Taking Woodstock tells the story of how a small town took on a giant project hosting one of the biggest music festivals of all time. It’s directed by Ang Lee who has previously brought us Hulk / Brokeback Mountain, and stars Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff and Eugene Levy.

The movie starts off with struggling motel owners (Martin, Staunton & Goodman) fighting to stay afloat with increasing debts and no hope of escape from the looming bank managers. When Elliot hears on the radio that a festival in neighbouring town has failed to get a permit, he starts thinking maybe this is an event that his town can host. From here, we’re taking on the ‘based on a true story’ journey of Taking Woodstock which are focused around the memoirs of Elliot Tiber.

I liked the look of this movie from the trailer and was hoping for good things. For the first 30 minutes, i’d say that I got them with Imelda Staunton, Goodman and Martin all delivering excellent and comedic dialogue that had me laughing out loud. Unfortunately after those minutes were up, the movie just glides along where not a great deal happens and the laughs disintegrate into something that becomes pretty poor.

After the initial story has been told, we seem to get stuck as an audience not really knowing where to be taken. We see an awful lot of people coming to the event with some great stock footage but after the thousands upon thousands of people have arrived, the movie never really goes anywhere. One example is when Martin’s character, Elliot decides to go to the festival and gets pulled into a tent where around 10 minutes of screen-time are used to show him getting drugged up. I got bored pretty quickly! There a moments of humour when Liev Schreiber’s character turns up but even he didn’t do enough to revive the latter half of the movie.

I think this movie is going to be a good one to rent on DVD and I’m sure some people out there will love this movie to find out more about how Woodstock has become one of the biggest festivals ever. But it wasn’t really for me I’m afraid.

Taking Woodstock is available on iTunes from today and  DVD and Blu Ray from next Monday, 8th March. We currently have a competition running for 3 readers to win it on DVD here.

We have some cool footage from the UK premiere of Ang Lee’s new movie “˜Taking Woodstock’. The video footage includes a quick interview with director Ang Lee, stars Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton and screenwriter / producer James Schamus. It’s released in November 13th in the UK.

Synopsis: Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip! Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969′s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible. Working as an interior designer in Greenwich Village, Elliot feels empowered by the gay rights movement. But he is also still staked to the family business – a dumpy Catskills motel called the El Monaco that is being run into the ground by his overbearing parents, Jake and Sonia Teichberg (Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton). In the summer of 1969, Elliot has to move back upstate to the El Monaco in order to help save the motel from being taken over by the bank. Upon hearing that a planned music and arts festival has lost its permit from the neighboring town of Wallkill, NY, Elliot calls producer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) at Woodstock Ventures to offer his family’s motel to the promoters and generate some much-needed business. Elliot also introduces Lang to his neighbor Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), who operates a 600-acre dairy farm down the road.

It seems like an eternity again since we first posted the trailer for Ang Lee’s latest movie, Taking Woodstock. The movie stars Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Imelda Staunton and Eugene Levy. Empire have been good to us today and have provided us with another new poster – click to enlarge.

Taking Woodstock is based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969′s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.

Taking Woodstock is released in the UK 13th November.

Ang Lee’s new film Taking Woodstock has had it’s first trailer aired this week. The film is based on a true story about how the huge musical festival known as Woodstock was started.

After watching this trailer, I reckon it won’t be too long before a film about Glastonbury will come out.

Taking Wodstock stars Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Liev Schrieber, Eugene Levy, Dan Fogler and Paul Dano.

Taking Woodstock is released in the UK 13th November.