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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Shine a Light
Paramount Vantage


7.2

based on 36 reviews
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based on 20 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language, drug references and smoking

Starring Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Bill Clinton, Ron Wood, and Charlie Watts

Martin Scorsese's concert documentary Shine a Light will show the world the Rolling Stones as they've never been seen before. Filming at the famed Beacon Theatre in New York City in fall 2006, Scorsese assembled a legendary team of cinematographers to capture the raw energy of the legendary band. (Paramount)

GENRE(S):	Documentary \| Musical
DIRECTED BY:	Martin Scorsese
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 29, 2008 Theatrical: April 4, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	122 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / UK

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

San Francisco Chronicle Joel Selvin

An exhilarating documentary.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

May be the most intimate documentary ever made about a live rock 'n' roll concert. Certainly it has the best coverage of the performances onstage.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Shine a Light has two maestros, Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, and once they begin to mesh, around the third or fourth song, they put on a display of showmanship that erases the line between art and entertainment.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An altogether astounding testimony to the band's longevity, vitality and verve.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An exhilarating musical experience.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

As the director of the documentary Shine a Light, Martin Scorsese is a besotted rock ’n’ roll fan who wholeheartedly embraces its mythology.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Shine a Light may not be the last Rolling Stones movie, but it's likely to be the last one with a touch of the poet about it.

Austin Chronicle Raoul Hernandez

Dedicated to Atlantic Records fountainhead Ahmet Ertegun, whose complications from injuries sustained in a tumble backstage at the Beacon resulted in his death, let the record show that a lifetime of musical innovation concluded with dying not at but FROM a Rolling Stones concert.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This you-are-there spellbinder is a master director shining his light on the best rock band on the planet.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Shine a Light is one of those lions-in-winter affairs, and Jagger, who has a body fat count of negative 67, can still dance like a maniacal popinjay, and Richards still looks like a satyr who has stayed up all night every night of his adult life.

USA Today Elysa Gardner

The genius of Scorsese's film, which is being shown in IMAX in 93 theaters, is that it reveals the Stones' mortality while celebrating all that makes them more than mere mortals.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Shine a Light did something I didn't think was possible. It got me caring about the Rolling Stones again.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Shine a Light provides the clearest and most intimate viewing experience of the band to date. It is also a happy circumstance that the group, now in their mid-60s, have rarely sounded tighter.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Shine A Light is essentially just an expertly made concert film. But what a concert! (And what a camera team.)

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Shine A Light pays tribute to the band's essential agelessness.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

In Shine a Light, a crackling concert movie directed by Martin Scorsese, the Rolling Stones are now so old that they seem new again.

Newsweek David Ansen

This movie is about giving us a privileged glimpse of the Stones in action. It's a record of an astonishing musical chemistry that has been evolving, with no signs of calcification, for nearly five decades. As a bonus, there are delicious guest appearances by Buddy Guy and Jack White.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Vibrant and engaging documentary.

Time Richard Corliss

Shine a Light isn't the record of a unique event, so it's not on the exalted level of "The Last Waltz." But it has its own fascination. The film is less about the music than about the dedication of show-biz troupers--about doing your job, year after year, as if it's your joy.

Empire Will Lawrence

A triumph for Scorsese and a document for the band, Shine A Light is a five-star experience for Stones fans. For those less enamoured with the ageing rockers, it goes a long way to explaining their longevity.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Jagger is often shot straight-on, veiny arms outstretched, white-hot lights illuminating his skinny form (and, um, bared belly). Suddenly, Scorsese turns what seemed familiar into genuinely iconic. From then on, the movie is on fire.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

It's kind of amusing to see slinky Christina Aguilera sing the "Live With Me" line about a score of harebrained children, as she clearly hasn't got the faintest idea of what that means.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones "documentary" (i.e. concert film) is a first: the only Scorsese film that does not feature the Stones' "Gimme Shelter." Really. I think the Dalai Lama even hummed the guitar solo in "Kundun."

