Rating: Summary: Egads! One star! Review: Yeah the songs and videos are great, but 7 of them just isnt worth the price of admission. Just record them, they ARE only commercials after all.I Don't really understand all the unhelpful votes I'm getting for this review. I love Radiohead, all these videos are cool. All I'm saying is it's not worth buying them, they can easily be recorded with a VCR. Get MPIE instead, it's a much more worthwhile Radiohead release.
Rating: Summary: Commercials for our glowing bottle of ice cold Isolation Review: Radiohead is one of the most inventive music video makers ever in the business and '7 Television Commercials' showcases that fact. Starting with the great animated voyage through a day in the life of a youngster and his friend with a limbless leader, mindless execs, bare chested mermaids, taxi cabs, and nude woman in a tree to the sounds of the terrific up, down, back and forth angst driven layered 'Paranoid Android'. 'Street Spirit' the best song the band has ever written is also one of the finest video with it's beautiful black and white production, slow motion, stop/go, esoteric brilliance. The haunting, strangely poetic 'No Surprises' sees Thom Yorke nearly drown in a tube that fills with water as he ever so descreetly sings along 'no alarms and no surprises please'. 'Just' is one of the most ingenious videos of all time with it's subtitles unfolding the story of the man on the pavement as he warns the citizens and brings them down to their backs as well staring at a blank sky, the subtitles stop just in time for us to miss out on the secret as the band rocks in a towering building above. 'High and Dry' is a nothing story of theft and doom as we flash back on these nobody's lives in the local diner to the tragic climax. 'Karma Police' is a straight forward strange, dark, eerie ride hunting down a man along a dark road and bringing him down to his knees, but he gets the last laugh or does he? And the finale is the funny, childish, eccentric, bold, bright beautiful escapade of 'Fake Plastic Trees" all the way to the register with this healthy diet of glowing brilliance chaulk full of vitamins and nutrients.
Rating: Summary: just gorgeous Review: First off, I must say that my views are a tad skewed as I am madly, hopelessly in love with Thom Yorke. That said, however, this DVD truly is something that every true Radiohead fan HAS to have. And I've been a fan long, long before Thom bespelled me. Paranoid Android is brilliantly weird; a cartoon that evidently has nothing at all to do with the song, but nevertheless meshes perfectly with it. Street Spirit is probably the most beautiful video I've ever seen. Once again, no concrete "meaning" to it as far as I can tell, but it seems to visually express the music to perfection. Particularly stunning is the shot of a bare tree with stars wheeling around it. No Surprises is so simple, yet so affecting. I'm not even gonna try, you'd just have to see it. Just is one of those things that's been picked apart so many times that really there's nothing more to add. Unexpectedly powerful though. And an incredible performance of the song by the boys as well! High and Dry was my least favorite video, though I adore the song. Still a pretty good one though, enjoyable. Karma Police is disturbing and fascinating. That's all you're getting from me, go watch it. Fake Plastic Trees is one of my favorite Radiohead songs, and the video is lovely. I don't even know how to describe it; it leaves me with such an ache in my heart. And it makes other bits ache when Thom bites his lip... OK, so bottom line, if you're a Radiohead fan, BUY THIS IMMEDIATELY!! If not, you won't like this any more than you like the songs, so why am I talking to you?
Rating: Summary: Beautiful Visual Representations of Beautiful Music Review: It's hard to figure out where Radiohead gets the inspiration for the imagry in most of their videos, yet somehow it always seems to work perfectly with the music. This collection showcases their supperior ability to stimulate intense thoughts and emotions in listeners, and goes a step further by adding intising visual stimuli to the equation. The finished product on is a unique gem from video to video. Whenever you are viewing a Radiohead video for the first time, the only thing you can do to prepare yourself is to be open to expect the unexpected, and get ready to be blown away!
Rating: Summary: Genious men Review: First of all I have to mention that there is somebody in our middle who does not recognize art when it's in front of him! Hello to cranky reviewer!! Green Plastic Radiohead are more than a band... They are a few men who want to show us what philosophy is, they do ART!! They don't have a style or something like that! Their songs are of so different styles that I just wonder how to put them into a category!-> I can't!! Their videos fit perfect into what their songs want to tell us! Thom Yorke knows how to write songs and how to sing it perfectly fitting into the lyrics!! And the talent of making music in every member of the band.... GENIOUS!!!!
