Rating: 
Summary: Essentially a long (and really good) interview...
Review: ...and that alone is worth the price of admission. However, you get all kinds of bonus materials (the rare videos that they made for ABC's "Brave New World" finally on DVD? Priceless) that really make this DVD the most bang for the buck.
Rating:
Summary: The best Johns I know.
Review: Although it's not what I expected, this DVD is excellent. There is lots of great footage. Great guest stars like friends of Lincoln, Mass., Andy Richter, the 'Dial-a-Song lady', etc. Mainly the film consists of interviews and live concert footage. This was a bit of a let down, as I like to see the band going about their normal thing during documentaries (such like in Bittersweet Motel). Regardless, the excellent interviews and live footage make up for this weakness. A word on extras. The extras double the greatness of this DVD. There are plenty of great extras. It might actually take longer to get through all the extras than it takes to watch the film. The extras are a big part of this dvd: more interviews, audio clips, music videos, etc. If you're a TMBG fan, definitely pick up this DVD. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: My cupcakes!
Review: As an obsessive TMBG fan, I thought that this documentary was a really fun insight into the band. But, I must admit, the best thing about it for me was that the cupcakes that I made and brought them at one of their shows are in the movie! How much more fame can I ask for?
Rating:
Summary: My cupcakes!
Review: As an obsessive TMBG fan, I thought that this documentary was a really fun insight into the band. But, I must admit, the best thing about it for me was that the cupcakes that I made and brought them at one of their shows are in the movie! How much more fame can I ask for?
Rating: 
Summary: Twin quasars of rock- caught on DVD
Review: High points:
This documentary does a nice job of taking a look into the minds of They Might Be Giants, as well as people in their periphery - from former band managers to collaborators to radio hosts. (An amusing moment of note comes from an interview with "This American Life's" Ira Glass - where he says, "It's a shame these guys are in They Might Be Giants, because if they had just stumbled across the music, these guys would have *loved* it.")
Much of the extras - omitted interviews, several videos (plus commentary), Audio from Sarah Vowell's dial-a-song radio piece, the original version of "New York City." - really sweeten the deal and make this package an amazing bargain for the money. Low points:
The commentary track offers very little insight - mostly we hear Flansburgh and Sarah Vowell talk about an instant message conversation they had a few days before taping the commentary... However, while little is offered on the commentary, one does go away with a better familiarity with how the two Johns communicate with one another.
The documentary itself is also slightly spotty. At points it tries to be witty, at another point it parodies Ken Burns' cinematic style...and the quirks do tend to distract you from what otherwise would be a decent comprehensive look at the past 25 years of TMBG... But overall, this DVD is highly recommended to TMBG fans, and worth watching to the casual fan.
I'll be looking forward to the sequel in 2028.
Rating:
Summary: Twin quasars of rock- caught on DVD
Review: High points:
This documentary does a nice job of taking a look into the minds of They Might Be Giants, as well as people in their periphery - from former band managers to collaborators to radio hosts. (An amusing moment of note comes from an interview with "This American Life's" Ira Glass - where he says, "It's a shame these guys are in They Might Be Giants, because if they had just stumbled across the music, these guys would have *loved* it.")
Much of the extras - omitted interviews, several videos (plus commentary), Audio from Sarah Vowell's dial-a-song radio piece, the original version of "New York City." - really sweeten the deal and make this package an amazing bargain for the money. Low points:
The commentary track offers very little insight - mostly we hear Flansburgh and Sarah Vowell talk about an instant message conversation they had a few days before taping the commentary... However, while little is offered on the commentary, one does go away with a better familiarity with how the two Johns communicate with one another.
The documentary itself is also slightly spotty. At points it tries to be witty, at another point it parodies Ken Burns' cinematic style...and the quirks do tend to distract you from what otherwise would be a decent comprehensive look at the past 25 years of TMBG... But overall, this DVD is highly recommended to TMBG fans, and worth watching to the casual fan.
