At The Movies: When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors Review
The Doors When you're Strange
When’s it out?
When You’re Strange is currently on limited release throughout the UK, and arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 30th.
Who’s in it?
Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore. Narration by Johnny Depp.
The Doors When you're Strange
What’s it about?
It’s a chronological documentary charting the entire career of cult American blues-rock outfit The Doors. The film begins with the group’s formation, and ends at the point of lead singer Jim Morrison’s death. Comprised of nothing but archive footage (some of it never before seen) the film will surely keep fans happy with its fresh exclusive material, along with its focus on some of the band’s more infamous moments, but in many ways this works best as a game-changer for anyone who’s never understood what all the fuss was about.
What’s it like?
A dreamy and fascinating stream-of-consciousness collage.
Star of the show?
Somewhat inevitably, Jim Morrison.
Biggest surprise?
The duration. When You’re Strange runs for an astonishingly taut ninety minutes, and director Tom DiCillo comes across as an impeccable craftsman of genuine taste and tact. Though afterwards you’ll surely be tempted to investigate further if you were previously unfamiliar with the band’s music, as a document of the group and their insurgent ethos, as well as of the shifting cultural landscape which they helped to form a fundamental part of, the film feels very close to definitive.
Best bit?
Jim Morrison’s introduction. Despite appearing in the opening few minutes in some bewitching footage of a sparse, abandoned student road movie, when Morrison joins the rest of the band at an airport as they introduce themselves to a waiting news crew, his response to being asked about his occupation somehow manages to encapsulate his enchanting persona in a brilliantly chosen split second. Even those who’ve never understood the Lizard King’s perennial appeal will be instantaneously won over.
The Doors When you're Strange
Verdict
Completely bereft of distracting retrospective interviews, the film is as much about the band as it is about that particular period in American history, and feels very much like the work of British Rock-doc supremo Julian Temple; and for a film of this kind, praise doesn’t come any higher. It also sets a few moments aside to debunk a handful of persistent myths, like the fact that arguably the band’s best known song, Light My Fire, wasn’t written by Jim Morrison but by lead guitarist Robby Krieger. Dense with candid studio footage and live performances, it offers a valuable glimpse into both a seminal band, and one of the the most important cultural revolutions of the past century.
Hit or miss?
A hit. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of the band or not.
Watch The Door’s When you’re strange trailer here…
Eddie Izzard is to be the voice of the Labour Party – and the Queen!
Not only has the comedian recently appeared in a Labour party election broadcast, but he will also provide the voice of The Queen when she features in The Simpsons.
In the episode, called ‘To Surveil with Love’, Her Majesty gets hooked on watching footage from CCTV cameras installed all over Springfield. The show will air in the US this weekend and on Sky1 in the UK in May.
Izzard has previously said of the show: ‘I’d love to be in it, but they never asked me, and I don’t want to push it. I think it’s because I’m a cult – rather than a mainstream – name.’
So will Eddie pull off his role in the Simpsons? It’s interesting that he’s not appearing as himself, but then again after the cringe worthy Ricky Gervais episode that’s maybe no bad thing!
Eddie’s now been a standup comedian, the nation’s most famous action transvestite, Hollywood blockbuster actor, political activist and multi-marathon running nut, what could be next?
We want your views…What should Eddie’s next career move should be (being funny again?).
The best answer to be submitted by 6th May wins an Izzard connected DVD of their choice. Leave your answer as a reply below…
Mother’s Day falls annually on the fourth Sunday of Lent but on no given date, unlike Christmas or birthdays, meaning people often forget or simply don’t know when it’s coming up! This often leads to a somewhat pathetic petrol station visit the night before to pick up a cheap glitter splattered card and a bunch of wilted flowers. Not exactly what your mum had in mind after 18-odd-years of slaving away, being your personal chauffeur and bank, and just generally being at your beck and call!
Wilted Tulips
This year the day to celebrate how exceptionally wonderful your mum truly is the 14th March! That’s right, you have a whole 2 weeks and 3 days to get you bottom into gear, give your gifts ideas some real thought and get her something that she really deserves.
Of course, we realise no matter how much you love your mum, we’ve only just recently been declared as ‘out of the recession’ and pennies are still precious, so zavvi.com have devised a list of Mother’s Day Gifts to suit all budgets.
