Duran Duran: A Hollywood High

Back in the glory days of high school, 1983-1987, Duran Duran was my god. I had taped up Tiger Beat photos on every inch of wall. I had my favorites one week (Nick, John, Simon, Roger, Andy) and then I would change the order if one was particularly hot in a photo. Nick married a woman from Des Moines, IA and being in Iowa, I cried because I had just missed marrying him by 100 miles. I have seen them live and this movie was great. People were chatting before the show and singing during the movie. Like our version of Rocky Horror. Great idea to have a flick with our boys! More interveiw footage would have been fantastic.

Yes, the members of Duran Duran appear in this "movie", sharing randomly selected (by three different directors?) facts and/or memories. There is also an audiovisual recording of a recent live concert on a LA rooftop, which hopefully was a lot of fun for the audience present at the gig. For the rest of us: meh. The editing of the latter might have been done by a robot. The cameras appear to rotate on a steady schedule: drummer - keyboard player - lead singer - bassist - guitarist (sometimes skipped) - backing vocalists - audience - Capitol Records Tower - on and on... A kind of highlight: "Ordinary World". Spoiler alert: no encore.

Really enjoyed the performance but was left wanting more from the documentary. Upon viewing the trailer, I felt I would be getting a lot more of the "untold LA experience" but the documentary section was quite short; the concert suddenly started and I thought there would be more to the story, but no. It was a bit disappointing in that respect, but I gave this a nine because the concert itself was just a joyful experience. It was an intimate venue with a small stage, and multiple close-ups enabled us to see the expressions of emotion on each performer's face. A nice blend of songs from the 80's through the newest (and WOW what great choices) made it hard to sit still. I couldn't stop smiling. Sat through the credits expecting an encore but sadly that was not to be. My only true disappointment was the briefness of the story...but it was such an enjoyable performance I will see it again.