The quiet marvel, though, is Martin McCann’s portrayal of Paul/Bono, which only confirms how much suggestion trumps imitation when playing a familiar icon. Blending a tale of obsession with a uniquely intimate portrait of rock. It doesn’t help matters that director Nick Hamm subscribes to the over-excitedly gestural school of guiding actors, which saps any potential loser charm from leads Ben Barnes (as Neil) and Robert Sheehan (Ivan) and instead makes them seem like spinning tops. Based on real events, Killing Bono tells the story of young Irish rocker Neil McCormick and his younger brother, Ivan, who attempt to become rock stars but can only look on as their school. Buy a used copy of Killing Bono : I Was Bonos Doppelganger book by Neil McCormick. Instead, he had to watch while his friend became one of the most famous men on the planet. In the 1970s, Neil and Ivan McCormick were. Neil McCormick always dreamed of life as a rock star. That familial twist of fate is heartbreaking enough without screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (who penned the much-better band saga “The Commitments”) piling on rock-’n’-roll clichés. A charming admixture of Goodfellas and Almost Famous, Killing Bono is a fanciful rock tale that is nevertheless based on a true story. Inspired by the memoir of Irish music journalist Neil McCormick, who as an aspiring musician watched his schoolmates become U2 while he toiled away in failing bands, the movie grafts onto Neil’s story the dramatic notion that he prevented his guitar-playing brother Ivan from being part of the original U2 lineup in order to keep the sibs together. “Killing Bono” whips up a frenzied mix of musical jealousy, wishful stardom and farcical lucklessness into a movie too slippery to hold onto. No rock stars were injured in the making of Killing Bono, a semi-fictionalized retelling of McCormick's 2004 memoir, despite the picture's aggrieved title in fact Neil himself (played by Ben.

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