Bosch: The Garden of Dreams

Bosch doc at the DFT? Date w/ Marie? Wouldn't miss it.

We went out to see this w/ a couple friends and then ate some good vegan nosh at Seva. All in all it was a very good evening.

The film was pretty good. It's essentially a whole doc on one painting. They got a variety of artists (poets, playwrights, fine artists, singers, writers, etc) to comment on the Garden of Earthly Delights. Some information was historically accurate, but most was just speculation and opinion.

Overall I think the film could have done w/ more cultural context surrounding the meaning of the painting. There's so much to look at and so many details that they could have had a field day explaining what some of it meant by talking to more art historians. Instead they focused on seemingly random interpretations by people who aren't formally educated on fine art. What can Salman Rushdie tell me about the Garden of Earthly Delights? I'd rather hear from an art history professor to be honest. Or even just a historian who could help unravel some of the weirdness going on in the painting.

It was still good and it was a very enjoyable night.

Frazetta: Painting with Fire

Just watched this on Amazon. I'd heard about it for a while. It's a low budget doc, but it's official and I haven't heard of any better ones out there.  I watched it a few days ago but if I recall it was in 4:3. So yeah.

You learn a good deal about the man, though. It's definitely worth watching. I actually liked it better than the Giger one, for instance. It's a lot of talking head interviews with Frank, friends and family. I like that it goes back to his youth a lot. Definitely gives you a better understanding of Frank as opposed to just pouring over his art.

Dig it.

Future Shock: The Story of 2000AD

I was real freakin stoked when I saw this movie get released. Then I was quickly bummed out because it was a PAL-only format dvd. They weren't doing a US NTSC version. Something about not having distribution here. Teased!

Fast forward a few months and they finally got streaming rights in the US. I don't even care bout the dvd version now that I jumped on streaming it.

I watched it last night and I was a happy lad, transported back to Scotland. Transported to the local sweet shop where I'd go in every week and buy my issue of 2000AD and an accompanying bag of Pickled Onion Monster Munch or a Yorkie bar. mmmm....

This is a well-made doc about the origins and history of the ground-breaking British comic. It turned me on to Judge Dredd at an early age, and he's stuck with me through the years. Definitely one of my all time favorite characters. I loved the early shit. And just as important as Dredd was the introduction to Simon Bisley's artwork. I would stare at his pages for hours. Revisit the hell out of them. It didn't even matter what strip he was painting or whether it went over my young head or not. It was the art. The blood. The visceral nature of it all. Bisley is god.

Slaine: The Horned God by Bisley is one of the greatest comics ever created, imo. I can say that without hesitation.

I loved the hell out of Rogue Trooper, too. But anyway, I digress. This is a good doc for comic book nerds. It pulls back the curtain and sheds light on some of the darker days and the shadier aspects of working at 2000AD. But mostly it celebrates the good times and focuses on the great legacy of the anarchic, satirical, brilliant comic that I grew up on. It truly is the galaxy's greatest comic book. 

Nas: Time is Illmatic

I saw a Nas doc on Amazon Prime so I checked it out. It's about the making of one of the greatest hip-hop records of all time. One of the greatest debuts by any artist...ILLMATIC.

Yeah, it's pretty dope. If you dig Illmatic then watch this doc. If you don't...wtf?

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

I've never listened to Steve Aoki, but I know who he is. Ex-hardcore dude turned world famous DJ. Son of Rocky Aoki aka the founder of Benihana. But all that doesn't matter cuz I like documentaries and I like learning about people/things I don't know about.

Netflix puts out some good original programming. They're legit. My eyeballs fucking hurt right now so this has to be brief. This is a good doc. Well done. Mad respect to Steve's work ethic. Homeboy cracked 300 shows in one year. That's absolutely insane. He seems like a real nice dude and he makes a lot of people happy.

Entertaining doc. Check it out.

The Hurt Business

I liked Generation Iron and I'm looking forward to GI 2. This doc is by the same dude. It's a quality documentary about the history of MMA. It's well produced with really good editing. They interview a lot of the heavy hitters like Ronda, Jon Bones Jones, Rashad Evans, Randy, Tito, etc...

The doc covers women, men, champions, and has-beens. There are interviews with team owners, gym owners, ref's, announcers, owners, Bellatore and UFC. It's definitely well rounded.

Definitely worth a watch. It's not just a hype machine. It plays devil's advocate and looks at brain injuries and isn't afraid to throw some dirt around. Good stuff. This guy makes legit sport doc's. Thumbs up.

The Smiths – Under Review

I've been going down a rabbit hole of music documentaries offered on Amazon. I watched this Smiths doc even though it looked a little bootleg. It was probably made for TV. Whatever, it was still interesting even though it was more of a B or C production.

