Stometer
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Michael_Elliott
Pearl Jam Twenty (2011) **** (out of 4) Wonderful documentary from Cameron Crowe about the twenty years of Pearl Jam. Crowe talks about how he was living in Seattle when the entire grunge/alternative scene broke and from here on we see how the band came to be. Using interviews, archival footage and current concert footage, Crowe turns this into one of the better documentaries out there. We see the band starting out, rising to the top with the album Ten, taking on Ticketmaster, touring with Neil Young and then continue to try and make sure they stay true to themselves even when some of their fans started to question them. I was around 13 when the Seattle based rock really took off and I remember listening to Pearl Jam for a few years but then my music tastes started to change. I really haven't kept up with the band since then so one should keep that in mind as they read this but I thought the documentary was terrific. It really gave me a terrific idea of what the band is, who they wanted to be and it was great fun seeing their rise to fame and seeing how they almost broke up. I found Crowe's direction to be marvelous because a lot of times with these documentaries you have someone who doesn't know how to put all the footage together to make it entertaining. Concert footage is great. Interviews are great. Even television show clips are great. However, so many documentaries don't know how to put all the footage together but Crowe does a wonderful job and really delivers a film that even non-fans should enjoy. Even though I haven't followed the band in many years this documentary really made me want to rush out and buy their CDs and DVDs. I found the interviews to be extremely good and I liked the fact that Crowe didn't shy away from some of the darker moments in their twenty years. The documentary also covers some other groups from this Seattle era including the relationship between Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The suicide of Kurt Cobain is also covered and we get concert footage from the night of his death. Overall Crowe really has worked a mini miracle in bringing Pearl Jam's story to life. If someone like me enjoyed it so much I'm sure die-hard fans of the group will feel as if they're in Heaven.
ConfucioBSB
PJ 20 is rich, smartly edited, brings incredible footage and tells interesting stories, but it should not receive 10 out of 10 for one big reason: it promises 20 years of history but only delivers 10. Obviously the first 10 were the formative years. However a lot happened during the latter decade which is barely touched by the film.The nuance in a lot of segments is to be loved. But it is sort of tricky that the five of them never appear together in the present time interviews. It tells a lot about how this great band works and should have been further explored.Overall though PJ 20 is a great film, specially for the initiated.
tomgillespie2002
Twenty years after Pearl Jam's debut album Ten took the music world by storm, Cameron Crowe directs this documentary that chronicles and celebrates the band's history, impact and longevity. Crowe starts way back in 1988 when guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament were part of Mother Love Bone, a band that were popular due to singer Andy Wood's charismatic personality and song writing talent. After Wood's overdose and untimely death, Gossard and Ament founded Pearl Jam, along with the hugely talented singer Eddie Vedder and lead guitarist Mike McCready. The band went on to be one of the most successful bands of the 90's, and were seen as the natural rivals of fellow 'grunge' band Nirvana.Crowe's documentary is hugely detailed, combining the standard talking heads with old interview footage, home video, and concert footage. Crowe apparently worked his way through 12,000 hours of footage of the band for the film. It was well worth it, as we get to see rare, grainy footage of Wood's exciting performances with Mother Love Bone, as well as the extremely moving performances by Vedder and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell as part of Wood tribute group Temple of the Dog. The talking heads are no mere conduits that progress the film along, they are as informative and moving as the performances, as Vedder and Cornell, especially, open up and give tearful recollections.It also covers the band's battle with ticket giant Ticketmaster, and how they objected to the fact that their fans were getting ripped off just to see a live band. It shows Pearl Jam as one of the few bands that remember their roots and are a dying breed. It was strange for me to watch this film, viewing the likes of Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden as part of music history. I grew up with my old brother listening to the music, so I remember the whole 'grunge' craze quite well. I really only remember stripy shirts and long hair, but Pearl Jam Twenty reminded me of how good the music actually was. This is a must-see for fans of the band or the era, or for those enjoy an involving documentary. Crowe clearly knows his s**t (he was a journalist for Rolling Stone after all) and his passionate touch is all over it.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
Yavorski
Long time band confidante Cameron Crowe chooses a subject close to his heart to redeem for his iffy recent output and documents the history of Pearl Jam. As a summary of their career it covers all bases: Formation from Green River/Mother Love Bone, finding Vedder and their sound via Temple Of The Dog; massive instant success and the overexposure of both themselves and grunge as a whole and dealing with the fallout; battling Ticketmaster and falling record sales, and the tragedy of Rokslide and coming out of it as one of the most fan-revered stadium acts around. It's so busy scrambling to pack everything of note from twenty years into two hours it never really dwells on anything for a significant amount of time, and the band interviews are candid but never truly revealing. The early footage of a raging, furious live act are riveting and watching them work through all their troubles (interspersed with an amusing ironic nod to Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes simply wondering what the hell they're so miserable about) to come out the other side a euphoric success is pleasing, even if as a songwriting outfit they're a pale shadow of what they were on their first three albums. In summation, pleasing to the hardcore fan, but not really telling you anything you didn't already know; To the uninitiated you may appreciate the journey, but wonder what the hell all the fuss was about. 7.5/10
