U2 - Best of 1990-2000
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Movie Reviews of U2 - Best of 1990-2000
Movie Review: much better than the CD counterpart
Summary: 5 Stars
I was somewhat disappointed with the CD 'The Best of 1990-2000' due to the revisionist remixes of all the songs from 'Pop' (1997), as though the band needed to apologize for a decade of experimentation. However, for a serious U2 fan who missed half of the U2 videos in the 1990s, this DVD is excellent and complete. The following is a list of the videos (in chronological order):1. "The Fly" (our first glimpse of U2 chopping down 'The Joshua Tree' and a preview to the imagry of the ZooTV tour to follow)
2. "Mysterious Ways" (to match The Edge's liquid guitar sounds, the entire video is appropriately shot with a shimmering lens)
3. "One" (two versions for a song with multiple interpretations)
4. "Even Better Than the Real Thing" (successfully capturing the imagry in the song)
5. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" [Temple Bar Edit] (mostly a compilation of some live video footage combined with some studio shots of Bono singing)
6. "Until the End of the World" (again, more of a compilation of live video footage from the ZooTV Tour)
7. "Numb" (multiple versions - one used as video on the ZooTV tour and the other more infamous version with The Edge being assaulted/adorned, the latter of which is probably the band's best video)
8. "Lemon" (including the introduction of Bono's character "MacPhisto")
9. "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" (directed by Wim Venders, this one has excellent cinematography and follows along the story-line of the movie for which the song was penned)
10. "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" (although this wholly-animated video could have been better without all the gratuitous tie-ins to the 'Batman Forever', it is entertaining nonetheless)
11. "Miss Sarajevo" (a beautiful song with a somewhat unmemorable video)
12. "Discotheque" (the source of much ire surrounding the 'Pop' (1997) record, it is worth it to see the band having fun)
13. "Staring at the Sun" (nothing particularly memorable in this video, as U2 don the Miami-look)
14. "Last Night On Earth" (although deliberately conceptual, getting the band to actually act is always a questionable proposition)
15. "Please" (an underrated song and an underrated video, although the latter does not quite catch the political bent to the lyrics)
16. "If God Would Send His Angels" (on this one, the conceptualism works as the top half of the screen displays Bono singing on a bus seat while the bottom half displays the person sitting (or not sitting) across from him)
17. "Gone" [Live] (this is a live video taken from the 'PopMart Live in Mexico City' VHS, which IS better than the studio version included on the 'Pop' record)
18. "Mofo" (using a remix of the song, this one is simply cuts of live video footage)
19. "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" (good video for a movie promo, complete with Salmon Rushdie, who wrote the lyrics)
20. "Beautiful Day" (if you haven't seen this one, then you've been living under a rock - NOTE: for an alternate version, get the double-CD version of 'The Best of 1990-2000' which includes the History Mix DVD)
21. "Stuck in a Moment" (two versions - one more serious and the other more humorous)
22. "Electrical Storm" (Larry Mullen makes his acting debut with Samantha Morton - visually quite nice)
23. "The Hands That Built America" (just a studio performance)
With most of these videos comes commentary from the director, as well as an interesting mini documentaries behind the videos for "One" and the 1997 Sarajevo concert. All in all, this is a great package as far as a collection of videos goes. I only wish they could add similar extras to "The Best of 1980-1990" DVD counterpart, which is yet to be released.
Movie Review: A Cool Document Of A Great Band.
