It had such great potential. Martin Scorsese and The Rolling Stones. Yet somehow The Rolling Stones appear to have been replaced by embarrassing old men. Meaning that the two hours of this film becomes more a trial than a treat. There are two things genuinely saddening about this film. The first is that it is so brilliantly shot. You can't help think that if it was a show actually worth recording it could have been one of the great concert movies like "The Last Waltz" or "Stop Making Sense". The camera placement and editing is nothing short of perfect. The other is that Scorsese keeps inter cutting fantastic archival footage of The Stones when they were genuinely interesting and able to hold a tune. This footage just underlines how dull the 2008 version of the Rolling Stones actually are. Maybe Scorsese should have made a straight documentary on the subject matter. Indeed the only highlights come from the cameos. Jack White comes on stage and introduces the concept of singing rather than shouting and gesticulating ridiculously to Mick. Buddy Guy drops in for a song and blows the Stones of stage by producing a massively talented performance, mercifully Mick has a harmonica in his mouth for a large chunk of the song and doesn't shout over the top of him. Christina Aguilera's cameo is somewhat less successful... Well, embarrassing and hilarious are the words that best spring to mind. "Shine A Light" is as good a picture as the subject matter would allow. Scorsese gets an 11/10 for his brilliant work on a gig that is a 1/10. So on average the complete package is a 6/10.
Review of Shine a Light