Every mum loves a good chick flick. On Mother’s Day she’s entitled to full control of the remote, so why not treat her to a DVD or Blu-ray? Sorry dad, MOTD is a no-go tonight!
She’s spent your whole youth telling you to get off the computer, go play outside and get some fresh air ‘like we all did when I was young’. If I could give you a pound for everytime I heard that line. ‘You’re eyes will turn square!”, another classic. Since the rise of the Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit, we’ve reveled in the fact that mums opinion of computers seems to have changed.
Now we’re not suggesting you go and kit her out with ‘Fat Busting’ games and goodies (unless this is what she’s requested of couse!) but a great dancing or singing game is bound to go down a treat!
Your mum deserves to be treated like a queen on Mother’s Day; that means staying in her dressing gown, being waited on hand and foot with regular tea and coffee top-ups and pampering.
Cheesy love songs, power ballad compilations and boyband music are synonymous with mums. Treat your mum to some of her favourtite music, even if she’ll be limited to playing her cheese in the car, alone, when no-one else’s ears can be inflicted!
Then again, maybe your mum is ‘cool’ (please let her think this, just for one day) and in that case she’ll love our range of new music for 2010 from Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds and more…
Mariah Carey Lovesongs
zavvi.com has something for every mum and what’s more, we offer FREE DELIVERY ON EVERYTHING!
Let’s be honest, there’s a Gleek in all of us! Whether you watch the all-singing all-dancing high-school musical-esque series Glee religiously, when you’re in the mood for a bit of up-lifting satirical comedy or via your Glee obsessed children/friends/neighbours (who really should turn their TV down!), there’s no escaping Glee Mania!
Glee Season 1 Music - Glee OST CD and Glee Don't Stop Believin' T-Shirt bundle at zavvi.com
The fourth feature from Shane Meadows (This Is England, A Room for Romeo Brass), one of the UK’s most exciting directors, Dead Man’s Shoes is a gritty yet fiercely moral tale of gangland retribution.
Two brothers return to the hometown they left eight years earlier, to find it still run by the same gang of small-time drug dealers and petty thugs. Their purpose, it soon becomes clear, is not reunion, but revenge – a quest of particular significance for Richard (Paddy Considine – Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum), the leader of the two, whose obsessive desire to even the score will lead them into dangerous territory.
Evoking Get Carter in its avenging brother scenario and featuring an outstanding central performance from Considine (not to mention a cracking score featuring Bonnie Prince Billy and Aphex Twin), Dead Man’s Shoes is Meadows’ finest film to date.
SUPERBAD’s Greg Mottola directs this comedy about a floundering college grad (Jesse Eisenberg) who decides to work at an amusement park when his post-graduation plans fall through. ADVENTURELAND’s talented cast includes Kristen Stewart (INTO THE WILD), Ryan Reynolds (DEFINITELY, MAYBE), and KNOCKED UP cast members Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and Martin Starr.
The zavvi.com website is a big and wonderful place, packed with tens of thousands of different products. We know that you’re a busy lot and that sometimes you haven’t got time to trawl around our or any other website when you’re looking for Christmas present ideas and inspiration, so let us do the job for you.
Stressed, need to relax, need your other half to chill? This is for you!
CLICK HERE for our Christmas Gift Finder, perfect for those looking to buy great Christmas presents for him, her or any other significant other in your life.
With scant live comedy on our tellies, and comedy clubs going under, where does a punter turn for quality stand-up? Why stadiums of course…which is good news for fans of stand up comedy DVDs as this Christmas sees a whole raft of Superstar stand up DVD releases – however zavvi goes a little bit deeper to reflect on how comics moved away from smokey clubs to cavernous arenas.
Michael McIntyre Comedy DVD
Buy a random ticket for London’s 02 Arena and you’re just as likely to see one bloke with a mike as you are to see Take That on a motorized elephant or Bono emerging from a lemon. Comedy always booms in a recession, but with the demise of more intimate clubs like Jongleurs, and audiences wanting a household name bang for their hard-earned buck, it’s the arenas that are cleaning up.
Even Russell Howard, a relative newcomer to mainstream comedy, called his last tour “Big Rooms and Belly Laughs” (now released on DVD as Russell Howard Live 2) and packed out venues like Cardiff International Arena and Liverpool’s Echo Arena. Size really does matter, audience-wise.
