Guns N’ Roses DVD Collector’s Box (MVD/Chrome Dreams)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Main Programs: B-
When Guns
N’ Roses arrived, it was seen as the latest revival of the Rock genre, but as
Hip Hop expanded and Grunge was Rock’s last mainstream hurrah of any substance,
their arrival turned out to be the last resurgence of the original Rock
movement traced back to the 1950s. Music
Video Distributors and Chrome Dreams have paired two past DVD releases on the
band, Guns N’ Roses – Sex N’ Drugs N’
Rock N’ Roll is not as edgy as the title suggests, but covers the band and
especially their early days well enough while the ironically titled Axl Rose – The Prettiest Star talks
more about the later years and more specifically how the bad disintegrated.
Unfortunately,
these unauthorized hour-long programs offer with no music from the band and
explicit disclaimers begin each show as it seems Rose and Geffen Records likely
did not even want these shows produced.
There is overlap between the two, but it is not as bad as it might be
because both in their own way cover the times of Axl and the band in ways one
could understand would make the subjects uncomfortable as times.
Both make
it all the way to the next pending album Chinese
Democracy, easily the most expensive album never produced and that these
shows are older speaks of how the album may never arrive. With Rose driving every other member of the
band away, will it even be a true Guns N’ Roses album? Even the New York Times had an article about how
it keeps getting funded and never released.
Wonder if it is even getting made?
The 1.33
X 1 image on both show originated in professional analog PAL video and is
watchable, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo and has bad rocklike
music filling in for the Guns songs Geffen and Rose refused to license. Good thing the interviews are well recorded
and we get some good archive footage. As
for extras, the Axl DVD has a quiz
and discography, while the older Sex
disc has stills and a discography. That’s
not much, but the content will amuse and entertain fans and the curious.
- Nicholas Sheffo