Summary: 5 Stars
U2 has proven to be a visually inventive band as well as great musicians. This is most evident not only in their spectacular concerts, but also in their unique videos. Consider here "The Best Of 1990-2000" DVD, which compiles concert footage and music videos into a highly entertaining package that delivers basically not just some of the essence of U2, but of great modern rock as well. The opener, "Even Better Than The Real Thing" is a visually dazzling video, psychedelic and spacey, yet futuristic with Bono as The Fly with the rest of the band twirling around. The hits are here, "Mysterious Ways" proves to be a Middle Eastern taste of U2 psychedelia with The Edge's sultry riff (and a spicy belly dancer). We also get the video for "Beautiful Day," from the band's 2000 "All That You Can' Leave Behind," which won Grammy and proves to be an equally soaring video (eventhough the album's best cut, "Elevation" should also be included here). "Electrical Storm," one of the band's new songs, is hypnotic as well as the black and white video that has a classic cinema feel to it. There are great memorable moments here too, as is the case with "Miss Sarajevo," the band's collaboration with Pavorotti that helped the world look towards what was happening in Sarajevo, there is a mini-documentary included chronocling the band's historical 1997 PoPMart Tour stop there. "Gone" is a stunning live performance from Mexico City that shows the band's essence on stage, but the best live clip is "Until The End Of The World," a stunning, exhilarating and roaring performance during the Zoo TV tour. "The Hands That Built America" from the "Gangs Of New York" film is performed here in a clip showing the band sitting around and performing the song, it's a wonderful tune that deserves the Oscar for it's emotional touch. U2 can also be funny, as is the case with the video for "Discotheque" which shows the band apparently inside a disco ball as the Village People at one point, here the band does indeed look "cool" and it displays the band at their funnest. But the most fun video is "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," their "Batman Forever" cut here is expressed with some great animation showing the band in a comic book universe where Bono's stage characters, The Fly and Macphisto square off (also included is an orchestra composed of Batmans). "Staring At The Sun" is lush and hypnotic, with great colors and photography courtesy of Ridley Scott's son who directs here showing he can make just as wonderful images as his father. "Numb" plays like a great acting piece, The Edge sits in front of the camera reciting the song's commands as activities such as women sucking on his face, cutting off his clothes and dancing in his face take place as he continues reciting. Finishing the set is "The Fly," which for some reason is here but not included in the CD set. This is still a hard-edged, spacey track with Bono singing some devilish poetics. One of the joys of this DVD is how the band treats the videos like mini movies, we get director's commentaries (with some interesting insights) and documentaries, also included are some great bonus songs such as the video for "Lemon," which is simply great filmmaking. "The Best Of 1990-2000" is great coverage of U2's most exhilarating decade and ends with the promise of some great rock still rising in the horizon.Movie Review: U2 + DVD = AOK
Summary: 5 Stars
This DVD provides a wild reminder of just how far U2 went in the 1990s to demolish the "serious," "earnest," and "spiritual" labels that had been affixed to them in the 80s. Sure, their 90s songs still reveal Bono's ongoing conversations with God and his concern for a host of societal ills, but most of the videos accompanying those songs mask the serious subject matter in a dizzying bacchanalia of mirror balls, belly dancers and giant lemons. Consider, for example, "Until the End of the World." The lyrics describe a conversation between Judas and Jesus, but the video finds Bono engaging in some wild pelvic thrusting during a ZOO TV concert. Or what about "Even Better Than the Real Thing"? Christianity Today magazine suggested that this song might be about the Holy Spirit - but the bonus "Dance Mix" video finds the members of U2 partying in the streets with a bunch of gyrating transvestites. Whoah. "The Joshua Tree" this ain't.Still, as mentioned above, U2's 90s albums explored dark, serious, and spiritual themes in spite of their decadent wrapping. The band's earnest, serious side isn't totally absent from this DVD, as evidenced by the excellent videos for "Please" (a rarely seen gem directed by Anton Corbijn), "Miss Sarajevo" and "Staring at the Sun." The "Missing Sarajevo" documentary also serves as a thought-provoking interlude.
As has been noted in other reviews, this release has TONS of great content and is really worth the money. In addition to 23 songs (several of which have alternate videos), there are three short documentaries, and optional director's commentaries for almost every track. Listening to an assortment of self-absorbed European filmmakers talk about their work could potentially be tedious, but the commentaries are actually quite entertaining. The best moment comes when French director Stephane Sednaoui bursts into fits of laughter at the sight of U2 in Village People costumes during the "Discotheque" video. The packaging is nice, too, with an extra space for the "History Mix" DVD that came with the Best of 1990-2000 double CD set.
