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CLEAR CHANNEL HOME ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Hamish Hamilton
Cast:
Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars

Synopsis:
Shot live on location at the Van Andel Arena in Grad Rapids, Michigan April 27th, 2005; Motley Crue's Carnival of Sins is the live concert DVD of their sold out Red, White & Crue world wide tour. Featuring their greatest hits as well as new songs, Carnival of Sins is an unprecedented ALL ACCESS look at the band with behind the scenes footage and bonus material that will blow your mind ... Motley Crue delivers the concert that Rock 'N' Roll has been waiting for.

MPAA:
Rated NR

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.78:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1
English Dolby 2.0
French Dolby 2.0
Subtitles:
None
Not Closed-captioned

Runtime: 137 min.
Price: $24.98
Release Date: 10/25/2005

Bonus:
• “Inside the Big Top” Documentary
• “Mötley Crüe’s Greatest *its”
• “Meet & Greet”
• “Disaster! The Movie”
• “Blow It Up”
• Music Videos
• Poster


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

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Motley Crue: Carnival Of Sins - Live (2005)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 29, 2005)

As someone who came of age in the Eighties, I remember the era of “hair metal” well. Oh, how I loathed that period! Sure, plenty of good music came out during the same time-span, but I simply couldn’t stand any of the acts in the hair metal genre. I suppose someone else was as happy as I when Nirvana helped remove these bands from the charts, but I find that tough to imagine.

God help us, with Eighties nostalgia in full swing, hair metal’s begun to make a comeback. Hopefully this won’t spread too quickly, as a full bird flu epidemic is more appealing. I fear the worst, however.

With this as a background, one might ask: why is this hair metal hater reviewing the DVD for Mötley Crüe’s Carnival of Sins Live? Basic curiosity, I suppose. As much as I disliked the Crüe during their first go-round – and as insanely sick of scumbucket drummer Tommy Lee as I am – the success of their 2005 tour intrigued me. I certainly didn’t expect they’d sell as many tickets as they did – and neither did promoters, apparently. Initially few of those folks bit when the Crüe announced their intentions to tour, but after they put a few shows on sale and demonstrated their box office clout, that changed.

I also maintain a stubborn affection for big, overblown stage performances. I know it’s hip to say that you like concerts that’re all about the music, but I can’t make that claim. If I want to simply listen to music, I can do that at home. If I shell out $100 or whatever to attend a live show, I want to see something interesting.

And from what I heard about the Mötley Crüe tour, it sounded like they put on one wild stage performance. As depicted on this DVD, the show covered many aspects of the band’s 24-year career. 1981’s debut Too Fast for Love boasts its title song, “On With the Show” and “Live Wire”, while 1983’s Shout at the Devil features its title song, “Looks That Kill”, “Red Hot”, “Ten Seconds to Love”, “Too Young to Fall in Love” and the band’s cover of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter”.

Heading to 1985’s Theatre of Pain, we find only “Louder Than Hell” and “Home Sweet Home”. (Funny – I thought Pain was a huge hit, so I’d expect more from it.) 1987’s Girls, Girls, Girls gives us its title song plus “Wild Side”, while 1989’s Dr. Feelgood provides its own title track, “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”, “Same Ol’ Situation”, “Without You” and “Kickstart My Heart”. As far as I can tell, “Primal Scream” and the band’s cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” first popped up on 1991’s A Decade of Decadence compilation, while “Glitter” comes from 1997’s Generation Swine. “Sick Love Song” and “If I Die Tomorrow” are new tunes that come from 2005’s Red, White and Crüe.

Given my lack of affection for the Crüe, it should come as no surprise that I felt less than excited about the music performed here. That said, I always found them to be one of the less objectionable hair metal bands, and a few of their tunes sound pretty decent. The Crüe always displayed more of their own sound than many of their more generic competitors, and they have enough of a power pop side to be listenable. I won’t want to screen this soundtrack again anytime soon – or ever, probably – but I didn’t particularly mind the time I spent with the Crüe’s music.

