Rating: 
Summary: Very heavy experience
Review: This film by Zappa is a very heavy experience . When the band is playing it is nice and entertaining (the music of the MAN is great and Belew, Bozzio and the rest of the band are very good too). The other stuff is incredibly boring ... I mean all the garbage of the gas mask, of the porn doll, of the poodle, of the police car, all those foolish things. C'mon. I would prefer a more mature approach. Zappa was not a genius for these things. I consider him a genius for his music (expecially for his compositions because he was also a really awful guitar player). I don't need to see porn dolls torturated for 20 minutes .. I repeat, C'MON !!! What a bore! Moreover I hate Zappa for have given so much screentime to clay animator Bruce Bickford. It is an incredibly boring part. All those minutes with clay transforming on the screen, c'mon Frank I'm not an LSD addicted!! Too psychedelic! What a bore! Clay transformations? Do we need to see something soooo dated in 2003 ???????? In the virtual reality era? A really annoying and fastidious show today . From a musical standpoint it is a nice concert but I prefer the later Zappa's music, the less rock and more Jazz/atonal stuff. I still prefer "Does humour belongs in music?" dvd to this one. It is shorter but more focused and a lot less psychedelic and seventies (obvious was 1984). Stay away if you're not a real Zappa fanatic. You would be bored to death (almost three hours of foolish gags with some nice music moments).Later ... I see that some guys immediatly voted my review as unhelpful. I think you guys should be REAL Zappa fanatic to tolerate to watch this thing from its beginning to its end (almost 3 hours of grotesque and trash). As I stated at the end of my review, this is a dvd that I suggest only to TRUE fans of the MAN (I love some of his music but I'm not a fan, I'm not blind and deaf. I try to judge his works in a objective way, by all means these are only my opinions) . I mean, this dvd is dated and really boring for a person that is not fascinated by the MAN at the extreme. Try to put this dvd on for your girlfriend, for some of your friends (not Zappa's fanatics obviously), for your parents, in the next Christmas holidays ... they will hate you. They will thrown the Christmas tree against you. It is true that this film is a document that says a lot of things about the MAN (things that may also disappoint you) , and that if you want to understand Zappa's kaleidoskopic figure this dvd can help you a lot, but if you're not a total fanatic you will be bored. That's absolutly sure. . After few months from the date of this review I want to point out a fact. My opinion is surely on the minority side (actually 6 against 49) but it is well over the 10% ... I'm happy some guys agreed with my idea about this dvd. This probably means that at least a little boring this dvd it is, for real. It can bore 10 persons on 100. Not too good in the end (do you agree?). For the fans of the MAN I would like to say that my review is not intended to offend Zappa's figure, this absolutly not. He was a true genius, without any reasonable doubt, I love him and I have the greatest respect for him and his music. I'm saying here that THIS film is boring, not that Zappa is boring ( he was a bad guitar player but this is easy to understand, he too said this thing a lot of times of himself). Geniuses can do wrong too. I think a lot of people can agree this thing at least (more than 10%). This dvd is surely not the best thing you can buy from Zappa's catalogue. Best to you all.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly tedious experience...
Review: This film was a disappointment for me, I had never seen it before until this DVD, and being a HUGE hardcore Frank Zappa fan even I found it to be incredibly tedious to sit through. It was just too long and it could have been edited down. I found a lot of it boring and unfunny. It has great moments but as a whole it falls flat on it's face as a film. I found the claymation to be pretty unique and most of the concert footage (not all) was pretty good too, the performance of 'Punky's Whips' is particularly great. I preferred the 'Does Humor Belong In Music?' DVD a lot more. I doubt I could ever sit through Baby Snakes in it's entirety again, thank God for the convenience of DVD Chapters.
Rating: 
Summary: Surround Encoding Error Kills Otherwise Great DVD
Review: This is a movie for anyone who enjoys Zappa's music and essential if you never got to see the late great Frank live. I can do without some of the clay animation, which gets tedious after a while, but otherwise an essential concert film.
Now for the bad news. It appears that in the DVD authoring process, the front and rear channels got reversed. Therefore, if you listen to the DVD in 5.1 surround, while dialog and singing comes out of the center channel, it also comes from the back speakers. Front speakers have ambience, reverb and other rear channel information.
