In every life there comes a time when that dream you dream becomes that thing you do.Recounts a fable of a pop rock band immediately after the Beatles took America by storm in early 1964. Jazz aficionado Guy Patterson unhappily toiling in the family appliance store is recruited into the band the Oneders (later renamed the Wonders) after regular drummer Chad breaks his arm. After Guy injects a Merseybeat rhythm into lead singer Jimmy's ballad the song's undeniable pop power flings the Wonders into a brief whirlwind of success telling the tale of many American bands who attempted to grab the brass ring of rock and roll in the wake of the British Invasion.System Requirements:Run Time: 155 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 024543381648 Manufacturer No: 2238164
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Tom Hanks's debut as a writer and director is a lively, affectionate account of the shooting-star career of a forgotten (fictional) '60s pop-rock band called The Wonders--as in "one-hit wonders." Hanks plays the manager of the group, which includes drummer Guy "Sticks" Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) who works the floor at his parents' appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania; Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech), the talented and temperamental lead singer and songwriter; Lenny (Steve Zahn), the goofy guitarist; and Ethan Embry as a geeky little fellow identified in the cast list only as "The Bass Player." The movie traces their meteoric rise and fall, from cutting their first record, to going on tour with a Phil Spector/Motown-type revue, to the internal tensions that lead to the band's disintegration, which comes when they fail to follow up their smash hit single, "That Thing You Do!" And that song, by the way, is so catchy it would definitely have been a hit in 1964--and deserves to be one today. This delightful movie would make a great double-bill with Allison Anders's wonderful Grace of My Heart. --Jim Emerson
