Rating: 
Summary: Bad Movie; Great DVD
Review: As a Monkee fan, I was thrilled when I heard this biopic was going into production & incredibly disappointed when it aired. While largely accurate as to what really happened, the film seemed cheesy & awkward, with not enough Monkee music & a jaw-droppingly silly happy ending. The DVD, however, is wonderful! Not only can you skip right to the movie's best parts (i.e. the "All of Your Toys" segment), but it contains FOUR commentary tracks - three of which are by actual Monkees: Davy Jones, Peter Tork, & Micky Dolenz. Tork's is an interesting factual account of how the movie compares to reality; Micky's is a silly track that gives the movie the razzing it deserves; and, best of all, is Davy's rambling & sometimes crazy commentary track which gives great insight into his life, his mindset, & his relationship with the reclusive Mike Nesmith. If you're interested in The Monkees, skip this film when it airs on cable & pick up the DVD instead!
Rating:
Summary: Bad Movie; Great DVD
Review: As a Monkee fan, I was thrilled when I heard this biopic was going into production & incredibly disappointed when it aired. While largely accurate as to what really happened, the film seemed cheesy & awkward, with not enough Monkee music & a jaw-droppingly silly happy ending. The DVD, however, is wonderful! Not only can you skip right to the movie's best parts (i.e. the "All of Your Toys" segment), but it contains FOUR commentary tracks - three of which are by actual Monkees: Davy Jones, Peter Tork, & Micky Dolenz. Tork's is an interesting factual account of how the movie compares to reality; Micky's is a silly track that gives the movie the razzing it deserves; and, best of all, is Davy's rambling & sometimes crazy commentary track which gives great insight into his life, his mindset, & his relationship with the reclusive Mike Nesmith. If you're interested in The Monkees, skip this film when it airs on cable & pick up the DVD instead!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but it stops when the drama really should start.
Review: Contrary to what some might say, this actually has a lot of factual information in. Anyone who has seen numerous interviews with the Monkees over the years, including many biographical prime time shows, would realize that there is more fact than fiction in this movie.
The acting is excellent. All of the actors look and act very similar to their real-life counterparts. Many kudos need to be given to George Stanchev for perfecting Davy's dancing in the "Daydream Believer" video remake.
The problem with this movie, however, is that the real drama of the Monkees began when the band started to fall apart. Peter Tork's departure and the tension that caused it are what really bring the story of the Monkees to a dramatic climax.
Unfortunately, this movie stops after the release of "Head" and ends on a bright, positive note. The real truth is that the future of the Monkees was anything but bright and positive until their total disbandment in 1970.
It's still a good movie, and there is more fact than fiction. But if you're looking for a truly representative movie about the Monkees, this isn't it.
Rating: 
Summary: Grab this one while you can!
Review: I for one have been a HUGE fan of DVDs for awhile now anyway and was not disappointed with the effort that went into this one as far as actually getting 3 of the 4 original Monkees to comment on the project. Peter was the only one who was visibly involved with the project to the extent of actually meeting the actors portraying the group and doing commercial spots with them for VH-1 to tease the original airdate. However, up until now this has been the first time we've been given an inside look as to how he, Micky and Davy actually viewed the project and we're not left disappointed for the most part. The benefit to DVDs is that you can fit a lot more substance on it than on a video tape. DVDs generally offer extra scenes, trailors and commentary on the movie, etc by the stars or directors. The price of the DVD ... is MUCH more appealing than the current [PRICE] of the video version (though for what reason I don't know). The video version excludes the commentaries which is worth every penny and more of the DVD. Even though this DVD release doesn't offer extra scenes from the movie (which was a little disappointing but I am lead to believe since it was so low budget there probably wasn't much substance left on the cutting room floor) it made up for it with commentary from all 3 of the guys and the director and the original movie trailor. The commentaries also include a separate, more brief video interview of each Monkee which was filmed last November. The video interviews focus more on various ramblings about what they're doing now and their overall feelings about Monkeedom which run about 20 minutes each.
The full length 91 minute movie commentaries are a different story. Each Monkee speaks as if they're sitting in your living room! All commentaries were of course recorded at separate times so you have 3 different ones to choose from which take you from beginning to the end of the film. Davy, Micky and Peter all claim at the beginning that this is the first time they are viewing the movie so it's very interesting to feel as if you're watching it with them and experiencing their reactions for the first time. Micky's had to be the best in my opinion because he gave the movie a "Mystery Science Theater: 3000" feel, commenting on various accents by the Davy character or costuming which at times did in fact replicate actual things worn by the Monkees (like Mike's suit to the Emmy Awards show "Hey, you've got napkins on your cuffs!" or he claims he "would never wear THAT shirt!"). He also kept commenting on how attractive the actor who portrayed him was. Micky mentioned in the video interview that he had originally been approached to direct the film but because it was such a low budget project he had to turn it down (first time I heard about that). I was laughing through the entire thing.
Davy's commentary was also amusing but he seemed to give more insight as to what the scenes in the movie were portraying telling us the differences between fact and fiction, etc. He mentioned being very impressed with the actor's accent and portrayal of himself, laughing at some of the jokes and thoroughly enjoying the way the movie was done. He was blown away by the portrayal of Mike claiming the actor looked just like him. He even told a story about one Christmas as a Monkee which I had never heard. He said he bought all the guys small color TVs one time which was something you didn't see a lot of back then. He visited Gene Ashman awhile later and noticed he had the exact same TV he had bought Peter, Micky and Mike. He asked Gene where he got it and he said, "Mike gave that to me as a present!" Davy then went on to say, "That was Mike - never a team player," and laughed.
