Stars: Ben Barnes, Robert Sheehan, Martin McCann, Pete Postlethwaite, Krysten Ritter, Peter Serafinowicz
Runnning time: 113 mins
Rating: ****
The true-ish story of two Irish brothers, Neil (Barnes) and Ivan (Sheehan) struggling in the Eighties music scene while their schoolmates – U2 – find megastardom.
When Neil’s friend Paul, the man who became Bono (McCann), takes the lead singer’s role in the band The Hype, Neil determines to become a success in his own right. Trouble is Neil is more than capable of making the wrong decision at every turn. Time and again he rejects potentially life-changing opportunities.
He fails to tell his younger brother that Bono wants him in his band; he lies about this, that and the other. No wonder Neil’s band remains on the outskirts of musical success.
He gets on the wrong side of an Irish gangster (Stanley Townsend) who lends him money and rejects the chance of supporting the now-famous U2 for fear of losing face.
Director Nick Hamm lets Killing Bono go on too long but the film is generally boisterous, amusing and likeable stuff mixing high comedy and low dramatics.
Barnes – stiff and unconvincing in previous roles, but is great here) and Robert Sheehan (from C4’s The Misfits) work as the brothers, McCann makes an uneasily scary Bono. Postlethewaite, in his final film role, proves a scenestealer as the brothers’ camp London landlord.
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