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.

Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal

Went over to JJ's house with some good veggie food and watched this flick again. Clearly in a thrash mood lately.

For being as Italian as J is, he didn't have any olive oil in his house. WTF.

Murder in the Front Row

The only thing I regret about buying this book is that I didn't buy it sooner. It's literally been in my Amazon wishlist since it came out in 2011. I just finally pulled the trigger.

Do you love early Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Megadeth and Testament? Of course you do. So buy this god damn book. It's about 300 pages of photos from the early 80's in San Francisco. Lots of sick live shots and a good helping of candid photos from soundchecks or just hanging out.

Tight blue jeans, no belts, sleeveless shirts, bulletbelts, Flying V's, Explorers, Bichs, Mockingbirds, Les Pauls, white sneakers and bangs. It's all there.

If Bazillion Points puts it out, it's pretty much essential. Don't wait five years to get this. Hit the lights!

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Unlike the film, this will be short: The Two Towers is one of the worst films I've ever seen in my life.

...

The second book is much better than the first. Far more action and a much deeper understanding of characters and plot development etc. A lot of variety. No fucking Shire. It's a lot better. The film however, holy shit, it takes the turd of the first one look like a masterpiece in comparison.

The pacing and editing sucks. The film keeps bouncing back and forth between our two sets of adventurers like it has Tourette's at the beginning. The acting is wooden as a baseball bat. Who is this Orlando Bloom guy? He sucks. Gimli, while playing such a generic Dwarf, is good. And Aragorn is decent. Everyone else is as spoon. Even Treebeard, who is actually made of wood (in theory), has more dimension than some of these human actors.

The CGI? For fuck's sake. It's terrible and I imagine it will be laughed at if it already isn't being laughed at. When you have such a tale...don't try and tackle it with technology that simply can't do it justice. You make yourself look crap and you do an injustice to the original text.

So yeah, four fucking hours of my life watching this god damn thing. And like a masochist, I will watch the third installment after I finish the final book.

Rubbish.

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.