The visual side of things was a different matter. Remember that I went into this program with an expectation that Carnival would offer a visually exciting and stimulating show. If I saw it in person, that might’ve been the case. As depicted on this DVD, however, it’s an aggressive, unpleasant mess.

I knew the concert would be over the top, but director Hamish Hamilton batters us with so many hyperactive visual elements that Carnival becomes annoying and painful to watch. As with many concert videos, this one features a great deal of quick cutting. Shots rarely last more than a second or two, and other visual decisions exacerbate this distracting choice.

I suppose the Crüe need to maintain their rough and dirty reputation with a rough and dirty concert video. That means that in addition to the rapid edits, we find lots of intentionally clumsy camerawork. There are many unfocused, jittery shots throughout the show. All of this adds up to a headache – literally, as my noggin began to throb about an hour into this thing.

The video wants almost every song to be a showstopper, and that attitude makes it pound at us relentlessly. It’s like each number is a climax, but the concert can’t maintain that pace and not become annoying. The ballads slow things down somewhat, but those are too infrequent enough to give us a real breather.

Shot selection is also a problem. Carnival offers way too many crowd images. These are especially annoying because they’re so redundant. When we see guys, they shout into the camera, gesticulate and make dopey hand gestures. When we see women, they flick their tongues, rub themselves and gyrate. This routine gets to be really predictable and tedious.

Did I ever think I’d criticize a program because it features too many lascivious young women? No, and that should be an indication of how tiresome Carnival can be. It probably doesn’t help that most of the women live on the Super Slut side of the street. I felt like I needed a penicillin shot after I watched these dirty skeeves.

Despite my disdain for hair metal, I can’t say I hate Mötley Crüe. I’m not a fan, but I think they’re one of the more listenable bands in their genre. Too bad their Carnival of Sins DVD is a disaster. It takes a potentially fun show and makes it a jerky, bombastic mess.


The DVD Grades: Picture B-/ Audio C-/ Bonus C+

Mötley Crüe: Carnival of Sins Live appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The show presented an erratic picture due to various stylistic decisions, but the DVD transferred the source material well.

Sharpness looked fine. The only issues I noticed came from camera choices, as more than a few out of focus shots appeared. Obviously that was an editing problem, not a transfer concern. Most of the show offered crisp, concise visuals. I saw no jagged edges or shimmering, and edge enhancement wasn’t a concern.

No unintentional source defects appeared. During many between-song sequences, the program took on a scratchy, dirty look. I have no idea why the DVD’s producers deemed this a good choice, as it’s just annoying and nonsensical, but I can’t blame the transfer for a stylistic decision. The show also became somewhat grainy at times, another issue that I interpreted as an intentional choice.

Colors varied from natural to oversaturated. Once again, the problems came from production decisions. The scratchy between-song bits usually looked yellowish, though they sometimes took on a reddish hue. The DVD also exaggerated on-stage lighting at times, which meant that these tones could become too thick and dense. When allowed to feature normal colors, however, the DVD looked quite good. Those segments presented clear hues with no problems.

Blacks were fine. They presented deep and firm tones throughout the show. Shadows were erratic based on the kind of shot we saw. Crowd bits tended to be a little dark and murky, but that was almost inevitable given the shooting conditions. Ultimately, I thought Carnival represented the original program fine, but many of the choices made in its production caused it to look somewhat unattractive.

More significant problems arose when I examined the audio of Carnival of Sins Live. The DVD boasted both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. When offered on the same DVD, I often find that the two appear virtually identical, and that was especially true of Carnival. They were matched in every way, as I didn’t even find the usual difference in volume.

If asked for positives about the audio, I’d discuss the soundfield. The mix went with a pretty standard soundscape for a concert presentation. Most of the audio stayed in the forward channels. The band featured basic one guitar/drums/bass/vocals most of the night, and the mix presented those with good breadth and definition. The track opened up the music well without gimmicks. The surrounds added some crowd noise, general reinforcement and a few effects like pyrotechnics. They were fairly passive, though, as the track stayed focused on the front.

While that side of things worked fine, the quality of the audio was a problem. One major concern came from the balance of the mix. It boosted the crowd noise to ridiculous levels, as every song featured an unnatural level of shouting and cheering. This got in the way of the music and created a real distraction.