I wrote to the company that manufactured the disc after figuring out this defect that made portions of the movie unintelligible. The QC guy at Eagle Rock wrote me back and said, "There is nothing wrong with the disc. Please check to make sure your system is set up properly." I think that after 100+ other DVDs in my collection sound perfect(including the disc of setup/test tones), this one wouldn't stand out so much if there was nothing wrong.
If you have a DVD player with discrete outputs for the 5.1 signal, you can switch the cables and hear it properly. Otherwise you have to re-route wires and/or speakers. It was an excellent effort on Dweezil's part to convert this previously unheard mix to 5.1, and Frank's mix is fantastic when heard as it was meant to be, but sadly, this release is another example of how the Zappa estate has been falling short on preserving the beauty of Frank's music. FZ would have never let this happen when he was in charge. The stereo mix is fine, as there is less to mess up. Still essential, but flawed in its presentation.
Rating: 
Summary: A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal
Review: This is really a great movie. Get it now before it totally goes out of print. The movie is approximately 3 hours long, and comes on 2 tapes. Most of the movie is Frank Zappa in concert with his 1979 band. On Halloween night, no less. The other segments are the band rehearsing, and some really cool claymation by Bruce Bickford.
Rating:
Summary: A Grim Reminder of the Glorious Past
Review: Watching this DVD shows how musicianship in what is left of "rock music" has really declined. Whatever happened to guitar solos?
Anyway, fans of Zappa will, of course, love the concert footage. I hate claymation, so I hated the claymation parts. Those gentlepersons who listen to Classic Rock stations will probably find lots to like here, as well. Actually, this band cooks so hot that just about anybody would like to see it.
I also enjoyed some of Zappa's zingers (in addition to his explicitly filthy lyrics--well, they are!). Like, Zappa humbly thanks the crowd, then says, "But let's not get maudlin. After all, the next song is 'Dynamo Hum.'"
Not only has musicianship declined to undetectable levels, so to have the crowds. The crowd in this DVD was really cool. Especially Angel. And the helmet Zappa puts on.
You will probably like this DVD whoever you are.
Rating:
Summary: worth waiting for!
Review: What a great dvd all-round. Considering this is 1970's source material, the video is great. The camera work of the concert footage gives solo players their due and it's nice to see "pre-mtv" footage without machine-gun edits! And to see Adrian Belew in a context outside of King Crimson is very interesting! The sound is impeccable (I would expect nothing less as the Zappa cannon is always top-notch in this area). I got into Frank a little too late to see him play live, so this is the next best thing. The Roxy trailer has me frothing at the mouth! George Duke and Chester Thompson are such killer musicians! I would encourage anyone interested in Frank to pick this DVD up! Can't wait for future DVD's and would also like to note that Zappa bandmates Napoleon Murphy Brock and Ike Willis are keeping the spirit of Zappa's compositions alive with their tribute band "Project/Object" - phenominal shows have been presented in the Philadelphia area and they tour often! Catch 'em if you can!
Rating: 
Summary: A bit pretentious, but nonetheless a masterpiece of art!
Review: What can I say about Frank that hasn't been said before? The man was the reincarnation of Mozart's ... child. The man was a towering talent, a bastion of integrity and a true purist. The video starts out kind of slow with only a few snippets of music and/or concert footage strewn about some rather long interviews, most notably with Bruce Bickford, a total stoner who happens to be absolutely brilliant in the art of claymation. Things really heat up in the second half which is mostly music. Frank really belts out the overdrive with his guitar solos in "Muffin man", "City of Tiny Lights" and "Punky's Whips". In my opinion, these are the highlights of the film. There is a rather amusing section with a perfomance art dance-a-thon to the tune of "Black Page" (which is a song nearly impossible to dance to, that's the joke). With members like Adrian Belew (King Crimson), Terry Bozio (Missing Persons, Vai, Jeff Beck Band), Patrick O'hearn, Ed Mann and Steve Mars, there's no way you could put together a show anything less than spectacular. There is even a small scene with Warren Cuccarillo asking for an audition. He went on the join the band and later joined Missing Persons and Duran Duran (!?!?)(as FZ rolls over in his grave...). The humor is vulgar and the riffs are polyrythmic. Everything is just a bit off, and considering what passes for music these days, that's a good thing! Its rock, its jazz, its comedy, its socially commentary and its utterly brilliant. If you have a taste for the ecclectic and bizzare, then check it out! FZ forever!
