DVD Reviews

Angels is a half-hearted effort in which Green should've demanded much stronger performances.  It's pretty clear that mumbly improvisation only works when it's coming from a highly talented actor (and almost exclusively in a comedy setting), and for such an understated product like this, it simply doesn’t cut it.

$14.50 for a movie isn’t exactly cheap, in fact you can pick up a DVD at Best Buy for less.  But a 3-D IMAX film billed as the first live-action movie shot, produced and exhibited solely in digital 3-D, $14.50 for a thrilling hour and a half front-row concert seat is a deal.  And if you’re a U2 fan and Bono’s inflated persona jumping into your Goobers doesn’t weird you out, than U2 3D is as good as it gets.

You may remember Stevie Ray Vaughan as arguably the greatest electric blues guitarist, but do you know him as a video giant?  No, probably not, because SRV was no Michael Jackson. And the Texas boy would be more likely playing dance punk chords (as he did for Bowie’s “Lets Dance”) before looking pretty in a video. Stevie was more about sound than image; although you have to hand it to him for always looking cool with his flat brimmed hat, poncho and SRV initialed Statocaster.

Like Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, this collection is erratic. Some of it is amazing, some is trite, some is timeless and some is dated. The first disc is by far the least interesting. While some of the very early classics are on there, the videos generally show Paul's escape to a pastoral life that may have been very refreshing for him, but makes for dull music videos. The second disc picks up with the shallow visual interpretation of "Pipes of Peace," but also contains a lot of McCartney's best solo work, from the Flowers in the Dirt singles on. Plus, there's a really interesting tour of Abbey Road studios from Paul as a bonus.

Director Anton Corbijn recreates Curtis’ struggles in Control, basing the script on the autobiography, “Touching From a Distance,” by Curtis’ widow. The urban decay and paranoia of late 1970’s Manchester, England is conjured vividly from the film makers black and white imagery, which later gave birth to the “Madchester” scene a decade later.

Echo & the Bunnymen rose to prominence at the end of the punk era and had a lasting impact on the New Wave movement that followed. But they always seemed a step ahead of other bands from that time because Echo and the Bunnymen were never really punk enough and always had more soul than other New Wave bands as they liberally dipped a toe into the pool of classic British blues bands.

Watching Chris and Rich Robinson perform together during Birds of a Feather: Live at the Roxy, prompts the observation that performing without the Black Crowes is the best thing the founders have done for their band in recent memory.

I have but one complaint about this DVD although I have no reasonable solution to remedy it: I wish the DVD was made up of complete concerts rather than songs culled from various shows over the years. Of course the sacrifice would be the variety of shows that a career overview should cover, so it's a fair trade-off. That being said, I can find no other fault with it.

Set in the heart of autumn in beautiful upstate New York, this year’s eight annual Woodstock Film Festival impressed with a blend of small town charm, prestigious films, and great music. There was a little bit of something for everyone, even those who aren’t your average film fest attendees.

it’s only fitting that with 2007 welcoming the 50th Anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, that Christopher McCandless’ journey to a destination unknown made it to the big screen. McCandless’ two year adventure was documented in the 1996 best seller Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, and has since served as modern-day thesis for self-discovery.

Overlooking the nitpicky points about graphics and the production, JamCam’s Jam in Jamaica is a great escape.

The profound influence of Hunter S. Thompson on modern journalism, popular culture and rock ‘n’ roll is undeniable and not up for debate.

Metallica has never taken itself lightly. From pure metal (Kill ‘Em All) to pure meltdown (Some Kind of Monster), a strand of crippling tension has always held the quintet together.

Since 2000, The Jammys serve to honor the best in the jam world while also providing a venue for the scene’s unlikeliest of superstar mash-ups.

The point Eno is trying to make is that music and art are meant to be captured in the moment, but whether that comes across as genius or pretentiousness is entirely up to the eye of the beholder.

This new documentary follows Hosoi’s career from young skating prodigy to the top of the skateboard world and his status as a certified “rock star” living a notorious life style with endless money to burn. Thats when his life begins a descent into crystal-meth addiction and an eventual arrest that led to him spending just over four years in a Hawaiian prison.

There's been a windfall of Pixies DVDs in the past year or two, but Acoustic: Live In Newport takes the cake for odd and wonderful resonance. What's even more fascinating than this concert document of the Pixies at the 2005 Newport Folk Festival is the behind-the-scenes material, where we quickly see that the the reconstituted band not so much eases into the idea of an acoustic set as it gets ready to shoehorn itself in.

Recorded on August 9, 2003, Neko Case’s appearance on Austin City Limits is obviously a bit late to hit the stores. It only features one song (“Maybe Sparrow) off her latest album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, instead concentrating on covers and material from Case’s older albums, all of which are performed with the usual cast of characters that she has taken on the road the past few years.

As the drummer of The Police, Stewart Copeland was an integral part of their success. And fortunately he was able to cash in on that success at the time by purchasing a Super 8 video camera. The result is Everybody Stares: The Police Inside Out, an impressive, insightful and antic-tinged look at how a band goes from nowhere to somewhere big, while getting lost in the journey.

Both accompaniments encapsulate the ‘fledgling rock band sweating it out night after night’ motif, though this one leaves you with more than just potential. Rock ‘n’ Roll Band is a colorful chapter in what promises to be a grand career.