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Phish - Bittersweet Motel

Phish - Bittersweet Motel

List Price: $24.99
Your Price: $22.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not good at all....
Review: I agree with Dirk Digglers review. I live in Burlington, VT and the talk around town is that the band split because of Tray's GIGANTIC ego that was displayed in this video. He was an arrogant jerk to say the least. The music was decent on here but I could not stand listening to Tray talk about himself over and over again. It seems as though he forgot that Phish has a few other musicians involved besides his beloved self. Everyone in the scene here is convinced that the band is done because of Tray's OUT OF CONTROL ego.....we'll see.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Alot of Phun!!
Review: I had a great time watching this DVD. It was cool to hear the bands thoughts(mostly Trey) and coversations on things such as their first gig, and the ever-present associations with The Grateful Dead.

All of this was of course interlaced with Phish's music which sounds great. The DTS and Dolby 5.1 soundtracks were indistinguishable to me, but that's ok because they both sounded excellent. Complete songs are only included in the bonus materials. The music in the film is just segments. Of course it wouldve been nice to have complete songs in the film itself but for time reasons I'm sure they only include segments but it's constant throughout the film as you would expect, and as I said sounds great.

I agree with several previous reviews that it would've been nice to have more input from other band members during the film. Hell, I could've watched this for 5 hours! But I understand that they gotta keep the movie relatively short. In a perfect world it wouldve been great to see all the band members get as much time as Trey and have this be a 3-DVD set. Even still, the film does a nice job conveying the personalities of the different band members. You definately feel like you can relate to them by the end of the movie.

Alot of people have knocked the director for his choice of Phans that he interviewed. Again, with a longer movie maybe he could've done more but I can't really blame him. These are some of the people that go to see Phish, like them or not. And if you know nothing about Phish(as this director didn't when he took this film)...these are the types of people that will stand out and be memorable to you. I think it's great..I mean you won't get these types of characters when Britney Spears comes to your town.(except maybe the frat-boys interviewed who would likely be there after some pre-teens). It's unique to the jamband scene so why not show it in the movie.

All in all this is a truly enjoyable film. For me it was too short, but for the non-Phish fan who is just watching it as a rockumentary maybe it's perfect. And I do think this film could convert those who haven't heard Phish...perhaps I'll try it on some of my friends.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: It's simple. If you like Phish, then your going to love this movie. I think its one of the best movies ive seen in awhile. Trey isnt cocky at all so I dont know why people are saying that. If you like phish, buy it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Terrible, just terrible
Review: I have to give Phish credit for being decent musicians. However Trey Anastasio is the most self centered person in all of rock. He was so cocky in this video it leaves little to the imagination why the band is on break currently. For those of you who like to compare Phish to the Grateful Dead...think again. Just watch this video and think about all the interviews you may have read or watched with Jerry Garcia. Jerry was far more talented and he never uttered the words "I" or "me" in an interview. He was the most modest man in rock. Trey on the other hand can't get enough of himself. His favorite words are "I" or "Me". I was litterally embarrased listening to him speak. I live in VT and if I ever have to chance to meet Trey I'd love to ask him where he get's off with that attitude. How great can he be if his music only appeals to stoned 15 year olds? Perhaps the rest of the band realized that already....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Flawed movie about a great band
Review: My problem here is that the filmmaker tried to make 3 films and didn't do any of them very well, though when I got the DVD the movie was better than I remembered from the theater. I thought that the concert footage was great, but since he almost never gives us a complete song, the tension and release that is behind many Phish jams (as well as entire sets) was missing. He could have done a Phish interview movie, but it became increasingly Trey-centric as the rest of the band lost interest in being followed around and filmed. Or he could have done a film about the "scene" and the fans, which he scratched the surface of. I agree with the other reviewers who said that Phillips appeared to focus on some rather shallow fans. It would have been interesting if he would have interviewed some of the tapers -- people who feed a worldwide network of collectors with remarkably high-quality recordings, and their own special subspecies. By trying to do all three things at the same time none of them were very good. I liked the exras, with more or less full length versions of several songs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Weird
Review: As a "phan" since 1994, I've been following the band pretty closely for a while now. I was really excited to see a feature-length documentary about one of my most favorite bands... and I was disapointed.
Todd Phillips, the man behind 'Slacker', was hired to make a movie about a band he knew nothing about. He almost did a good job. He does a pretty good job with the music, catching the band's goofy side as well as their passion for the music. There's a bit too much of Trey Anastasio, Phish's guitarist and singer, but that's okay, I guess.
What really bothered me was the depiction of the fans. From drunken frat-boys to brain-fried hippies I found that Phillips used the weirdest and most brain-dead to represent Phish's huge fanbase. This puts a fan like me in a weird position: I've been misrepresented.
After the movie was over I felt weird about it. It was neat to watch the band -- behind the stage -- but I didn't feel good about Phish -- I just felt... weird.
The DVD, by the way, is pretty cool. The trailer for the movie is great -- one of the best, in my opinion. The deleted scenes are cool too. My favorite is Mike Gordon trying to answer the question "Are you rich?" Funny stuff. Finally, full length concert performances that didn't make the film are wonderful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Phabulous Philm
Review: After seeing Bittersweet countless times, I now feel an even stronger connection to our generation's greatest group. Trey, Jon, Mike, and Page are all exceptionally talented musicians, genuinely down to earth people, and the sources of hours of fresh entertainment. This documentary captures the very essence of Phish more than anything else, except for a live show experience of course. Every phan must have this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent but....
Review: The overall quality of this movie is excellent. I was there in person for almost all of the US concert footage and the movie does a good job of capturing what you would see at a live show with one big exception, the film in extremly "Trey-Centric." The majority of the concert footage and Q+A is focus on Trey. The film should mirror the orginal idea of the band which was to have equal airplay for all four members. Perhaps the movie should be entitled "Trey." Besides the fact that it is Trey-centric, I think the film is excellent, the sound is good, the behind the scenes looks give a little sense of how the Phish machine is run and you get a good sense of the personalities of the members. I really liked how the film didn't focus on the Phans. The media tends to cocentrate of the wacky Phan-base instead of music, I guess Phish allowed the documentary with the notion that it would center around the music. Overall, the film is great but there is one minor detail that should be mentioned, the DVD menu system for this DVD is extremly poor. The interface is buggy and the animations are terrible.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Decent.
Review: This film should have been titled "Trey Anastatio." He gets all the screen time, almost all the interviews, and all the focus. You'd think that the other guys were just sidekicks. This is the films greatest weakness: you don't learn anything about Mike, Page, or Fish. So why get it? Great music.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: phinaly! Phish makes a Philm!
Review: It is great for any Phishhead , new or old. showing what the guys are doing onstage and off. and the great went part was awesome. spectacular, with some good music too.


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