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Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!
  • Release Date: Mar 31, 2006
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 22
  3. Negative: 1 out of 22
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  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Michael Ferraro
    100
    The Beastie Boys have delivered the ultimate gift to their fans and the title couldn't be more perfect.
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    80
    A killer concert film, an ecstatic testament to the joys of fandom and a tribute to the democratizing potential of moviemaking technology.
  3. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Get ready to be shaken and stirred.
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Jessica Reaves
    75
    The result: a swirling, kaleidoscopic take on a familiar concept, and a raucous, you-are-there atmosphere.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    75
    It's the next best thing to being front and center.
  6. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    75
    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.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    It's raucous and loud as hell; the hyperactive editing could trigger grand mal seizures.
  8. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Jessica Letkemann
    75
    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.
  9. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    75
    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.
  10. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    75
    Alternately hypnotic and headache-inducing.
  11. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    70
    After this movie, the Beasties and their fans, camera-totin' or not, are left drenched, exhausted, delighted.
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    70
    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.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Laura Sinagra
    70
    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.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    70
    Cutting to the beat of the Beasties' propulsive rap, Hörnblowér creates an experience that is simultaneously low-fi and state-of-the-art.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    70
    The sense of immediacy and excitement is contagious.
  16. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    Boils down to a performance film with abysmal sound in which you rarely get to see a good, revealing close-up of the stars.
  17. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    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.
  18. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    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.
  19. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Neva Chonin
    50
    The result, although a great idea, doesn't translate into a great movie.
  20. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Nathan Lee
    50
    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.
  21. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Bob Mehr
    50
    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.
  22. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    25
    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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User Reviews

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User Score
8.5 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. KevinD.
    8
    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.… Full Review »
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