Peter's commentary wasn't quite as complete or colorful. Out of the 3 you could definitely hear more dialogue from the movie than from him. Micky's seemed to over-ride much of the movie, Davy's was also nicely timed but Peter's seemed kind of bored. He noted that he was very enthralled by L.B. Fisher's "Peter" and that his smile was actually formulated to look like Peter's but in fact L.B. really smiles a different way. Still, it was nice to hear from him even briefly.
The director's commentary was most informative about the actual project - giving us the behind the story take on different scenes and how the actors had to transform themselves. He had a LOT to say through the movie and it made for interesting listening (about camera pans and small mistakes, etc that I missed the first time around).
I was always a fan of this film to begin with (and was afraid I'd wear out the video copy I taped off VH-1) but had yearned to know what the Monkees thought of it. Now, I have my answers and the overwhelming response was that they were pleased. I second that notion! Don't miss out on this DVD - even if you don't have a DVD player now but eventually may purchase one, it's worth having this film since it's very possible something like this could go out of print in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Loved this DVD!
Review: I highly recommend the DVD. The comments of Davy, Peter, and Micky played over the movie was the best part. It was very interesting to hear their views of what really happened. They all thought the 4 boys who played them did a great job. I hope Rhino will put out all of the Monkee episodes on DVD, with more of their comments about the episodes.
Rating: 
Summary: missing a lot
Review: i like the monkees, but this film ends to abruptly. to me, the most interesting thing about the monkees were the years when they weren't popular -- most of '68, '69 and '70. none of that is covered here. the film doesn't cover the group as a trio after tork quit; it doesn't show them appearing on tv variety shows; we don't see how they react to tork's leaving, or their records not selling; we don't see mike quit; we don't see the now-duo record CHANGES; and we don't get anything from '86 when the monkees finally became popular again. i suggest a sequel covering late '68 to today. until then, skip this film. i'm surprised that three of the real monkees (jones, dolenz & tork) are involved with this dvd; i can only guess they did it for the money. hey, hey, nothing wrong with that!
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD!!!!
Review: I loved this movie and some of the Commentary on it was downright funny from Micky's POV.... Even though there were some inconsistancies in the story, I think that it really showed just how hard those 4 guys tried to get out from under that greedy Donnie Kershner....The 4 guys that played the Monkees did a great job in the roles of the pre fab 4. They captured the quality and spirit of the real ones... In the story though Davy did not seem to want to be there at all. I remember the scene where Pete belts Davy a good one when Davy gets smart with him about how Peter got cast as a singer... it is too bad that it did not take him down a few notches... All in all I still liked it... I am glad that the story was told.. I still have to listen to the others POV on the whole Monkees thing... I hope that some of you will give this DVD a try. This one is for the serious Monkee Fans....
Rating: 
Summary: Monkee Business
Review: I was disappointed with this movie. It contains a multitude of historical inaccuracies that are too many to post here. Some of them have already been mentioned by previous reviewers. The audio commentaries and interviews with Micky, Davy and Peter are the highlights of the DVD. The actors playing the Monkees were good but very little attention was paid to details. Micky's hair was straight not curly in season one and Davy got rid of the Prince Valiant haircut in season two. Also, they combined Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson into one character-Van. What was that all about? And then there's the cheesy happy ending straight out of a "Full House" episode. You know, one of those "awww" moments?
Rating:
Summary: Monkee Business
Review: I was disappointed with this movie. It contains a multitude of historical inaccuracies that are too many to post here. Some of them have already been mentioned by previous reviewers. The audio commentaries and interviews with Micky, Davy and Peter are the highlights of the DVD. The actors playing the Monkees were good but very little attention was paid to details. Micky's hair was straight not curly in season one and Davy got rid of the Prince Valiant haircut in season two. Also, they combined Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson into one character-Van. What was that all about? And then there's the cheesy happy ending straight out of a "Full House" episode. You know, one of those "awww" moments?
Rating:
Summary: Here they come... But it aint them!
Review: I watched this bio of the Monkees when it originally aired (to much hype) in the Summer of 2000. I think it was VH1's 1st or 2nd foray into the rock biopic, but not sure. The young actors did a very credible job as TV's original fab four, with Micheal Nesmith's clone being the closest look-alike. The guy who played Peter Tork did his homework, (obviously watching the same 50-odd episodes we all watched) and successfully recreated Tork onscreen as we fans saw him. The guy who played Micky Dolenz was much too beefy for the role, but is a stand out for recreating Dolenz as Dolenz portrayed himself in many of the fan magazines of the era. (the guy who stopped and smelled the roses, and was generally in love with living) but the wig wearing character of Davy Jones was largely unconvincing as a sulky, disenchanted member of the world's most popular boy band of the sixties. (The real Jones LOVED his celebrity status, and embraced his co-stars as brothers..sometimes..) It takes a few minutes to reconcile the new faces with the faces we know and love, but once you get over that, you are IN the world that as a kid you always wanted to be in. You get to hang out with Mike, Micky, Peter and Davy circa 1966 as they meet, bond, film their tv show, record their records, freak out about their first live show, fight amongst themselves, loose sleep,fight with the head haunchos for control, and ultimately become a real band.(buy HEADQUARTERS for proof) Monkee fans will enjoy this ride to a certain extent-- it's not REALLY young Mike, Micky, Peter and Davy. And no amount of praise given here will change that. But the faux's do a credible job of recreating the boys who will always hold a special place in our hearts, and while it could have included more, even the staunchest of fans should enjoy the Happy-Go-Lucky Monkee dream ending. Even though we all know better, wouldn't it have been nice? I suggest all Monkee fans, or fans of 1960's pop, to get this bit of fluff. The show itself had more substance, but hey, hey... who cares?
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