Metallica: Some Kind Of
Monster
Details: July, 2004 140 min. Directed by Joe
Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Action: much talking, some music
Kid Friendly?: If they can stand all the talking
Reviewer: Lauren
Verdict: This 140 minute movie would have been much better as a 90 minute
movie.
Documentary crew follows Metallica in 2001-2003, as they recorded their
album St. Anger. The dysfunctional group sought the counsel of their on-call
shrink to help sort out their interpersonal woes.
This sounded juicy:
"Legendary heavy metal, hard rock tough guys go to therapy and talk about
their feelings." And the first 20-30 minutes of this film were fun. But
though Metallica may be the most successful heavy metal band of all time,
theyıve always seemed humorless to me. And funny at the same time - like
they should have a sense of humor about themselves, but donıt. (Now Rob
Zombie, thereıs a rocker with a wry sense of humor.)
This flick is 140 l-o-n-g minutes of the band bickering, intercut with some
live concert and studio music scenes. I couldnıt even get through the whole
movie in one sitting.
There are a few precious moments, like meeting Lars Ulrichıs bearded father
who looks like he came to the US as a backpacking European student/hippie
and never left. And James Hetfield doing his vocal warm-ups in a hallway
before a show.
And the short scene of bassists auditioning to have a jam with the band at a
Fan Appreciation Day. And James "sharing" that even though he has to leave
the recording session at 4 p.m. daily since heıs fresh out of months of
rehab, he feels left out when the rest of the group continues after his
departure.
Verdict - watch the movie "This is Spinal Tap" instead. Itıs basically the
same movie but with a BIG sense of humor.
WAIT- UPDATE! OPINION CHANGE!
I watched the last 60 minutes of the movie AFTER I already wrote whatıs
above. BUT the last hour of "Monster" made up for the sagging previous hour.
Seeing Robert Trujillo audition and then be chosen as the new bassist, and
then scenes of him practicing bass while jumping on his bed are great! And
there are some good concert scenes in the last hour.
Now, I WOULD recommend this movie. Maybe you can just fast forward through
the countless talking scenes in the second hour.
Verdict: this 140 minute movie would have been much better as a 90 minute
movie.
Back to Main Reviews Page |