Garage Days (2003)

Image credit: Garage Days: Lisa Tomasetti

AIRHEAD GUITAR, ANYONE? ''Garage'' lowers the bar-band bar

There's something uniquely embarrassing about a rock & roll fable that is no more authentic (and no less coy) than an episode of ''The Monkees'' yet insists on presenting itself as the epitome of rebel-yell cool. Garage Days, the tale of a struggling bar band in Sydney, Australia, is like a zany, goofy Down Under version of such American dork-rock duds as ''Airheads'' and ''Empire Records.'' It's the kind of movie in which the famous manager the band is trying to land tells them that he's looking for ''a s--- hot demo with a new sound!'' Crazy, man!

After spending 10 minutes in the company of such characters as Gee-Whiz Lead Singer With Bad Teenybop Dye Job, Edgy Yet Bizarrely Fey Mohawked Drummer, and Pudgy Manager Who Secretly Likes to Dance to Tom Jones, I began to wish that I was watching a Kenny G biopic instead. ''Garage Days'' was directed by Alex Proyas, the brooding visual stylist who made ''The Crow'' and ''Dark City,'' but based on this movie, it's safe to say that he wouldn't know what a garage looked like, let alone a band you might find in one.