But in a 10,000 seater stadium, when the punters can’t see the whites of your eyes (unless they’re glued to the jumbo vision screen), what does a stand-up do to keep the audience’s attention?
Al Murray, in Pub Landlord guise, used an air cannon to fire bags of crisps 60 metres into the audience (“a health and safety nightmare”, he noted) when he played the 02 arena.
The Mighty Boosh had Bollo, their talking Gorilla pal, play a DJ set on their cross-country stadium tour, which got the vast audiences dancing. And way back in 1993 Newman and Baddiel, the first comedians to play Wembley Arena (and also the first to really capture the comedy DVD market), flew in on wires and roamed moodily around the stage on motorized skateboards. Comedy was indeed the new rock ‘n’ roll.
Not that pyrotechnics are vital to keeping a stadium crowd happy. Lee Evans and Jimmy Carr have mastered the art of filling every corner of the 14,500 seater O2 with just pratfalls (Evans) and rapid one-liners (Carr, obviously). And musical acts like Bill Bailey thrive in front of a Wembley crowd, where the line between comedy and stadium rock can blur. Bill told an interviewer: “At one point, [in the show Bill Bailey Tinselworm, DVD filmed at Wembley] I looked up and the lights were shining behind me and had projected my shadow, and it was about 50 feet tall, and I thought, ‘Oh my God.’”
Michael McIntyre, perhaps the biggest new comedy star this year, certainly in terms of coverage on the BBC where he seems to be on at least three times a week (Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre at the Apollo et al) has the hot tip for this years best selling comedy DVD – Michael McIntyre Live – and his act is geared to the bigger venues – over exaggerated mannerisms, silly walks, lots of skipping…he’s got it down to a tee.
But veteran stand up Eddie Izzard, who’s taken his show Stripped from London’s Lyric theatre to the O2 Arena, says there’s no difference playing to 500 or 11,000. “I don’t really approach [venues] differently,” he said. “I just go out and live it big.”
CLICK HERE for our full list of comedy DVDs including the supersize shows from Bill Bailey, Jimmy Carr, Michael McIntyre and Eddie Izzard.
The breakthrough stand-up comedy stars you don’t want to miss on DVD. Remember you saw them at zavvi first…
Everyone likes to be in on the latest thing, like claiming they were at the Sex Pistols debut gig at the 100 club, or that they knew Lady Gaga when she was a man (joke!) – so who’s Comedy DVD should you be buying now to know the are the comedy names you should be dropping now, lest you forever appear out of the loop?
Rhod Gilbert
Rhod Gilbert is a laconic Welsh stand up, best known for his appearances on Mock The Week and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. But it was his risky appearance on the 80th Royal Variety performance that got him noticed – it’s not every new comic who opens his set by asking Prince Charles if his kids are vandalizing local bus shelters (HRH does have a house near Gilbert’s – though it’s unlikely Wills and Harry use the bus).
“I think it was one of the bits that people remember about the evening,” Gilbert told an interviewer, “the cheeky Welsh bloke having a bit of a pop. I don’t think anyone remembers the rest of the set or the material.”
That may be true, but very few of his live audience members forget his hilariously laid back, often surreal style in the vein of Dylan Moran and Sean Lock. His new DVD, Rhod Gilbert and the Award Winning Mince Pie, is massively outselling those of other big name comedians, and it’s not just because of the Christmassy title.
One act who’s been at it longer than most newcomers is Andy Parsons. A veteran comedy writer for Spitting Image, Parsons has moved his mug in front of the camera for brainy shows like QI and Live at the Apollo. His debut stand up DVD Britain’s Got Idiots is a razor sharp critique of the UK’s celeb obsessed culture, from a seasoned and spiky political stand up.
Viewers of 8 Out of 10 Cats and Live at the Apollo will recognize Jason Manford as that comedian who looks a bit like Peter Kay, and fans of Peter Kay could do worse than check out the hilarious Salford lad and his DVD filmed in front of his home town crowd in Manchester ‘Jason Manford – Live at the Apollo’. His brand of cheeky story-telling and observations on every day life is a solid bet for lovers of Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard and Michael McIntyre.
CLICK HERE for some great offers on all the latest comedy DVDs
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