Rating:
Summary: Crude, Lewd, Disjointed,Cacaphonous...Pure Genius!
Review: Yes, this rockumentary is all of the above, and sometimes less. But it is in fact the sloppy, organic nature of Frank Zappa's happily self-indulgent epic "Baby Snakes" that makes it seem an even more vital document of free artistic expression, especially now, in our increasingly oppressive post 9-11 environment. There is something here for every Zappa fan. If you appreciate Zappa's loopy, wide-ranging sense of humor, it's all here,from the sophmoric (Roy Estrada's backstage "improv" antics with a blow-up doll wears out its welcome quickly) to the sublime (plenty of footage featuring Zappa's frequently hilarious onstage rants and audience interaction at thier uncensored best). For the fans (like yours truly) who prefer the 'musical genius' side, the band has a dynamite lineup-including Adrian Belew, Terry Bozio & Patrick O'Hearn (Zappa's 'secret' was to always surround himself with 'chops' players who could handle his complex arrangements). The portrait of claymation artist (and obvious acid casualty) Bruce Bicksford rambles on a bit too long, but is redeemed by the undeniable twinkle in Zappa's eye as he questions his subject in mock-serious documentary style. Still, Zappa's John Waters-type fascination with offbeat and bizarre individuals was an important part of his makeup as an artist. After all, who but FZ could have ever intuited and cultivated the poetry that lurked in the soul of a Captain Beefheart, or even a random "crazy" street person like Wild Man Fischer? Buy two copies just on principle-and give one to your favorite Republican!
Rating:
Summary: Crude, Lewd, Disjointed,Cacaphonous...Pure Genius!
Review: Yes, this rockumentary is all of the above, and sometimes less. But it is in fact the sloppy, organic nature of Frank Zappa's happily self-indulgent epic "Baby Snakes" that makes it seem an even more vital document of free artistic expression, especially now, in our increasingly oppressive post 9-11 environment. There is something here for every Zappa fan. If you appreciate Zappa's loopy, wide-ranging sense of humor, it's all here,from the sophmoric (Roy Estrada's backstage "improv" antics with a blow-up doll wears out its welcome quickly) to the sublime (plenty of footage featuring Zappa's frequently hilarious onstage rants and audience interaction at thier uncensored best). For the fans (like yours truly) who prefer the 'musical genius' side, the band has a dynamite lineup-including Adrian Belew, Terry Bozio & Patrick O'Hearn (Zappa's 'secret' was to always surround himself with 'chops' players who could handle his complex arrangements). The portrait of claymation artist (and obvious acid casualty) Bruce Bicksford rambles on a bit too long, but is redeemed by the undeniable twinkle in Zappa's eye as he questions his subject in mock-serious documentary style. Still, Zappa's John Waters-type fascination with offbeat and bizarre individuals was an important part of his makeup as an artist. After all, who but FZ could have ever intuited and cultivated the poetry that lurked in the soul of a Captain Beefheart, or even a random "crazy" street person like Wild Man Fischer? Buy two copies just on principle-and give one to your favorite Republican!
Rating:
Summary: Essential Zappa
Review: Zappa traditionally played NYC every Halloween. This film is a snapshot of one of his Halloween shows ('77 or '78, I'm not sure which). If this film seems uneven, it's because Zappa's shows were more than just "rock concerts", they were show biz extravaganzas! Frank always incorporated humor, theatre, and a sense of absurdity, and he invariably challenged his audiences. He wasn't afraid to be spontaneous, and if sometimes something didn't work, it wasn't for lack of trying. If you never got the chance to see Zappa live, you MUST see this DVD! It doesn't show everything Zappa was capable of, but it is a great introduction to his persona. The sound is really excellent. Hopefully, there will be many more live Zappa releases. To get the full impact of his music and personality, you'd have to see his performances with various groups of musicians at various stages of his career. He never did the same thing twice! Recommended reading to accompany the DVD experience: "The Real Frank Zappa Book."
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