Morrissey did a LOT of hip gyration in the Smiths. That's my takeaway.

Looking forward to reading the Johnny Marr book. That's been getting good reviews.

Stone Roses - Made Of Stone

Ahhh, now here's another gem. Shane Meadows directed the amazing This is England. And he's the man behind this doc. He does the Roses proud.

This is a look into the history of the Stone Roses, but with a focus on their 2012 reformation and come-back gigs.

There's a decent amount of archival footage as well us a ton of new stuff. But the best thing about this documentary is you can tell Shane is a through-and-through fan. He put a lot of detail into it. And the editing is just electric at times. He does an awesome job on the live footage. He captures the mood of the crowd, their emotions, with the mood and energy coming from the band. It's a perfect marriage.

This isn't a definitive oral or visual history of the band by any means, but it certainly captures a spirit of revival. It's a very enjoyable watch.

Highly recommended.

Slash: Raised On The Sunset Strip

So I just watched the Oasis doc and it was fucking brilliant. This Slash doc is quite the opposite. It's fucking bollocks.

Slash is the guitarist who made me want to play guitar as a kid. He's the reason I play Les Pauls and Mockingbirds. He's THE MAN. But boy did he get shafted with this flick.

It's made by Guitar Center. Do I really need to say more? It's basically a shitty infomercial for Slash's newest band.

There's no artistry in this flick. No passion. Just low budget corporate crap.

Oasis: Supersonic

This is one of the best music documentaries I've seen in years. Gotta be the best doc I've seen in 2016.

This Director knows what's up. There was so much effort and so much detail put into this film and it really shines through. The editing is great, the inclusion of lots of rare archival footage is great, it's just a really top-notch production. Even though I don't know anything or give a rat's ass about Amy Winehouse, I'd see the doc he did on her on the strength of this one alone. He's a great story-teller.

Supersonic charts the origins and insane ascension of Oasis from their first gig through to their second album. It's really cool that the doc is so limited in scope because it means you don't get some super compressed timeline of all their albums and exploits. It's just the first 3 or 4 years or so.

It's no secret that Oasis is literally my favorite band of all time. I think Noel is the greatest song-writer of our generation and definitely one of the top 10 song-writers of the last 100 years.

Highly recommended doc. You should watch this. And they should make more that chart the rest of the band's history in segments.

Stoked for the probable reunion in 2017.

Man Vs. Snake: the Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler

I've never heard of the old school video game Nibbler, but I'll watch a doc on anything.

This is an engrossing doc about the sixteen year old nerd who was the first person ever to score one BILLION points on an arcade game in the 80's. He sets the high score on Nibbler and over two decades later the challenge is thrown down. Now in his 40's, our protagonist is back at it, trying to demolish the competition in a 44 hour non-stop gaming marathon...all on one quarter.

Highly recommended.

CT Fletcher: My Magnificent Obsession

If you lift you've probably heard of CT Fletcher. He's a big dude with an even bigger mouth. He's a YouTube star and he yells at his biceps and, "commands them to grow!" He says "motherfucker" a LOT. So he's rather entertaining at first, but he gets old.

Enter this documentary. It's by the same guy who did Generation Iron. Both docs are really freakin' good. Once you watch this you will have a different perspective on CT Fletcher. He doesn't yell all the time. He's really a pretty freakin cool dude. I dig him.

From world champion weight-lifter to open heart surgery to YouTube star to gym owner. It's an interesting story and it makes for compelling viewing. Definitely recommended.

I command you to watch it, motherfucker.

Gimme Danger

I went to the DFT with Mr. Jason Pearce to see Gimme Danger. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get tickets for the night that Jim and Iggy were doing Q&A, though. I was on "you might have a baby alert" for that night.

Anyway, the doc was good but not amazing. Lots of talking head stuff and various live footage. It's well done. Interviews with all the relevant people.

Sometimes you can watch amazing documentaries about boring subjects, and sometimes you see boring docs about amazing subjects. I think Gimme Danger is a good doc about an incredible band. But I was kinda left wanting a little bit more out of the doc. I can't put my finger on it.

Fresh Dressed

This flick is actually quite a bit better than the trailer lets on. It looks a bit too glossy and superficial, but the movie comes off deeper and more down to earth than that.

Anything that starts in 1970's NYC with the classic era gangs is gonna be good. This doesn't disappoint. The documentary charts the origins of hip hop fashion to the NY boroughs when NY was straight up living "the Warriors." It takes it from there to the birth of hip hop via the b-boys and rides the wave to current day innovators. We see rappers starting their own labels like Rocawear, Wu Wear, and Sean Jean, and even before that we see street wear become "a thing."

