Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
mahituna Never thought someone could make recording studio equipment so interesting. Great info for music lovers and will keep you interested. Worth the time, won't be disappointed. David Grohl loves music and seems down to earth and assembles a all star cast for this informative documentary about a studio that suffered the fate of technology advances.It is funny how people hope lightening strikes twice,a group records a monster album at the studio and then musicians are beating down the door to record their music at the location. And believe it or not it works. Some of the largest selling albums recorded at this studio and some come back to record with David one more time
Chris Nelson The first half of the movie is great. It documents a slummy old studio that produced some of the greatest music ever, in part because of a finely crafted analog audio mixer. Director Dave Grohl interviews some big names, who have great stories from this little studio. This is what the entire film should have been.But maybe halfway through, everything changes. Suddenly Grohl goes from interviewer (often times on camera conducting the interviews) to the interviewee. He's the director, so is he interviewing himself? Usually in documentaries, the crew documents something without getting involved. Here, he's feeding himself soundbites for the movie he's making. Keanu Reeve's role in Side By Side, about digital filmmaking, is a good example of how it's supposed to be done. This just seems like as a filmmaker, he decided he's not getting what he needed, so he jumped in front of the camera to do it himself.The last half hour forgets about Sound City and just becomes Grohl making a movie about himself looking good and recording music. He buys the soundboard from Sound City and starts his own studio, where he and his bandmates bring in big names and play with them (are you required to play with Grohl if you record at his studio?). One song cuts between Grohl rocking out on guitar, and Grohl behind the glass banging his head to what's being recorded. The song ends with him declaring, "That was f'ing awesome. That was so f'ing beautiful." He might as well write his own reviews for the film too.This documentary starts out strong, but slowly rolls downhill into one big Dave Grohl self-congratulation. If you're interested in the history of Sound City and the evolution from analog to digital music recording, there is some good info in here. You just have to separate it from all the times Grohl is telling you how great he is.
siderite Dave Grohl directed and wrote this documentary. You know, he is the guy that is always playing at least two songs in the best ever list of songs, one with Nirvana and the other with Foo Fighters. And this is a film about Sound City, the legendary sound studio that gave life to so many great bands and albums, including Nirvana, Rage Against the Machines, Nine Inch Nails, Fleetwood Mac, and so on.What starts like a smelly place that nobody cleans but has great acoustics goes through a series of transformations through various crises, the most important one being the advent of digital technology, which also meant its death. But there are so many good musicians that jammed there, rose to stardom there, that Grohl is trying to recreate the feeling and asks those musicians to him in ing it all.I know you will hate me for this, but what I liked even more than the love of music that transpires throughout the entire film is the fact that it all started with the Neve board, a sound board created by a very precise British engineer called Rupert Neve. The guy was probably very creative himself, but people describe him as precise. And British. He enabled through science and engineering scores of musical generations.Anyway, sometimes the film is a bit slow, especially at the beginning, where the history of the studio and of the people there is laid out. But then it all is worth it at the end, where you get to see all these old musicians coming to record with Foo Fighters using the reconditioned Neve board, recording everything on 2 inch tape.Bottom line: they kind of repeat a lot that music is something human and must be done in a group to enhance pleasure and creativity, but it's not too annoying. This is a great movie nonetheless. If you like music, you will love this film. If you don't like music, I still think you are going to love it.
Sergeant_Tibbs I've never been a huge fan of Nirvana or Foo Fighters (I do like a few things here and there but overall they're not my thing) but as a person I have a lot of respect for Dave Grohl. He seems like a great guy and it's really cool how he's dipping into film with his directorial debut Sound City, a documentary about the studio which is home to Nevermind, Rumours and all kinds of classics. I had no idea about these connections. I love a good Fleetwood Mac origin story, so although it was a few things I knew, it was still interesting. The first half works as a great chronological of anecdotes, focusing on acts like Fleetwood Mac and Rick Springfield, and the highs and lows of the company. It really showed how Sound City was unique for its Neve soundboard and makes me want to seek them out. The documentary is shown in a very typically MTV way with its graphics and soundtrack but it makes it very entertaining (even if there's a very irritating use of flashing frames back and forth). However, the last half hour is devoted to the recording of the Sound City soundtrack that Grohl collaborates with artists formerly mentioned and as we only get snippets of each track, it feels like it's simply an endorsement to buy the soundtrack and it knocks the doc down a peg. Still a good start to 2013.7/10