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Scorsese's canny use of archival footage makes it more than a mere concert film.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Ultimately, Shine a Light is illuminating indeed, even fascinating, but not in the way Scorsese intended. What he has created, inadvertently, is an invaluable documentation of semi-fossilized Stones – musicologists may like it, sociologists should love it and, some distant day, anthropologists will treasure it.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Feast for Rolling Stones fans.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Martin Scorsese’s energetic account of a Stones concert at Gotham’s Beacon Theater in fall 2006 takes full advantage of heavy camera coverage and top-notch sound to create an invigorating musical trip down memory lane, as well as to provoke gentle musings on the wages of aging and the passage of time.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

My favorite rock-concert movies, Jonathan Demme’s "Stop Making Sense" and "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," are organic: They chart a miraculous path from sound to soul. Scorsese stays on the outside, as befits his temperament and his subject. Yet there is, amid the whirligig spectacle, a spark of connection.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

To call Shine a Light a documentary doesn’t quite nail it; it’s more of a macro-mentary, shot in such tight close-up that you can see the fillings in Mick’s teeth and the sweat stains in the armpits of his sequined magenta top.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Despite Scorsese's efforts to pump up some drama - the director, with his signature glasses and Groucho brows, gets huffy about not receiving a set list - drama is sorely lacking. This is just a concert film.

Village Voice Camille Dodero

Shine a Light's only point seems to be: You try this at 60. One would hope that, after "The Last Waltz" and "No Direction Home," Scorsese might venture beyond making a glossy episode of "Ripley's Believe It or Not." Nope, and we're not supposed to question it: Like the Stones, Marty's earned the right to coast, especially in his senior years.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

At times, the cutting shifts from the hasty to the impatient to the borderline epileptic, and, while never doubting Scorsese’s ardor for the Stones, I got the distinct impression of a style in search of a subject.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's a late-night infomercial masquerading as a concert movie, more an advertisement for vitality than a picture of vitality itself. There's something self-congratulatory, preening, about both the performance and the filmmaking.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Outdated before it opened today.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film does not stand up to the current crop of music/concert films like "U2 3D," which brilliantly uses 3-D to show the Irish band in concert so as to encapsulate its relationship to its fans, each other and their own music, and "CSNY: Deja Vu," which hones in on the political connection Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have to their music.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Naturally, age and infirmity are a major subtext of Shine a Light (and, really, any movie featuring Keith Richards). No matter how cadaverous the Stones appear, they keep climbing onstage, and I’ll miss them when they’re finally gone.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brian D. gave it a4:
What a boring and sterile concert! Clean cut millionaires masquerading as rebel renegades. The sound was crystal clear and the photography's brilliant, but far too polished. Best part was "Champagne and Reefer".

Jay H. gave it a6:
Scorsese does a good job piecing the film together, and the older clips are excellent and give a great insite into who the Rolling Stones are. The concert footage is well done. My main gripe is it's too long.

Jp gave it a0:
Boring beyond belief. The Stones are about as much of a Rock N' Roll band as George Bush is presidential. In other words: They're a fraud. Too bad when a once great artist lose their creativity and just regurgitate a few once great songs. An utter disappointment.

Bill P. gave it a9:
Superb! My 1st IMAX experience--well worth the extra cost; better than I expected.

Jon gave it a9:
Best rock movie I've ever seen. No, not the best concert - the Stones aren't the best rock band in spite of the hype. Martin Scorsese has captured the people who make up the Rolling Stones, focusing of course, on Jagger and Richards. We saw it in IMAX, and that made it even better. Seat shaking sound, perfectly crisp. I felt like I was in the first row, but without the smoke infused clothes and hangover. Go and enjoy!

Phil T. gave it a10:
Forget the doubters who say this is just a concert film. Many years from now this will be seen as the masterpiece it is - a brilliant celebration of the world's greatest rock n roll band in action! A joyous and magnificent experience!

Charles C.n gave it a0:
Brilliant Director Martin Scorsese shines a light on the Rolling Stones. This backstage production on the Rolling stones touring concerts starrs Mart Scorsese in this music/documentary. My first question is this: How much effort do the rolling stones have to get to pull off of the best that they can be on stage. Its like they're possessed and obsessed. There is only one good song the Rolling Stone's have. Yet the screenplay-work is used like a shaky motion of missed art. This huge disappointment is absolute shit, it is Martin Scorsese's worst movie he has ever associated with and officially produced, written and directed. This creation is nowhere being influential. It sticks with blank refusion in giving up. Its so annoying. It runs on nothing, no motivation at all. Its a complete bore. Absolutely terrible. I think Martin Scorsese is getting way too full of himself in showing off the Rolling Stones. But to tell the truth, this huge touring concert for the rolling stones brings Keith Richards and gang to their worst performance ever. They don't belong on the big screen.

Shine a Light Paramount Vantage

Shine a Light
Paramount Vantage