I'll be looking forward to the sequel in 2028.
Rating:
Summary: Great!!
Review: I love this DVD, You can know your favourite band very good and there are a lot of extra tracks and deleted scenes.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor documentary, interesting subjects
Review: I'm a huge TMBG fan, but I was never one of those fans who needs to have every last scrap of music and video the Johns ever put out. I've got all of the studio albums and a couple of singles, and that's it... no Long Tall Weekend, no McSweeney's, etc. That said, I was not incredibly interested about the "extras" on this DVD, such as the videos and concert footage. What I wanted out of this film is to learn a little about the Johns' personal lives, and I didn't get it. We see a 30-second clip of Linnell's son, and that's it. The movie is amateurly filmed, and looks made-for-TV. I didn't recognize any of the interviewees, but most of them had fairly interesting things to say about TMBG. The interviews with TMBG members themselves are the highlight of the film, obviously, as we see how their very different personalities work off of each other. The celebrity readings of TMBG lyrics seem like filler, and most of them are pretty boring, but Michael McKean's reading of "The End of the Tour" is actually a little moving. I would have liked to see footage from more than one concert. But not so much - I didn't really want to sit through the complete performance of "She's An Angel," I've heard this song in concert myself several times already, as have most of the viewers of this movie. The filmmakers, incredibly, also ignore the fact that the TMBG concert at Tower Records in NYC featured in the movie happened 8 hours before the 9/11 terror attacks just a short distance away. To hear the Johns' reaction to that, and muse on what a Sept. 11, 2001, release date did for their album "Mink Car," would have been interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Poor documentary, interesting subjects
Review: I'm a huge TMBG fan, but I was never one of those fans who needs to have every last scrap of music and video the Johns ever put out. I've got all of the studio albums and a couple of singles, and that's it... no Long Tall Weekend, no McSweeney's, etc. That said, I was not incredibly interested about the "extras" on this DVD, such as the videos and concert footage. What I wanted out of this film is to learn a little about the Johns' personal lives, and I didn't get it. We see a 30-second clip of Linnell's son, and that's it. The movie is amateurly filmed, and looks made-for-TV. I didn't recognize any of the interviewees, but most of them had fairly interesting things to say about TMBG. The interviews with TMBG members themselves are the highlight of the film, obviously, as we see how their very different personalities work off of each other. The celebrity readings of TMBG lyrics seem like filler, and most of them are pretty boring, but Michael McKean's reading of "The End of the Tour" is actually a little moving. I would have liked to see footage from more than one concert. But not so much - I didn't really want to sit through the complete performance of "She's An Angel," I've heard this song in concert myself several times already, as have most of the viewers of this movie. The filmmakers, incredibly, also ignore the fact that the TMBG concert at Tower Records in NYC featured in the movie happened 8 hours before the 9/11 terror attacks just a short distance away. To hear the Johns' reaction to that, and muse on what a Sept. 11, 2001, release date did for their album "Mink Car," would have been interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of charm & personality.
Review: I've only very recently become a more ardent fan of TMBG, and when I saw this DVD at the store, I picked it up mostly on a whim. I'm glad that I did. I found the documentary to be charming--informative especially for a new fan like myself, I'd imagine, but with enough personality & humor to make it interesting for anyone interested in the band. The various commentators in the film injected it with tons of humor & ga-ga fan insights (especially Sarah Vowell & Syd Straw). When cross-cut with the very humble storytelling & comments of John & John, it made for a nice kind of dichotomy that seemed to say a lot about the band's relationship with their fans, and fame in general. The sheer amount of extras also impresses me--I had seen some of those older videos from the 80s when I was a kid, and it was a treat to rediscover them. (Plus, the outtakes from the fan video booth were priceless.) All in all, a good buy--this seems like something that I'll be able to watch over and over, whenever I need a visual TMBG fix.
| 
