Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

t_atzmueller If you were around in the 1970's, you really only had two options: you either love KISS or you hated KISS (in which case you were either a disgruntled parent, highly religious or a Disco-fan and have no reason to be on this page in the first place). If option A applies, you went into shock when the band took off the make-up in 1982, mutating into a Glam Metal / Pop Rock band – and today you're probably embarrassed that they wear make-up again but that's another story.Anyway, the fans are generally susceptible to all things KISS and a decade after the atrocious "Kiss meets the Phantom of the Park", Mr. Simmons money-machine saw it fit to produce the first official KISS documentary. Perhaps not his wisest choice since the band had reached an all-time low in 1987 with an ever-changing line-up producing lacklustre albums and Simmons concentrating on a movie-star career that would never happen.If you expect to see and hear the real people behind KISS, you will be disappointed: the fact that they took off their make-up doesn't mean they dropped the act; the interviews are as scripted as the blood that Simmons spits is fake (insider trivia: egg-yoke and food colour). Simmons and Stanley play rich, decadent Rock N' Roll millionaires housing together in a palace-like mansion, containing only Platinum records, KISS memorabilia and semi-naked starlets. Here goes a word of warning: Simmons having if bedroom decorated with the heads of living women and Paul Stanleys bed-bunnies, the eight Carols (he got "carolled away" that night) may not be in line with feminism, and if we'd be honest, we'd call it plain misogynistic – but that has rarely bothered KISS fans.Simmons and Stanley are spending a day in the company of SNL-comedian Mark Blankfield, in his hyper-nervous / semi-hysteric persona, which already is one of the mockumentaries highlights. We get a whole row of lame jokes, many pointless, self-promoting interviews ("They call me Mr. Hollywood") and of course a detailed look at Gene Simmons legendary monster-tongue. Neither performer don't tell much that we, the fans, didn't already know: how they met, came up with the logo, etc., and the scandals, financial and artistic problems are eluded completely. But, being the "Barnum & Baileys of Rock N'Roll", Simmons and Stanley are amiable enough to keep us sticking to the screen.Then there is the music: we get the good (KISS at the height of their success, playing their final make-up show in Rio de Janeiro), the bad (post-make-up) and the downright embarrassing from their Hair Metal phase. Getting down to brass tacks: there are more informative interviews and documentaries, rarer clips and live performances on YouTube; the absence of original KISS members like Ace Frehley and Peter Criss is annoying – but not as annoying as Simmons' policy to treat guitarist Bruce Kulick and deceased drummer Eric Carr as mere employees (both have roughly five seconds of screen time). But, since you're reading this review, you must be a KISS fan. I'm preaching to the quire here and, like me, you will purchase and watch this video. Over and over again (much to annoyance of those friends and loved ones who don't like KISS) If you ask me objective, I'd give it five or six points for the live videos and the performance of Mark Blankfield – as me as a KISS fan: TEN SOLID POINTS! HELL, GIVE IT ELEVEN!

Hippiesetter99 This movie of the making of a documentary was a great idea to show the "monsters" behind the makeup. Kiss is the kind of band no one would ever really think of having a movie but there was and are. Kiss eXposed has great footage of old stage performances and music videos. Gene Simmons is just as hot as always and Paul is right there beside him. I think Eric and Bruce could have been in more shots but it was just great seeing them. The movie has its interesting parts you'd never know about the band and the parts that send your chair backwards from laughing. Gene and Paul's stories about meeting add to the fun of the movie. Overall if your as huge a Kiss fan as me, I'm sure you'll enjoy the movie.

Ron Broadfoot If you really want to see a movie with Kiss in it, don't rent that 1978 turkey "Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park". Rent this instead. Mark Blankfield plays a TV interviewer who spends a day in Paul Stanley's mansion to see what makes him and the other members of Kiss tick. What makes the movie appealing are the videos, concert footage and all those luscious babes in bikinis! The big drawback is that the interviewer only speaks to Paul and Gene Simmons, while Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick are left in the woodwork. Maybe Eric and Bruce weren't comfortable with speaking on camera yet...I don't know.Rating: **1/2

stevenfallonnyc KISS is a legendary band, and when "Exposed" first came out they were trying to gain a foothold in the 80's, already having a few platinum albums in that decade but still trying to get back to something close to their 70's concert attendance. And since the 80's hard rock/metal bands always showcased how many girls were around, there are a lot of girls in this, although they really don't do anything except walk around trying to look good for Gene and Paul.You hardly see any of the other KISS members in this video, despite the fact that drummer Eric Carr (with a few seconds of screen time) was in the band almost 8 years already when this came out. But it generally accepted by fans that Gene and Paul "are" KISS, so they do all the talking, as usual. It's no coincidence that on the back of the video box, there's a picture of replacement members Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick, with a monkey. Yep, that's Gene and Paul for you! I think they were sending their hired hands a message.It's a pretty dull show around the "KISS mansion," as Gene and Paul tell stories, give recollections (and exaggerations), and tell a LOT of really bad jokes. The script is very bad, actually this was written by both Gene and Paul, who no doubt write much better songs than they do comedy. The comedy is mostly based around really bad sexual humor, and basically it's downright embarrassing to watch. (Example, give or take a word or two: Interviewer to Paul Stanley: "Do you eat meat?" Paul, touching a girl's chin: "Only if it's fresh.") Oh man.However dull the interview sequences are, it is good that Gene and Paul don't try too hard to be "rock and roll" to impress everyone and do stupid things like break stuff, use drugs or alcohol (both denounce such things, with is a good thing) and other similar things. So in that respect, the fact that they are actually quite dull off-stage isn't a bad thing at all. It doesn't make for thrilling TV, but it's better than seeing more rock stars act like morons, tripping over beer bottles, talking about how they "almost died from heroin" and such.The one true plus on this release is that there are a lot of really great promo videos and live clips (from make-up days) of the band, but even this doesn't help much because KISS fans are such rabid collectors of the band's material, just about every big fan already had most if not all of the clips included on this release in heir bootleg VHS collections. However, for for a non-fan checking out KISS, the clips are no doubt a great thing to see included.KISS definitely knows that their fans rabidly collect this stuff - so why they don't include a few clips of footage that is truly rare, something that they know every KISS fan doesn't already have in their boot collections, is a mystery.So really it's best to just FF through all the talking and just watch the clips. Someome must have known this, because on the KISS Exposed DVD, there is an easter-egg where you can just make the DVD play the music clips. (I don't have this yet.)That's really the best way to watch this. One interesting bit of trivia: on a bootleg tape of girls trying out to appear in this video, one of the girls is 80's porn star legend Tajia Rae.