Review: It’s rare that a film both disappoints and yet still comes out with a favorable review, but Anvil: The Story of Anvil does exactly that. Sacha Gervasi’s story of best friends turned famous rock stars turned aging has-beens has all the elements of a very good story even despite missing the mark on what it could have been. Anvil is nothing like Metal: A Headbangers Journey or any other documentary a rock fan can feel at home watching. If anything, it nestles its sentimentality between the likes of The Wrestler and a Lifetime Channel movie. Gervasi starts his film off with footage from the last major concert performance Anvil played nearly 20 years ago before juxtaposing that image with the current job lead singer Robb Reiner holds: school cafeteria food delivery man. His lead guitarist and long time friend Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow hasn’t faired too much better. Neither is famous, neither is satisfied but both haven’t given up the dream of making it big. And this is the journey audiences are taken on: will these two hold their band together long enough to make it big. If nothing else, these two hard rockers are easy to root for. They are both happily married, hard working, eccentric and able to (at times) find enjoyment in their music despite countless disappointments. And let’s be honest here, they face innumerable failures. Throughout almost the entirety of Gervasi’s documentary, audiences witness the band play in front of extremely small crowds, miss travel arrangements, endure vendors that refuse to pay, face rejection from record producers, and almost break up. Despite all this, they persevere. Does all that work pay off? Well, one will have to see the entire documentary to find out, but be prepared to watch the band you root for constantly find their hopes smashed. By the end, with one last attempt at redemption on the horizon it’s not hard to agree with Robb Reiner who begins to prepare for the worst. No, this is not a documentary that will satisfy your love for heavy metal. It’s a journey and more importantly an image of struggling most of us can relate to. For this reason it is well worth the investment- even if you can’t stand anything but Bach or Mozart. But, whether you like Anvil or not, one can’t help but feel heavy metal fans were thrown a curve ball that takes the entire film for audiences to accept and appreciate. But if that’s its biggest sin, then it is more than forgivable. Review by Matthew Abshire Informative: 3.5- though their trials are well documented, you’re never really sure why the band never made it big Entertainment: 3.5- it’s hard not to root for two guys who try so hard to achieve their dreams Technical: 3- it’s pretty straightforward, where some beautiful imagery is tempered by a meandering story Overall: 3.5- Rocky meets the Wrestler swirled with a little bit of Lifetime and a dash of heavy metal… I’m not sure what that means, but this movie is good
 
Format: Theater Year: 2009 Running Time: 90 Min Distributor: Abramorama and VH1 Classic Producer: Rebecca Yeldham and Christopher Soos Director: Sacha Gervasi Date Reviewed: 6-29-2009 Story: Formed by two 14-year-olds in the 1970s, Canadian heavy metal band Anvil influenced the great acts that followed, such as Anthrax and Metallica. This documentary joins Anvil's now middle-aged founders as they recover from a disastrous tour of Europe. Hoping to end their youthful dreams and careers on a high note, Robb Reiner, Steve "Lips" Kudlow and the band set out to record their 13th album, "This Is Thirteen” (NetFlix).