There are some pretty cool interviews with local cats from back in the day, as well as big name rappers in the game like Nas and Kanye, etc.

I really dug this look back at hip hop fashion. Definitely worth a watch on Netflix if you like hip hop at all.

Wooooord. Woooooooord.

21 Days Under the Sky

Can't remember where I found out about this. Maybe it just popped up in my Netflix queue. Anyway, it's a biker road trip flick made in part by Dice Magazine. So it has credentials.

Four dudes ride from SF to NY in three weeks. A pretty awesome ride by anyone's standards. Would love to take that on.

They ride some pretty rad Harley choppers. Sissy bars, extended front ends with exaggerated rake, Coker tires, you know the drill. I wanna know where that dude got his serape vest. It's nice. But anyway...the bikes are legit.

The soundtrack is pretty good. But overall the movie is pretty shallow. You don't get to know any of the characters. It's just about getting some nice, artistic shots of the bikes traveling cross-country. Nothing more, nothing less. They try and weave in some sort of commentary on America and the history of bikers...but it's still pretty shallow.

It's not very long. I'd definitely recommend you watch it if you ride bikes or dig choppers. For sure.

I am Thor

I was never a Thor fan, but as a big music bio fan I had to watch "I am Thor." Bodybuilding and heavy metal? Fuck yeah, I'll check it out.

In talking with Uberti about said movie today he described it as, "like a second rate The Story of Anvil." And that's a very good, succinct description. A lot of the production is handled by one dude. The audio is sketchy. The video quality varies quite a lot throughout the movie. It's all done on a shoestring budget.

Is it a good movie? No, not really. Is it an interesting story? Yeah. Is Thor any good? No. He should have stuck to bodybuilding. Dude was a beast. But y'know, a lot of people like his shit, so good for him. Whatever floats your boat.

The whole thing was worth learning one pretty crazy tidbit about Jerry Only and the Misfits. But I won't spoil it for  you...

He looks like He-Man.

Generation Iron

I watched this last year and decided it was time to give it a second viewing. I just re-read my original review, and while it was complementary I think it was a touch harsher than I feel about it now. That's how I felt at the time, so whatever. I liked it even more the second go round. 

If you lift and you've haven't seen it, get to it!

We Are Twisted Fucking Sister

Never been a Twisted Sister fan. I mean...look at them.

Still not a fan. But I respect the hell out of them! Definitely thought Dee was a really articulate and intelligent dude for a long time. No doubt. Testifying in the PMRC musical hearings in DC was a big deal. Dee was awesome. But cool dude or not, I still didn't like Twisted Sister.

I watched this 2 hour 15 minute doc about the inception and rise to fame of Twisted Sister and walked away with even more respect for them. The doc doesn't get into their "famous years," it's 100% on their struggle to the top, which is cool. The untold story, if you will.

There's not a lot to the doc. Talking heads and archival footage. Not much in the way of interesting motion graphics or anything else. It's slick enough, but very basic.

I'd definitely recommend it if you want to see a doc on some gritty, determined motherfuckers. This is a story of pure determination and a stubborn drive to succeed. They slog their way from tri-state clubs to selling millions of records and playing all over the world.

It's a cool story. Inspiring. And there's a lot of make-up.

Ramesses II: The Great Journey

I've decided to get back into Egyptology.

Every child, or at least every male child, grows up with a fascination with the universe, dinosaurs, and Egypt. You just do.

So considering I'm 36 going on 11, I'm going back to my roots and I'm going to read some books and watch whatever I can on the subject. I already got a book on how to read hieroglyphics for x-mas. So I'll dig into that soon enough.

I watched this video on Amazon Prime. It was kinda crappy. Didn't like the narrator. Interesting, but I need something that doesn't feel quite so second rate...

Top Spin

I'll watch a documentary on almost anything. Case in point, I just watched one on ping pong. And loved it.

It's no secret I really dug Spellbound back in 2002. It's an Oscar nominated doc about the national spelling bee. Riveting stuff. Well, Top Spin is like Spellbound but for table tennis players trying to make it to the Olympics in London in 2012. Kids who are 15 years old just kicking major ass.

Top Spin is really well done. Doesn't need a big budget. It just follows some students, tells their stories, and puts it all together in a quick narrative with a well-defined arc. Simple and effective.

The kids who are profiled are paragons of grit, as Angela Duckworth would say. It's true. These kids are the embodiment of steely grit and determination. I'd be super proud of them if I were their parents.

This is only 80 minutes. Stream it on Netflix. You'll learn about something you never knew about before....unless you happen to really, really be into ping pong.