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Nov 25, 2008joseph rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Watchable (Fair) - Shine a Light (2008) **½ 122 min. – This is a documentary by legendary film director, Martin Scorsese, featuring the Rolling Stones’ performance at the Beacon Theatre in New York during the fall of 2006. Throughout the picture, the concert footage would take a back seat to the numerous well-received retrospective interviews with members of the Rolling Stones. One in the particular is fascinating – during a 1960s interview, Mick was asked if he saw himself performing later in life; in his 60s. Seeing the boys on stage in their mid-60s is not the way I’d like to remember the Stones. It’s almost like seeing the 1975 Elvis – I like my rock stars to be young (but that’s me). Then again, I wish I could move like Mick and I’m no where close to his age – kudos to Super Mick. I missed Bill Wyman on bass guitar – he left the group in 1992 to focus on a solo career. I wasn’t too fond of the actual concert because of the song selections – they weren’t the greatest Rolling Stones’ songs. And to add insult to injury, one of the songs was a remake of "Just My Imagination" by The Temptations. With the oodles of songs in their library, why use someone else's song? In the end, to enjoy a music-based film, you really have to love the music. I found myself fast forwarding a lot of the songs. You’ll need to search the Special Features for their stage rendition of “Paint It Black”, one of the best Stones’ songs out there. Christina Aguilera makes a surprise appearance, which was fun to watch. The fun part of the film was seeing Martin Scorsese at the beginning of the picture panic because he didn’t have the song list the Stones’ would be performing. How could he arrange camera angles if he didn’t know who to focus the camera on? Another funny part of the film was Keith Richards speaking to the audience, which included Bill Clinton “It’s good to see you all. It’s good to see anybody!”