Rating: Summary: Just an FYI Review: Thom didn't hold his breath for more than 20 seconds, I saw a making of the video thing and they sped up the film and music or something and then synched it so it looked like it had been a long time, in reality it was far far shorter.
Rating: Summary: Radiohead Are The Geniuses Of Music Review: Radiohead is the best band of all time. Genius, genius, genius! And these videos are just that. Paranoid Android - An animated man named Robin (hence the "R" on his hat) has to go through the tribulations of being a small, neglected, and therefore ordinary human being. Slightly controversial, the video features cartoon nipples and a man bloodily hacking of his own limbs with an axe, sinking into a river, and then being saved by topless mermaids. Street Spirit [Fade Out] - The best, most intriguing, most captivating, most creative, and most brilliant video ever made. It's incredible. It's entirely black and white, and begins with Thom falling off of an RV in slo-mo. Features many cool slo-mo elements. Very interesting and suits the song well. Just - Interesting, very, very interesting. An extremely cool, creative, and mysterious video. Features a man lying down in the middle of a sidewalk and telling a crowd of people a secret to an interesting result. No Surprises - I'm not too fond of this video. It's quite boring. It has Thom wearing an astronaut helmet that fills up with water. He then holds his breath for about a minute. I can't imagine how scary it would be to be Thom doing that. High and Dry - I've grown quite fond of this video. Very spy/secret agentish. Features many people (including the band) in a restaurant. A man and a woman in a car drive away and their car blows up. You have to see this one. Karma Police - Very, very interesting. I find myself saying that alot about Radiohead videos. Features a car driving chasing a man running down the road, and then the man setting the car on fire. Fake Plastic Trees - A great song, an okay video. Features Thom posing as a child and sitting in a shopping cart. All in all, very much worth any Radiohead fan's money. Excellent DVD.
Rating: Summary: Stop the noise, turn this on. Review: Just released on DVD, this collection includes 7 Radiohead music videos from their albums The Bends and OK Computer. They're hardly just "commercials," like most MTV videos, but the sarcastic title does alert you to the band's political outlook. All of the short films are worth watching, and most are interesting even if you're not a particular Radiohead fan. In "No Surprises," maybe the most powerful music video I've ever seen, Thom Yorke's face is seen through the glass of a futuristic helmet, so close-up his physical imperfections are clearly visible. Gradually, as he sings about the cluttered but empty lives society expects of us, the helmet fills with water. At the end, the water drains and he gasps for air, smiling and truly alive for the first time, looking like the last man left on earth, eyes wide toward the future. He sings the last verse and the lights go out. "Karma Police" is another brilliant video, an eerie fable in which Thom, sitting immobile in the back of a strangely driverless car, stalks a runner along a deserted road at night, until fate catches up with him. "Just" may be the most well-known Radiohead video. The band, circa 1995, plays its ragged Britpop-punk in an upper-story city window, while very odd events unfold outside. The ending will really have you scratching your head. As fun and irreverent as Radiohead has ever been, but also strangely thought-provoking. "Paranoid Android" becomes the soundtrack to a quirky animation by Magnus Carlsson, known for the Swedish "Robin" series. A normal guy runs into all sorts of weird stuff-- chaos at the UN, barroom fights and conjoined twins, nude mermaids, a ping-pong playing angel, and a political fat cat who cuts off his own arms and legs. The over-the-top vibe perfectly suits the 6-minute-plus progressive rock song but also serves as a metaphor for our more "normal" world that, under the surface, really is that weird. "Street Spirit" is a fan favorite, but I find it a bit unsatisfying. It's visually stunning, all black and white and full of slo-mo stunts and exotic special effects, but to me it comes off more like a TV commercial for migraine headache medicine than the kind of video such a brilliant song deserves. It's still worth it, though, for the images it presents of the band-- if you're a Thom freak and want to see him looking like a boyish Calvin Klein model (or star guitarist Jonny Greenwood waving his body like a very gay man), here's your chance. Videos for Bends singles "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees" are also included. "High and Dry" is clearly the weak one in the bunch, a polished commercial production in which customers sing along at a diner and a bomb goes off-- a cross between Quentin Tarantino and R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" that really doesn't suit the song or the ethos of the band. "Fake Plastic Trees" is far more Radiohead-like, with Thom, Jonny, et al being wheeled around an apocalyptic neon supermarket until suddenly all hell breaks loose. Its half-formed concept cannot match the brilliance of later videos, but for fans it will provide interesting insight into how Radiohead's anti-corporate ideas developed, and of course the song itself may be the best one they've ever recorded. "7 TV Commercials" is well worth multiple viewings, and although it's barely over 30 minutes, the ideas presented in these videos, incomplete and flawed as they sometimes are, dwarf just about anything any other band has done in this medium. Yet again, Radiohead shows how you can mix "commercial" success, subtle political messages, and artistic integrity while still leaving plenty of room for good old fashioned entertainment value.
