So, 'Decline II'....
Familiar with its predecessor, I first saw this at the much-missed Uptown theatre in Minneapolis and I distinctly recall finding it hilarious. I was never a punk's punk, but I loved the music and thought this whole hair metal thing was ridiculous so, when presented with all these folks absolutely convinced of their own greatness in a genre I found, frankly, laughable seemed highly amusing to me.
Obviously, there are still some 'all-timer' moments that stuck with me--they're probably the ones as anyone who's seen it (Ozzy, Chris Holmes)--but watching it again, three main things struck me. First, how much fun the dudes from Poison seem to be. They seem smarter, more entertaining, and generally, just more of a good time than their records would have led me to expect. Second, most of the interesting interviewees--the aforementioned two, along with Lemmy and Dave Mustaine--really have very, very little in comparison with the rest of the hair-metal crowd that make up the rest of the film. I'm not certain exactly how the film was assembled, but I almost wonder if Spheeris found those guys after the other interviews as it wasn't proving to be as engaging as she'd hoped (even the Megadeth performance footage is clearly from a different event than the others). And third, the amount of misogyny on display is so prevalent and so awful that it becomes almost a cartoon-like parody--it wouldn't shock me at all the learn that some of those guys had never actually met a woman and were just parroting the kind of stupid shit Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons say, but trying to one up each other like they were in a school playground argument.
Anyway, it's not as good as part one, either as a formal examination of a subculture or as an entertainment, but it's still an interesting watch.
So, 'Decline II'....
Familiar with its predecessor, I first saw this at the much-missed Uptown theatre in Minneapolis and I distinctly recall finding it hilarious. I was never a punk's punk, but I loved the music and thought this whole hair metal thing was ridiculous so, when presented with all these folks absolutely convinced of their own greatness in a genre I found, frankly, laughable seemed highly amusing to me.
Obviously, there are still some 'all-timer' moments that stuck with me--they're probably the ones as anyone who's seen it (Ozzy, Chris Holmes)--but watching it again, three main things struck me. First, how much fun the dudes from Poison seem to be. They seem smarter, more entertaining, and generally, just more of a good time than their records would have led me to expect. Second, most of the interesting interviewees--the aforementioned two, along with Lemmy and Dave Mustaine--really have very, very little in comparison with the rest of the hair-metal crowd that make up the rest of the film. I'm not certain exactly how the film was assembled, but I almost wonder if Spheeris found those guys after the other interviews as it wasn't proving to be as engaging as she'd hoped (even the Megadeth performance footage is clearly from a different event than the others). And third, the amount of misogyny on display is so prevalent and so awful that it becomes almost a cartoon-like parody--it wouldn't shock me at all the learn that some of those guys had never actually met a woman and were just parroting the kind of stupid shit Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons say, but trying to one up each other like they were in a school playground argument.
Anyway, it's not as good as part one, either as a formal examination of a subculture or as an entertainment, but it's still an interesting watch.