Finally, for those of you who were disappointed with the track listing for the CD, this DVD is a great solution. It features a "play all videos without introductions" option that lets you play all 23 songs in order. You don't even need to have your TV on to enjoy this DVD... just play it through your system like a CD, and you'll get this track listing: 1. Even Better Than the Real Thing, 2. Mysterious Ways ["Best of" lyrics], 3. Beautiful Day, 4. Electrical Storm (William Orbit Mix), 5. One, 6. Miss Sarajevo [album version with concert intro], 7. Stay (Faraway So Close), 8. Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, 9. Gone [live version], 10. Until the End of the World [live version], 11. The Hands That Built America [alternate studio demo], 12. Discotheque (Single Version), 13. Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me [w/ "Batman" sounds], 14. Staring at the Sun (Single Version), 15. Numb (Album Version), 16. The Fly [w/"Lounge Fly" intro], 17. Please (Single Version), 18. If God Will Send His Angels (Single Version), 19. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? (Temple Bar Edit), 20. Lemon (Edit), 21. Last Night on Earth (Single Version), 22. Mofo [live version], 23. The Ground Beneath Her Feet.
Movie Review: Simply amazing for the price.
Summary: 5 Stars
First off. Take a look at the price of this DVD and then take a look at the CD. The DVD isn't only less expensive, it's considerably less expensive. Obviously the fact that the recording industry lost (settled?) a multimillion dollar class action lawsuit for price fixing hasn't solved the problem that CD audio is still vastly overpriced.On this DVD you get 23 separate unique videos (not counting the alternate versions of some videos (the CD has 25 tracks not counting remixes). Each video has a commentary by the director giving some unique insight to music videos. Also there are three mini-documentaries.
One thing I love about this DVD is the main track listing is virtually identical to the CD version (practically unheard of in this sort of pairing) with the exception of track 16 "For the First Time" on the CD being substituted for "The Fly" on the DVD (a better pick). This means you can pop it into your DVD player and listen to the same album but also have visual accompaniment of music videos. At first I was disappointed that the seven bonus tracks were separate from the main tracks because I wanted to be able to just stick the disc in and play all the tracks. To my pleasant surprise there is a section on the DVD that will let you play the 16 main tracks, all the tracks on the disk, and even a selection that will play all the tracks randomly (something I didn't know was possible for DVD video).
Some people will be surprised when they open this that this is really a 2-DVD set, only the second DVD is not included. In order to get the 2nd DVD you must purchase a special version of the double-CD. At first I was happy about this as I already had that DVD from the CD and now I had something besides the flimsy slip case to put it in, but after thinking about it, it would probably anger people who didn't buy the CD, or can't find that special version.
This is the way all "best of" compilations should be. Any true fan of an artist, typically has all the material found on a best of disc so there is little incentive to get it. Often record companies will one or two brand new tracks on it to convince fans to buy it, but here, not only are you getting a best of, but you are getting it all on videos (something you don't have).
The sound, presentation, packaging, and value of this DVD is superb. The duration is just four minutes short of three hours. I especially like the alternate version of the song "Please" found here that is even better than the album. If anyone knows where it can be found on CD, please let me know.
Movie Review: Something for Everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
Casual fans and die-hards alike will be pleased with this comprehensive collection of videos and extras.What some may claim lacked on its CD counterpart (the absence of The Fly in the US, etc.) is more than made up for here. What you do get, however is amazing...
For starters - the classics that stand the test of time ('Mysterious Ways,' 'One') are delightful paired with newer gems ('Gone,' 'Beautiful Day'). With the more recent songs, it's as if us fans have earned the privilege of being spectators - and together get to watch the tunes grow into anthems comparable to their predecessors.
The soundrack pieces ('The Hands That Built America,' 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me' and 'Miss Sarajevo') are alternately catchy and meaningful, providing just the right balance of rock star power/humanitarian commentary.
The visually creative masterpieces ('Stay,' 'Please,' 'Electrical Storm') illustrate why U2 has enjoyed such MTV longevity - their risks are often more profound than their safe hits.
The humorous hits ('Numb,' 'Discotheque') remind us that these four geniuses can laugh at themselves as easily as we can. For an extra chuckle, be sure to listen to the director commentaries that accompany the videos. They're fantastic!
And last but not least - the mini-documentaries are phenomenal. 'The Story of One' shares the genesis of all three 'One' video versions in discussion form with their respective directors; the chill-inspiring 'Missing Sarajevo' shows us the actual 'Miss Sarajevo' pageant winner-years later with Bono and Edge en route to their now historical concert (and what it took to get there); and U2 Sur Mer is simply the making of the video for 'Electrical Storm' featuring legendary director Anton Corbijn, guest star Samantha Morton and a very 'wet' Larry Mullen, Jr.
As I said before...something for everyone.