Rating: 
Summary: Daydream Believers DVD has 3 Original Monkees!
Review: This bio-drama of The Monkees gives a fairly detailed story of their beginnings and rise to fame, and the seeds of their eventual fall. In spite of a maybe too happy ending, the actors depicting The Monkees do a amazing job, reproducing most of their hit music videos (original recordings) with impressive accuracy. There are some surprise characters depicted such as Jack Nicholson, Jimmy Hendrix and The Beatles. Additionally, the participation on the DVD of three of the original Monkees, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones & Peter Tork, has added a lot of extra entertainment value to the DVD. They each do separate feature length commentaries plus separate video interviews, which (along with director Neill Fearnley's audio commentary) gives about 7 hours of additional insight into what really happened with The Monkees. It's both amusing and informative to view these extras.
Rating: 
Summary: HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE!
Review: This is a terrible, unbelievably bad movie. Whomever directed this garbage has absolutely ZERO talent & bad vision & needs to be banned from ever releasing another movie for public consumption. Where was the warning label on this DVD?? All this is is a collage of stories that were funny when the real Monkees told them, but this director has no sense of how to make a scene funny at all so he makes the stories really, really boring. The untalented writer couldn't even get the script right & mixed everything up. It doesn't even touch upon how the members left the group--at least that would have been interesting. And check out Davy & Mike's horrendous wigs!! ha! ha! The actors look sooooo stupid!
And (spoiler) the ending is so cheesy with everyone on the beach singing the theme song & dancing it made me want to throw up!!
If you want a much, much better story of the Monkees, then watch the 90 minute version of "Hey, Hey We're the Monkees" (NOT the import version!!) which features all the Monkees & others telling their own stories which are very funny & interesting.
With as bad as it is, there are at least interviews & commentaries with three of the Monkees (Micky, Davy & Peter --Mike was smart enough to avoid this embarrassment), although they don't provide much that you haven't heard before on other programs...
Bottom line is avoid this at all costs & stop funding bad movies!
Rating: 
Summary: I Love You, George!
Review: This movie was really my first exposure to the Monkees, and I have to say that it was the beginning of a total obsession. Though I had seen one or two episodes of the Monkees on Nick at Nite, they were before my time, so I didn't know anything when I sat down to watch this except that I loved that sort of biopic. Though the movie doesn't tell everything, and the end is not the greatest, I adore this film! The casting is wonderful (though George Stanchev is a little tall for Davy Jones), and I recommend this to the entire world.
Rating:
Summary: Imagine:The Monkees
Review: This movie, for me, reminds me of 1988's "Imagine: John Lennon" The reason being, "Imagine" was a movie cleverly put together by Lennon's widow using actual film footage, and using over 100 interviews to create the effect that Lennon was narrorating his own life story. Clever, and creative as it was, it failed to tell the whole story.
In competition to the "Imagine" film, was Albert Goldman's 1988 biography "The Lives of John Lennon", a book which quite possibly, Yoko Ono didn't want written. The author spent time doing interviews and serious research writting this book, as it takes a very candid look at Lennon's life, leaving nothing out.Similarly, "Daydream Believers" does the same for the Monkees, as "Imagine:John Lennon" did for John Lennon. Unlike "Imagine", though, actors were used to play the roles of The Monkees, Jack Nicholson, The Beatles, etc. But, like "Imagine" it failed to tell the whole story.
Why I like this movie is because the actors were great! Very likeable. It was easy to enjoy this film. However, keep in mind, the makers of this movie took considerable amount of dramatic licence.
I would say that most of the movie was portrayed accurately. But, the movie failed to bring to light the facts behind The Monkees break-up.
I am not sorry that I bought this film. I just want anyone interested in buying this video themselves to know upfront, that this is not the full, complete story. There is more to the Monkees than the film portrays.
My recomandation for anyone wanting to buy this film is this:
GET TO KNOW THE MONKEES FIRST!!