Rating: Summary: Splendid DVD! Review: This DVD contains videos from The Bends and OK Computer(all except My Iron Lung). Each one has it's own different feel and fits the music perfectly. I'm not sure why they chose to re-release instead of a more up-to-date collection, but there you go. High and Dry (U.S. Version)-This one's a bit confusing, but it takes place in a diner and ends with an explosion, so it can't be all bad, right? Fake Plastic Trees-The band is being pushed around in shopping carts in a bizzare grocery store with color coded products. The customers do some weird things, and it ends with the band finding an exit. Just-Ha!!! Now THIS is brilliant directing! A man is lying in the middle of the street, and another man trips over him. He asks him why he's lying there (there are subtitles) but the man on the floor won't tell him. He draws a large crowd, and finally agrees to tell them. Once he does, everyone else starts lying on the ground. Care to find out why? You'll have to get the DVD! (hehe). Street Spirit-There's no real plot here, but there's some really cool images. Different people standing around this sort of trailer park. Some of them speed up/slow down, while everything else goes at normal speed/ Paranoid Android-Honestly, I hated this one. It's a Robin cartoon, and if you recognize the name, you'll like this one. It doesn't make an ounce of sense and it's kinda perverted. Karma Police-Simple, but fun to watch. Shot from the driver's seat of a car which is chasing a man. Thom in the back is singing "this is what you get...". When the man collapses, the car backs up and he sees a trail of leaking gasoline, sets it on fire, and well, you get the idea. Oh, and Thom dissapears. No Surprises-This one's my favorite. Tholm is wearing a glass helmut filling with water. He holds his breath for 57 seconds, and finally the helmut empties again. Trust me, it is interesing.
Rating: Summary: Really amazing imagery and cinematography Review: Ok, I'm going to sound like a unsophisticated fool here. I have no real idea what some of these videos actually meant. I had trouble with the first viewing because I was trying to take them literally. However, once I let that go and tried to open my mind (I'm not a very arts minded person) I really enjoyed and was moved by the imagery of these videos. Of course there are some literal interpretations of certain aspects of the videos, like the "drowning in everyday life" of "No Surprises" where Thom's glass globe surrounding his head fills with water. That feeling of sinking/drowning you get sometimes when you get all existentialist at times. Anyway, I think Radiohead has more integrity than 500 J-Los, 2043 Britney Spears, and 2043 Justin Timberlakes put together and pureed into one ugly goo. This is a great collection of very interesting and imagery filled videos. Radiohead actually allows you to feel your own feelings and interpret your own views with their videos. I dig this band more and more as time goes by. If you're not a Radiohead fan, maybe avoid this until you listen to some of their music first. Start with "The Bends" graduate to "OK Computer" and get your master's degree with "Kid A". Street Spirit is particularly interesting with the combination slow-motion cinematography with regular speed in the same frames. It created quite a visual flow to the whole song. I'm not a brilliant art critic or even very enlightened, but I appreciate what Radiohead has done here tremendously; and who knows, maybe my mind will be opened to other new things that it wouldn't have normally thanks to this type of art.
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