Review of Shine a Light (2008) by Tyler S — 10 Aug 2012

I likened this movie to a game of chess. Where Mick Jagger is the King and Martin Scorsese is the Pawn. Martin Scorsese may be credited as the Director, but Mick Jagger's prints are all over it, as you would expect from the front man of the well-oiled machine that is the Stones.

They're so famous, there's no need for us to refer to them as the Rolling Stones anymore. They're just the Stones. Example: "Whose your favourite band?" "Whose my favourite band? That would be the Stones.

" I guess I was expecting something else, something more. Something to make me want to gyrate in my living room, to make me want to turn up the volume to indecent, not to sprawl out on my couch like a sloth.

That's what I wanted from a pairing of one of the biggest rock bands in the world with the man who gave us movies like Taxi Driver. They should have made a B-side of this film. You know, with all the bits they edited out left in.

Christina Aguilera wouldn't have made it to the B-side version. Infact, I'm not sure why she made it to this version. Alas, there were some parts I liked. The B&W footage is excellent. As are some of the interviews with foreign journalists where we see the lads clearly take the piss because the piss is there clearly to be taken.

I was suprised to see the song 'Undercover On The Night' on the 19th nervous breakdown list. Highlights for me were the track 'Some Girls' as well as the champagne and reefer song. "Give me champagne when I'm thirsty and a reefer when I want to get high" [but make mine French champagne].

At least he doesn't have to worry about being thrown in jail these days. I also loved this line from Martin Scorsese where he's talking to the Stage Manager about some sort of pyrotechic display.

"We want the effect, but we can't burn Mick Jagger." He reminds me of Woody Allen in that way. I wanted to pinch his cheeks. And being handed the set list at the 12th hour, that had to have been the Stones taking the piss.

And the awkward moment when Bill Clinton announces to Mick Jagger that his friends who are 60+ are ringing him up at the last minute wanting tickets and Jagger's brilliant dodge "so how's the audience gonna be with all these cameras then?" I felt that it needed to be shot in an arena.

One big enough to fit Jagger's ego. A theatre is simply not big enough to allow for those confident, peacock moves and gyrating hips in black skinny jeans. And what was with all the close ups of drummer Charlie Watts? But the real highlight: Keith Richards solo Blues number when it was his turn to take the mic.