1)Buy the biography "Monkeemania!" by Glenn A. Baker. Read this first (if you haven't already). It gives a complete account in the lives and career of The Monkees, both individually, as well as a group.
2)When watching this video, watch the video interviews of Mickey, Davey and Peter first. I found these interviews very informative (especially Mickey's)
The movie is enjoyable, and it is worth the money, but, I am just bringing to the attention to all interested in this video the fact that this movie is not the full, complete story. But, simply sit back, and enjoy the actors' fine performances, and the story they tell. I also recomend, for the Monkee-lover, these titles in DVD:
The Monkees:volumes 1&2;
The Monkees:Our Favorite Episodes;
Head.
These titles, as well as the book "Monkeemania!" are listed here on Amazon.com. Check each one out for a complete discription, and if you don't already own them, add them to your Monkee collection.
Rating:
Summary: Appalingly Inaccurate
Review: This one is [bad], even by Roger Corman standards. Every scene (heck, every shot) has some kind of BLATANT error, from the most criminally obvious (Mickey's permed hair) to the less-than-subtle (the faux-romp, in which Peter is depicted as sitting on a toilet - toilets were NEVER seen in television at the time, let alone with a show's star sitting on one). I don't believe people used terms like "dysfunctional" or "chick magnet" in the mid-60s, either.
This, however, barely scratches the surface. The characters (especially Mike Mesmith) are simply "off." Nothing rings true, and the ... happy ending is grotesque. The film does everything it can to reduce the Monkees' travails to mono-dimensional pablum (did Don Kirschner ghost-direct?), ... Whatever you think of the Monkees, they deserved better than this idiocy.
The commentary and video interview supplements, meanwhile, are priceless, especially Peter's, who has never discussed his take on the phenomenon so frankly and directly. While Mickey's commentary is grating, his video interview is fairly deep. Even Davey comes off as remarkably sincere and insightful, despite his questionable pandering to any potential talent scouts in the hopes of scoring another Broadway gig. All three, in their own ways, level their criticisms against the production (and, in the case of Davey and Peter, against the allegedly egomaniacal Nesmith), which makes the otherwise pointless endeavor refreshing.
Rating:
Summary: Appalingly Inaccurate
Review: This one is [bad], even by Roger Corman standards. Every scene (heck, every shot) has some kind of BLATANT error, from the most criminally obvious (Mickey's permed hair) to the less-than-subtle (the faux-romp, in which Peter is depicted as sitting on a toilet - toilets were NEVER seen in television at the time, let alone with a show's star sitting on one). I don't believe people used terms like "dysfunctional" or "chick magnet" in the mid-60s, either.
This, however, barely scratches the surface. The characters (especially Mike Mesmith) are simply "off." Nothing rings true, and the ... happy ending is grotesque. The film does everything it can to reduce the Monkees' travails to mono-dimensional pablum (did Don Kirschner ghost-direct?), ... Whatever you think of the Monkees, they deserved better than this idiocy.
The commentary and video interview supplements, meanwhile, are priceless, especially Peter's, who has never discussed his take on the phenomenon so frankly and directly. While Mickey's commentary is grating, his video interview is fairly deep. Even Davey comes off as remarkably sincere and insightful, despite his questionable pandering to any potential talent scouts in the hopes of scoring another Broadway gig. All three, in their own ways, level their criticisms against the production (and, in the case of Davey and Peter, against the allegedly egomaniacal Nesmith), which makes the otherwise pointless endeavor refreshing.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! Glad to see this come out on DVD!
