Detroit Rock City appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD and the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While not a bad picture, the transfer showed its age.
Sharpness varied but usually appeared adequate. Much of the film looked reasonably crisp and well defined, but a number of shots came across as soft and fuzzy. These weren’t extreme, but they appeared noticeable.
Light but persistent edge haloes added to these tendencies, but jaggies and shimmering weren’t a concern. As for print flaws, I saw a few specks and marks but nothing significant.
Colors looked erratic. At times, the movie boasted reasonably vivid and vibrant tones, but the hues also could come across as heavy and somewhat runny. Skin tones sometimes looked a bit ruddy as well, but the colors usually were reasonably good.
Black levels seemed fairly solid as well, though they occasionally appeared somewhat inky. Shadow detail demonstrated acceptable clarity in low-light sequences, but the movie occasionally was a bit hazy. Ultimately, the image was perfectly watchable but not especially good.
Given the movie’s subject matter, music dominated the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of City. The forward channels showed good stereo presence, and the back speakers added decent reinforcement of the songs and score.
Effects played a smaller role, but they contributed occasional moments of merit. Most of these came from elements meant to accentuate actions, as the track boasted some loud “punctuation” bits at times. Much of the mix stayed focused on music or dialogue, so don’t expect a lot from the soundscape.
Audio quality was fine. Speech sounded fairly natural and concise, without edginess or other issues. Effects were accurate, while music seemed pretty peppy. Nothing here excelled, but the mix appeared acceptable for a film of this sort.
When we shift to extras, we find three separate audio commentaries. For the first, director Adam Rifkin presents a running, screen-specific look at how he came to the project, story/characters, cast and performances, influences and period details, sets and locations, music, photography, editing, cut scenes and pacing, ratings choices and related topics.
From start to finish, Rifkin makes this a solid chat. He covers a broad array of subjects and gives us a blunt and informative view of the film.
During the second commentary, we hear from screenwriter Carl Dupre, editor Peter Schink, associate producer Tim Sullivan and actors Sam Huntington, Giuseppe Andrews, James DeBello, Lyn Shaye, Shannon Tweed, Melanie Lynskey, Miles Dougal, and Richard Hillman. Huntington’s mother pops up briefly as well.
This edited track appears to place most of the participants together whereas DeBello and Huntington join via separate sessions. The discussion gives us notes about story/characters, influences and inspirations, edits and cut scenes, cast and performances, music, and connected domains.
The format annoys at times, mainly because the track’s producers decided to mix separate recordings together with overlapping remarks at times. This gets old and annoying.
In particular, DeBello’s remarks just grate. He offers “irreverent” interjections that add nothing to the experience and instead become a persistent nuisance.
Still, the track largely brings a good look at the various issues. Despite some irritating choices, we learn more than enough along the way to ensure the track merits a listen.
Finally, we locate a commentary from Kiss members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehely and Peter Criss, but this doesn’t put the band together to chat. Instead it consists of four separate interviews, and we hear from them one after another.
The track starts with Simmons in a studio and then we get phone discussions between Tim Sullivan and Criss, Stanley and Frehely, in that order.
They discuss the history of Kiss and their involvement in the film. Simmons provides the clearest notes but he also clearly works from a written script, so his segment lacks the looseness of the rest.
Also, Simmons never has been the most reliable self-narrator, as he tends to prefer to promote the legend of Kiss rather than the reality. Still, Simmons gives us enough believable insights to make his part worthwhile, even if his claim that rock music defeated disco seems comical 25 years later.
Stanley tends to seem guarded, as he also appears to want to protect the Kiss brand and not be totally frank. Criss offers a bit more insight, though he doesn’t come with a lot of particularly interesting thoughts.
Always the loosest band member, Frehley gives us the most entertaining and honest take on the topics. No, he doesn’t really cut loose – Ace wouldn’t truly bite the hand until he quit the band again a few years after this recording session – but at least he gives the discussion more life.
Even with the flaws, I still like this chat, though I wish Sullivan provided a less “fanboy” vibe as an interviewer. He also seems to think Kiss invented everything, and that means the musicians actually correct him occasionally to remind him the Beatles previously did most of what he credits Kiss for doing.
Two multi-angle sequences come next. “Rock and Roll All Nite” (2:07) gives us two angles: one shows the final movie’s performance by “Mystery”, while the other lets us see the song’s recording. It’s mildly interesting.
Next we locate Kiss’s concert rendition of “Detroit Rock City” (4:57) that displays four views of the song. I like this kind of feature and this one becomes fun.
Song Xpress runs nine minutes, three seconds and presents an instructional video as Tommy Anthony teaches us how to play “Rock and Roll All Nite” on guitar. If you want to learn, this adds a nice bonus.
Six Deleted Scenes fill a total of 18 minutes, 48 seconds. We find “Too Many Cigarettes” (1:21), “Elvis” (2:06), “Highway Patrol” (5:21), “Long Way to Go” (2:22), “The Confessional” (1:57) and “Another Movie” (3:52). These generally just extend versions existing pieces, though “Long Way” radically changes the tone of the encounter between Edward Furlong and Shannon Tweed.
“The Confessional” also includes an alternate option (1:49) that allows you to view the audition tapes for Sam Huntington and Melanie Lynskey. Their try-outs were for the deleted scene shown and are edited to correspond to it. This option is a lot of fun and is well-executed.
"Another Movie" allegedly comes from an unfinished film that was to be shot simultaneously along with City. Director Adam Rifkin introduces this piece by saying that they wanted to make an improvised experimental movie that would be made during downtime so that way they could have two films for the price of one.
Unfortunately (?), they only had time to shoot this one segment. I don't know if this is true or a put-on, but the presented scene is pretty dopey. The story behind it seems funny, though.
Look Into the Sun (7:47) was shot on video by cast members - mainly James DeBello – as it edits together some random images that are connected by little sound and video effects. It's a mildly amusing but pretty nonsensical view of the production.
Despite the irreverent title, we get a more traditional “making of” piece via Miscellaneous Shit (36:56) provides a more traditional “making of” program. It comes with comments from Simmons, Rifkin, Shaye, DeBello, Sullivan, Huntington, Andrews, Frehely, Stanley, Criss, producers Kathleen Hasse and Barry Levine, and actors Natasha Lyonne and Edward Furlong.
The show looks at the project’s roots and development, how Rifkin came to the film, cast and performances, costumes and period details. It becomes a pretty solid summary.
In addition to the film’s trailer, two music videos ensue, as we find “Strutter” from the Donnas and “The Boys Are Back in Town” by Everclear. “Strutter” mixes antics from the Donnas with movie clips, but it does it in a way to become more fun than usual for the genre.
“Boys” combines lip-synch performance with new footage of the actors, so it delivers another reasonably good video, though I prefer “Strutter”.
We end with filmographies for 14 cast members and six crew members. While that sounds good numerically, these are simply listings taken straight from IMDB.
If you're interested, you'd be better off just checking out that original source. It's a lot more informative – and a lot more up to date in 2025 vs. what the 1999 DVD includes.
While it wants to become an irreverent throwback to the wild comedies of the 1970s, Detroit Rock City instead turns into a puerile mess. With unlikable characters and little wit or cleverness, the movie flops. The DVD comes with positive audio as well as a nice roster of bonus features but visuals seem dated. Despite the mediocre picture, this remains a good release for the DVD format.
