Obviously it would have been a much better movie if Johnny Rotten had stayed in the band. Without his presence, McLaren pretty much took over the project and made it all about his personal mythology version of who & what the Pistols were and how it all came about. Steve Jones & Paul Cook probably only went through with it because they liked Julien Temple and didn't want him to flunk out of film school. (Yes, this film was actually made for college credits)
Sid, of course, was so fucking out of it, he probably didn't even know he was in the movie. But the music is good.... apart from the songs that McLaren sings and that TenPole Tudor garbage. Nobody in this movie was going to win an Oscar for acting ability though!
And what other movie has a rock band flying to South America to record a song with an international fugitive, for fucks sake???