If you’re going to purchase a DVD about The Rolling Stones, you would expect nothing less than Mick Jagger strutting and pouting all over the place. Not so with “Rock of Ages.” The rather boring documentary on the “bad boys of rock” fails to deliver any performance clips or songs, turning it into a narrated list of facts with pictures and interviews.
Running Time: 76 min.
Release Date:September 29, 2009
[rating: 1/4]
Just about everything stated in the film could most likely be rattled off by any hardcore Stones fan, which is unfortunately the target audience for this DVD. Nothing new or surprising about the group is revealed; even the casual fan would be bored to tears.
The usual history of the group is discussed from the birth of the band and how they were marketed by manager Andrew Oldham to be “the opposite of family friendly Beatles.” Oldham took pains to keep his group hated by the older generation so as to maintain popularity with the youth. The film moves through the band’s formative years, the growing tensions between founder Brian Jones, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Jones wanted to keep them a blues outfit, while the other two personalities gravitated towards rock and roll.
From there, the film details all the various drug busts and romantic trysts of the members, but again, this isn’t any information that hasn’t been discussed before. The most interesting part of the whole DVD was the special feature on former member Bill Wyman’s photography career and exhibit. Other than that, the film leaves us with nothing innovative, edgy, or cool on the level of the band it features.
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