Review: Was just thinking of watching my taped version of this film from VH-1 a year or so ago. While I agree with the Editorial review that the film could have went into more detail, personally I don't feel it really needed to. I enjoyed reliving this famous story through the performances of these wonderful actors. I have always been a BIG MONKEES fan and this film just rekindles your interest in the series, their records, etc. etc. When I saw the previews for this film on VH-1, I thought not another horrible Made-For-TV movie on an old television show or band (Ala: the recent GILLIGAN'S ISLAND thing). I was surprised that I actually liked this film and particularly liked how they showed the relationships that formed within the band. This isn't really a "tell all" Biography...for that we have the E! Channel. It's more of the story of the band's rise and fall from fame and how the performers dealt with it. It was GREAT to see a re-enactment of the famous "Mike punches his fist through the wall" scene and also to see the look on Peter's face when they enter the recording studio for HEADQUARTERS! If you are a MONKEES fan, this is well worth watching! Rick Goldschmidt Author of THE ENCHANTED WORLD OF RANKIN/BASS/THE MAKING OF THE RANKIN/BASS CLASSIC: RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
Rating:
Summary: here they come
Review: well first off, i'm a huge monkees, fan, and know most of the history behind the group. so that being said, daydream beleievers: the monkees story, is pretty good. there are some creative liberties taken, bert and bob become one person, don kirshner being involved from the very beginning. and the really cheesy (and i really hate this word) ending. i guess if the filmakers had more money, more detail would have been given. i would like to see a miniseries on them one day. but all the actors are very good, recreating the essense of davy, micky, peter, and mike. their are some good special features, video interviews with davy, micky, and peter. but the best thing is the audio commentaries by the guys themselves. micky's is hilarious, davy's is really insightful, and peter's is a bit odd, he hardly talks, but offers some cool insights also. but any monkee fan will want this dvd edition, just for these commentaries.
Rating:
Summary: Great interviews - not so great story!!
Review: You've seen from the other reviews and from the interviews that this film did not exactly hold true to what really happened. It took a while to get used to the actors - despite each of them doing a great job at being the originals. They even walked and moved like the originals which was brilliant. Mike's clone didnt have enough of a Texas accent for me - and didnt quite capture the original Mike's cool, mardy, mysteriousness. It showed him as a family man but forgot to mention how rocky the relationship he had with Phyllis was - which im lead to believe was volatile in the extreme because of Mike's gittishness. He also had an affair and a child with someone else in 1968 as far as I know and that was conveniently omitted. Would'ave been nice if the other's relationships had been covered too. And yes it was weird that Micky had curly hair when that wasnt the case in the first series! Would'ave been fantastic to hear Mike's commentary - you get the distinct impression that Peter and Davy didnt like him - the more I hear the worse he sounds unfortunately. The screen tests are brilliant - the Davy one is absolutely spot on and the Mike one is not far behind!! I want to see Peter and Micky's ones - where have they gone? This film is not great but the version with the commentaries is good from all 3 in different ways. Davy and Micky in particular come across really well - and Peter is kind and supportive of them which is nice. Thats enough rambling - may give you an idea anyway!! Buy this and give it a watch - if you liked or like the Monkees it will re-whet your appetite!!
Rating:
Summary: Great interviews - not so great story!!
Review: You've seen from the other reviews and from the interviews that this film did not exactly hold true to what really happened. It took a while to get used to the actors - despite each of them doing a great job at being the originals. They even walked and moved like the originals which was brilliant. Mike's clone didnt have enough of a Texas accent for me - and didnt quite capture the original Mike's cool, mardy, mysteriousness. It showed him as a family man but forgot to mention how rocky the relationship he had with Phyllis was - which im lead to believe was volatile in the extreme because of Mike's gittishness. He also had an affair and a child with someone else in 1968 as far as I know and that was conveniently omitted. Would'ave been nice if the other's relationships had been covered too. And yes it was weird that Micky had curly hair when that wasnt the case in the first series! Would'ave been fantastic to hear Mike's commentary - you get the distinct impression that Peter and Davy didnt like him - the more I hear the worse he sounds unfortunately. The screen tests are brilliant - the Davy one is absolutely spot on and the Mike one is not far behind!! I want to see Peter and Micky's ones - where have they gone? This film is not great but the version with the commentaries is good from all 3 in different ways. Davy and Micky in particular come across really well - and Peter is kind and supportive of them which is nice. Thats enough rambling - may give you an idea anyway!! Buy this and give it a watch - if you liked or like the Monkees it will re-whet your appetite!!
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