CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
DipitySkillful
an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.
Frances Chung
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
oftend
In the 80s, there were some REALLY good movies about the underground music/art scene - Mondo New York, Decline of Western Civilization and Urgh! (just to name a few) but Urgh! takes the cake for me. I put it above the rest because it's all JUST about the music. No blah blah blah...no commercial bull flop - no NOTHING but music and some of the AMAZING musicians that were out performing at the time.I did not like the Police getting 3 tracks however. That smacked of some favoritism but since they were the deep pockets at the time, anything less probably would have resulted in no movie at all. That's why God gave us the Fast Forward and Skip buttons I believe. LOL.Watching this movie gives you a brief albeit somewhat lacking skim of the entire punk/new wave scene at the time, but given the ocean of music that was out there when I was a young pup, it's probably the best possible collaboration given the time and money available for production. It is a MUST VIEW for any music aficionado. Rapidly moving from Wall of Voodoo to Pere Ubu to XTC to OMD and on and on and on is like watching your young life go by (if you were born in the 60s *grin*) on Fast Forward and it is WONDERFUL! That said, it's heartbreaking now to see how young and talented all those folks were and how few remain relevant today...but music today is EXACTLY what Jello Biafra predicted in would be: "If you don't keep your eyes open...you'll be forced to buy skinny tie...pop bands". Well, the skinny ties are mostly gone - but today's bubblegum, idiotic pop music is all powerful and sickening - gone is the creative, roaring flame of the late 70s/early 80s music scene - replaced with vapidness like Britney Spears et al.Urgh! was and still is a testament to what great music and culture are all about. It's an irreproducible miracle of the modern age and we will never see anything like it again short of a new age of enlightenment affecting all mankind. Find it! Watch it! PRESERVE it! COVET IT!! I give it two thumbs up, a snap, a circle twist and 4 zillion stars.
YourReporter
This is the ultimate rock movie. It shows how not all rock is about cars, chicks and having fun, it can be about psychosis, political commitment, alienation and all other aspects covered by traditional arts. This makes the movie rather deep; although some performances are rather shallow, the diversity of artistic directions are undeniable, and makes for a great experience and recurring afterthought. The level of experimenting is intense, from the psychotics of Pere Ubu and John Cooper Clarke, via the eerie sceneries of Gary Numan and Gang of Four, to the mutated rock of Devo and Klaus Nomi. A must-see. -r3port3r
momentoflifebeginningofterror
I think this rates higher than the collective score, but that's just my opinion. The previous comments from The Police fan aside, this is a great collection of live performances. I like The Police, but if it weren't included on URGH! it would be fine by me. It does look dated, but so do performances by Elvis and The Beatles and nobody complains about that. It's worth looking at again if you've seen it and seeing for the first time if you haven't. If you like the New-Wave-Post-Punk world of the early 80's I think you will rate it higher. The Fleshtones, Echo & The Bunnyman, Wall of Voodoo, Devo, Gary Numan and OMD are favourites of mine. The Cramps are a must see. I've seen them live and they are ultra weird and great performers. From what I remember, the soundtrack has more songs than the movie did, but I may be mistaken.
icehole4
Although it may seem dated now, in its time this was a collection of some of the best bands that were "out there," the most commercial being the Police and the Go-Go's. It also offers a very rare insight into seeing XTC live [which hasn't occurred since this video was released.]Sadly impossible to find now, it was really worthwhile to see in the early 1980's. Maybe someone like Rhino will pick up on this and release it again...
