Courtesy of Paramount Vantage
How Excited Should You Be About Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones Movie?
Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light, a Rolling Stones Imax documentary featuring a bunch of live footage, comes out next month. Sweet! Wait … wasn’t there already a pretty good documentary about the Stones called Gimme Shelter? Is this just going to be all-new crappy material from the band who the New-Song Bathroom Break should be named in honor of? Is it worth seeing at all? Let the Vulture Department of Addition and Subtraction investigate!
• The Rolling Stones are the second-greatest rock band of all time and have a catalogue full of classic hits. (+50)
• You heard about fifteen of those songs a billion times before you were 12 years old on oldies radio. Those are the only fifteen songs that the Rolling Stones have played live since 1980. (-25)
• When you last saw the Rolling Stones, there was 8-year-old child behind you, and she fell asleep. This was during 2006’s Bigger Bang tour. (-25)
•The concerts in the film were recorded during 2006’s Bigger Bang tour. (-25)
• But they were shot by Martin Scorsese, whose last live-performance-heavy movie was a little thing called The Last Waltz. (+10)
• Plus, the shows happened at the Beacon Theater, where the Stones took a break from their stadiums to play two special gigs with surprising set lists and fun special guests like Buddy Guy and Jack White. (+25)
• And Christina Aguilera. (-10)
• What kind of band explicitly makes only two of 147 dates on a tour fun and surprising? (-10)
• Hey, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” just came on your iTunes. That is one sweet jam. Is it in the movie? (+10)
• Nope. (-5)
• Neither is “Rocks Off” or “Street Fighting Man.” (-5)
• The only song they play from Sticky Fingers is “Brown Sugar,” and the only song from Beggar’s Banquet is “Sympathy for the Devil.” (-5)
• But of the seven songs on the track list whose names you don’t immediately recognize, none are from after 1983, and one is the excellent early single “As Tears Go By.” (+25)
• Imax is awesome. (+5)
That’s a total of …15 points. And a ticket for the movie will cost about $15! Case closed. Shine a Light is a rip-roaring thrill ride! —Ben Mathis-Lilley
How Excited Should You Be About Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones Movie?
