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Awesome

EMAILPRINTThinkFilm

Awesome reviews
68
9.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary  |  Musical

Written by:

Directed by: Nathaniel Hornblower (aka Adam Yauch)

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 31, 2006
DVD: July 25, 2006

Running Time: 90 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language

Starring Mike D, Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch, Mix Master Mike, Money Mark, and Doug E. Fresh

A formally innovative feature film experience, the Beastie Boys handed out 50 cameras to audience members at their sold-out performance in New York's famed Madison Square Garden in October 2004. These 50 different passionate perspectives shot from the point-of-view of the audience take the viewer deep inside the world of a live Beastie Boys show, prismatically and kinetically capturing the experience of a live musical performance like no film has ever done. (ThinkFilm)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

The Beastie Boys have delivered the ultimate gift to their fans and the title couldn't be more perfect.

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80

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A killer concert film, an ecstatic testament to the joys of fandom and a tribute to the democratizing potential of moviemaking technology.

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75

Premiere Jessica Letkemann

Obviously, if you don't like the Beasties or live music, arena-style, it's unlikely that you'll like their movie. But if you've ever even privately caught yourself nodding your head to "Brass Monkey," or you have a soft spot for the big-venue concert experience, Awesome rocks.

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75

TV Guide Ken Fox

Needless to say, anyone who's not entirely down with the beastly noise of the Beastie Boys will hate every second of it. This one's strictly for -- and, for the most part, by -- the fans.

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75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Get ready to be shaken and stirred.

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75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Alternately hypnotic and headache-inducing.

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75

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

The result: a swirling, kaleidoscopic take on a familiar concept, and a raucous, you-are-there atmosphere.

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75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's raucous and loud as hell; the hyperactive editing could trigger grand mal seizures.

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75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

It's the next best thing to being front and center.

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75

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If you're not a Beasties fan, you'll get almost nothing out of this after about two minutes. But if you like the band and want to see them rock hard in front of their oldest fans, it's a tasty treat.

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70

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

After this movie, the Beasties and their fans, camera-totin' or not, are left drenched, exhausted, delighted.

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70

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

The movie starts to drag near the end and feels longer than its 90 minutes - but that's cool. It's a love letter to the faithful in the first place.

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70

Variety Dennis Harvey

The sense of immediacy and excitement is contagious.

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70

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

With Awesome's insistence on professional sound--only a few times do we get sonically dropped into the cavernous, thumping Garden--and cuts to pristine close-ups of things like Mixmaster Mike's admittedly sick scratch detail work, it plays like a hype victory lap rather than a boundary-smashing study of fan curiosity or pathology.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Cutting to the beat of the Beasties' propulsive rap, Hörnblowér creates an experience that is simultaneously low-fi and state-of-the-art.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Boils down to a performance film with abysmal sound in which you rarely get to see a good, revealing close-up of the stars.

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60

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Awesome will please fans of the band, but expect little crossover to nonfans. No new ground is broken here. From a cinematic point of view, Awesome represents simply a monumental postproduction salvaging effort.

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50

New York Post Kyle Smith

The film quickly ceases to be of interest to anyone but dedicated fans. The novelty of the deliberate ugliness wears off after a song or two.

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50

San Francisco Chronicle Neva Chonin

The result, although a great idea, doesn't translate into a great movie.

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50

The New York Times Nathan Lee

As for the authorial conceit - assembling the movie from giddy, spastic, amateur photography captured from every part of the arena - at best it yields energetic perspectives on the show, at worst it looks like a cellphone video camera having an epileptic seizure.

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50

Chicago Reader Bob Mehr

Eventually the shaky, grainy visuals grow tiresome, but director Nathaniel Hornblower (aka Beastie Boy Adam Yauch) keeps things lively with a variety of editing tricks and sly humor.

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25

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

For the most part, the film is a chaotic blur of disconnected movement that re-creates the feeling of an unforgettably bad concert experience.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevin D. gave it an8:
This film was definitely worth considering for best documentary. Second to the Block Party this year, the Beastie Boys are at the top of their game, bringing top solid rhymes as well as rocking it out with their instruments, as they keep it classic and old school, bringing many of their old songs back with their fervered energy. Their film work was a little shoddy, but also unique because it was done by amateurs, but it also gave it a sense of realism into the documentary. The short film about Nathaniel Hornblower (who is actually Adam Yauch, who is also known as MCA) was not too bad, the lead being played by Tobias from the critically acclaimed, Arrested Development. This film was definitely worth your time. This should add strongly to the collection of other Beastie Boys material.

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