Still Crazy

"I love the smell of vomit in the morning," says one of the members of Strange Fruit, a '70s rock band mounting a 20-years-after tour at the close of the '90s. Deciding the time is right to "surf the nostalgia wave," keyboardist Tony Costello (Stephen Rea) and his old mates give up their day jobs (roofing, refilling condom machines, and so on), immediately set about opening old wounds during rehearsal (concerning the drummer: "sounds like he's building a shed"), and eventually take their slightly creaky act on the road in a whirlwind reunion tour through Holland. The scripting by Dick Clement and Ian La Fresnais (The Commitments) is often laugh-out-loud funny, the performances of the solid British cast (including Timothy Spall as Beano the flatulent drummer, and stage actor Bill Nighy as the Prozac-popping insecure lead singer) are dead on, and the music itself (from, among others, Mick Jones of Foreigner and Chris Difford of Squeeze) is actually pretty good. Sort of a This is Spinal Tap meets The Full Monty, this ode to power rock ("God got tired of all that '70s excess, that's why he created the Sex Pistols") is a whole lotta fun. Recommended. (R. Pitman)