it

I got this movie as a gift for my B/F, it's one of his fav movies from his wild years. He was so happy about it. This movie is VERY VERY VERY hard to find. Great condiotion and made it on time for the holiday:) May 30, 2007

This deserves a minus - 10 rating.

I wish there was a - rating system, I would rate this at - 10 stars, the only good thing about this movie is John Digweed (he shows up at the end of the movie for 2 minutes) and Bedrocks Heaven Scent.

It was such a burden having to watch this whole movie, first of all the acting is horrible and waaaaaaay overdone; Pretentious is the word. The acting was like watching those kids candy commercials were there's all these skateboarders and "extreme" sports figures doing tricks to advertise the candy product. Then theres all these gay love scenes, of which I found very unnecessary. If this movie shows what the rave scene really is, I feel sorry for ravers, fortunately this is not what raving is all about.

This story shows a corporate-underground (hmmm those two words shouldnt be together, should they? Well they do in this movie) rave, you have the party planner sending e-mails to all these yuppys to let them know where the party is, then theres the "going to the party" thing, the wharehouse blah blah blah. Trying to look like a real rave, but the last I knew raves werent sponsored by Levis or Starbucks!!

Then you have all these horrible actors trying to act like there all high on ecstasy, they just over do it, its like watching your granny trying to act like she's drunk.

Then theirs the dj's who act like their mixing by grabbing records, putting them on the turntable and cranking up the crossfader, any dj knows its not that simple. I'm not trying to disrespect the dj's, I bet John Digweed did a tiny part in this movie because the he probably got ditched by a club owner that didnt pay him for a gig and he needed the money to get back home.

Part of the movie is about this "raver-couple" who met each other like 2 days ago and are getting married, their "love" being completely influenced after using ecstasy (the love drug) and the dudes brother who is a complete pretentious nerd. The raver dude all the sudden is kissing another dude who is supposed to be the official rave massage guy!! I mean WTF?!!! Then his brother (pret. nerd) gets a hold on some E, of course he's never done any kind of narcotics or substance before, and he starts tripping and turns into a complete fool, he meets a chick who is supposed to be a veteran raver and she tries to guide him around his trip, then at the party he invites everyone for breakfest at his house, of course that doesnt happen because he didnt really like the people, he was just E happy.

Thank God theres and end to the movie, and at the end you get to see Digweed playing heaven scent, thats the only good part of the movie and it lasts like 2 minutes.

Oh I forgto to mention the "police bust". The police arrive at the party and the party organizer talks his way and gets a sngle cop to leave without checking any paper work or permit for the party, then later on the copps arrive and shut the party down in a raid like fashion, but guess what? No one gets arrested and the sound equipment doesnt get confiscated, the cops just run in the warehouse and run everybody out. Of course the nature of this movie wouldnt just let the people go home and stop filming this atrocity, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the people go back to the warehouse, break the police lock and continue the party from where they left off. Totally unreal.

The raver-couple chick see her boyfriend kissing the massage guy and runs to the bathroom to cry, her boyfriend follows her and tells her that he's not gay, and of course they get back together and go back dancing, then when the partys done the raver-couple dude sees the massage guy and tells him "I'm not gay" and the massage dude replies "Nah, me neither".

I hope you got an idea of how bad the movie is by this review, I got a headache writing it.
August 5, 2006

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A typical teen/early-twenties movie juxtaposing moments of characters being fun slacker caricatures, and moments where their humanity comes through. It's not about the rave scene, that's just the setting. It's about people, and the people in this slow-paced movie aren't very interesting. Their emotional issues didn't engage my interest or sympathy, and the fun scenes didn't make me wish I was there. Movies that did the same thing better include Dazed And Confused, Suburbia, Spun, The Party Monster, Empire Records, and even Go.
January 31, 2006

It's Okay, has flaws though...

The thing this movie does right is throw a some what convincing party, and has a pretty good sound track(I wish the music in the movie was actually on the sound track-don't buy the soundtrack). However, they also make club goers out to be a bunch of mindless junkies. I was actually kind of embarassed to be grouped in to this catagory. I am a clubber/party goer, and we're not all drug abusing, candy sucking retards. Some of us(Most Of Us)are intelligent mature grown ups and enjoy the party for the music, not the next big high. Ya, the "E"tards are there too, but the majority of people you find at parties are cool down to earth grown-ups, the ones you see in groove are poser wannabes. January 17, 2006

Its not over until the last record spins

Amazing movie AND music ..... Great look into the rave scene one crazy night in San Fransisco leading to peoples lives being changed NO JOKE! the end of the film says it all TAKE SOME EXTACY AND GROOVE!! January 1, 2006

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