Other problems came from the integration of the musical elements. Nikki Sixx’s bass guitar was usually almost inaudible as bass drum dominated the low-end side of things. This mean bass response was muddy and thumping. Vocals also were buried in the mix to a surprising degree, and that made it tough to hear Vince Neil’s singing.

As I listened to the tracks, I got a strong impression that significant portions of the music weren’t recorded live. There’s a wide level of variation in the quality of the different elements, particularly in regard to vocals. Sometimes the singing was crystal clear, while many other parts showed rough, edgy tones with a lot of “arena reverb”. Between-song patter tended to sound like the latter, as it was really tough to make out anything the band said. I’d be shocked to learn that some – if not much – of Neil’s singing wasn’t redone in the studio for this production.

I can’t say I went into a Mötley Crüe DVD with an expectation of audiophile quality sound. It wouldn’t be right to hear this kind of music with exquisite reproduction. However, I wanted better than this. Some of the problems were conscious choices; clearly someone thought it was a great idea to crank up the crowd noise to ridiculous, distracting levels. The other issues are a different matter, and all of this makes Carnival a generally flawed auditory presentation.

Fans will find a bunch of extras on this two-DVD set. The main component comes from a documentary called Inside the Big Top. The 29-minute and 28-second program presents show clips, behind the scenes elements, and comments from bandmembers Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars, tour manager Alan Zulo, director/choreographer Tina Landon, production manager Chris Kansy, performer “Mighty Mike”, caterer Wes Tischoff, head chef Chris Mitchell, lead carpenter Tim Shanahan, bass technician Darron Meeks, lighting technician Steve Schwind, director Hamish Hamilton, guitar technician Bobby Oberdorstein, dancer Jozie DiMaria, and aerialists Alecia Schultze and Brandy Wirtz.

“Inside” gives us a pretty solid look at the concert. It leads us through all the behind the scenes elements and nuts and bolts that go into putting on the show each night. We get some nice insights into the various issues in this tight, fun piece.

We see plenty of skin during the main program, but Mötley Crüe’s Greatest *its features even more. If you didn’t figure it out on your own, “*its” stands for “tits”, and this two and a half minute clip presents lots of them. We hear some comments from the band about the “tittie-cam” and see more shots of the women of Grand Rapids. Most of these repeat from the main program, though, so don’t expect new flesh here.

A look at the show’s pyrotechnics comes with Blow It Up. The two-minute and 24-second clip includes notes from Sixx, Kansy, Mars, and Lee. They chat about the explosive specifics but don’t shed a whole lot of light on the subject. It’s a quick piece of fluff.

Meet & Greet goes for five minutes, 14 seconds and gives us a look at the VIP experience. We see some hardcore fans and hear about their love of the band. It goes for the puffy side of the street and doesn’t turn into anything interest. It feels more like an ad to sell more VIP packages than anything.

The two-minute and eight-second Disaster! The Movie gives us more of the stop-motion animation that opens the DVD. We get a trailer for a flick of this title and get a link to see more on the Internet. It reminds me a lot of Team America but looks like it might offer some amusement.

In the Music Videos area, three piece appear. We get a “time lapse view” of “On With the Show”. We hear that song while we watch the roadies build the stage in this four and a half minute segment. It makes for mildly interesting viewing.

Two regular videos appear as well. We find clips for the new songs “If I Die Tomorrow” and “Sick Love Song”. Neither video is very interesting, but “Sick” is especially lame. It just consists of concert/backstage footage, so it brings little to the table.

Inside, the package, we get a foldout poster. This shows the DVD’s cover art on one side and credits on the other.

Fans ate up Mötley Crüe’s successful 2005 tour. Too bad they won’t find a good depiction of it via Carnival of Sins Live, a messy and disjointed presentation of the concert. The DVD offers acceptable picture quality along with problematic audio and a few decent supplements. I’m sure that diehards will snap up this DVD no matter what, but I think others should stay away from this flawed product.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.413 Stars Number of Votes: 46
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