"End of the Century" is a very good Ramones documentary, but it definitely didn't live up to the hype.
Now The Ramones are my favorite band of all time, and for anyone who loves them even half as much as I do, they are going to love "End of the Century" for the mere fact that you'll see some good interview footage (especially by some you don't really hear from) as well as good old concert footage one may or may not have seen already. But really, there's nothing too special here and it pretty much runs just like any other Ramones documentary you've seen. There's a few instances of mild trash-talk, definitely not the "explosive" stuff you came to expect with all the hype.
Listening to dee dee is always great, tho' sad because the toll all the drugs he's taken in his life left their mark, with his speech, mannerisms and the fact that he looks much older than he was. If watching Dee Dee doesn't make any drug-taking loser want to stop, I don't know what will. You have to give it to Dee Dee in one strange way though - while wanna-be punks like Nikki Sixx and the wussies in Guns and Roses always bragged about how many drugs they did, they never did the one thing that would have REALLY shown how "cool" (to a drug-taking loser) they were - die. Heck, The bay City Rollers took more drugs than all those wimps. Damn, the message is, while people like Dee dee, Johnny Thunders and others made some awesome music (especially dee dee), they were morons for doing all the drugs. (Message to druggies - GET A LIFE.) It was also interesting to hear Johnny talk about Joey's pending death, but really while watching about their feud because Johnny stole Joey's girlfriend, you can't help but wonder, why don't these guys grow up? I do think Johnny's the uncool one here tho, as aren't there enough girls around that he had to steal Joey's? I do totally agree with Johnny's political stance though - I applaud him for not being one of those typical left-wing moron musicians that know nothing about nothing, and for never fearing to express his conservatism.
There's a lot missing and a lot of unanswered questions fans would have liked to have known, especially stuff like which of the Ramones were too drunk or drugged to record what off what album. But it's pretty much the same outside musicians commenting on The Ramones, I mean how many times does Debbie Harry get a call and hear, "we're making a Ramones documentary and need your comments." All in all, "End of the Century" is pretty good, but again don't expect too much more than a typical Ramones documentary.
The extras on the DVD were decent, with Marky showing what he can do on drums and Tommy telling who wrote what, and other good stuff.
Now The Ramones are my favorite band of all time, and for anyone who loves them even half as much as I do, they are going to love "End of the Century" for the mere fact that you'll see some good interview footage (especially by some you don't really hear from) as well as good old concert footage one may or may not have seen already. But really, there's nothing too special here and it pretty much runs just like any other Ramones documentary you've seen. There's a few instances of mild trash-talk, definitely not the "explosive" stuff you came to expect with all the hype.
Listening to dee dee is always great, tho' sad because the toll all the drugs he's taken in his life left their mark, with his speech, mannerisms and the fact that he looks much older than he was. If watching Dee Dee doesn't make any drug-taking loser want to stop, I don't know what will. You have to give it to Dee Dee in one strange way though - while wanna-be punks like Nikki Sixx and the wussies in Guns and Roses always bragged about how many drugs they did, they never did the one thing that would have REALLY shown how "cool" (to a drug-taking loser) they were - die. Heck, The bay City Rollers took more drugs than all those wimps. Damn, the message is, while people like Dee dee, Johnny Thunders and others made some awesome music (especially dee dee), they were morons for doing all the drugs. (Message to druggies - GET A LIFE.) It was also interesting to hear Johnny talk about Joey's pending death, but really while watching about their feud because Johnny stole Joey's girlfriend, you can't help but wonder, why don't these guys grow up? I do think Johnny's the uncool one here tho, as aren't there enough girls around that he had to steal Joey's? I do totally agree with Johnny's political stance though - I applaud him for not being one of those typical left-wing moron musicians that know nothing about nothing, and for never fearing to express his conservatism.
There's a lot missing and a lot of unanswered questions fans would have liked to have known, especially stuff like which of the Ramones were too drunk or drugged to record what off what album. But it's pretty much the same outside musicians commenting on The Ramones, I mean how many times does Debbie Harry get a call and hear, "we're making a Ramones documentary and need your comments." All in all, "End of the Century" is pretty good, but again don't expect too much more than a typical Ramones documentary.
The extras on the DVD were decent, with Marky showing what he can do on drums and Tommy telling who wrote what, and other good stuff.