Some Kind of Monster

In a couple weeks I am going to my second ever Metallica concert! Last time they were in my region in 2004 for the St. Anger tour Lars mentioned it was seven years prior to that they were here last for the Re-Load tour in 1997 and that they promise they will not take that long to come back. Do the math and it is apparent that Lars was doubly wrong as it wound up being 14 years for the iconic band to return. Last few weeks Metallica has received more playtime in my rotation than normal to get amped up for the show, and it seemed like the perfect time to pull their 2004 documentary, Some Kind of Monster (trailer) out of the backlog box.

I have a confession to make. I got a lot of grief for this over the years and I know this will hurt my status as a Metallica fan, but I absolutely dug St. Anger. Snare drums forever!!! Kidding aside, for some reason the album clicked with me. I was likely one of the few in the Fargodome losing it when Metallica busted out St. Anger and Frantic. Part of the reason for that was because I was kind of a late bloomer for getting into Metallica. Until several months before the show, their only albums I owned (and also was a huge fan of) was their self-titled ‘Black’ album and St. Anger. I was casually familiar with a few of their other radio hits. A friend going to the show with me burnt me a couple discs of his favorite Metallica songs and in those several months leading up to the show was when I familiarized myself with their earlier discography and got really into their music.

Some Kind of Monster is a chronicling of the two-year journey it took to compose St. Anger. Suffice it to say, if you are not a fan of that record and cannot separate your feelings for that one album, and especially not a fan of general ‘band drama’ where the artists bicker over their pasts and dispute how songs take shape then this documentary is a definitive hard pass.

The opening act of the feature is the band coming together a few months after Jason Newstead left in 2001. Seeing early takes on the eventual songs that made it into St. Anger was fascinating. Tensions are still at a high for the band in the early part of this journey as they are coming to terms with Jason leaving and are emerging from the aftermath of the fan backlash from Lars’ huge legal fight with Napster. The tension reaches such levels that James takes nearly a year off from the band to recover from his alcoholism and reconnect with his family.

There are many highlights of Metallica’s weekly therapy sessions with Dr. Phil Towle. Towle is an interesting character, who has some of the therapist stereotypes, but not nearly as pronounced and is kind of affable in his attempts to maintain band unity, and I was sympathetic for him on the scene where Metallica decided it was time to cut him loose. I will give Towle credit for never snapping and keeping his cool (at least from what was shown) at the band’s constant griping shown throughout and he seemed to be earning his $40,000 a month Metallica revealed they were paying him.

The filmmakers had some interesting ways to fill time while James was away by having a couple scenes with former band members Dave Mustaine and Jason Newsted. They showed Dave coming in and chatting with Kirk and Lars and later the band minus James checking out Newsted’s first gig with his new band, Echobrain. Eventually Hetfield returns to the band and it was truly intriguing to see him reconcile with the band and them continue to work out their differences with the help of Towle. It is worth noting that the bulk of the band discourse in the film is between Lars and James with Lars especially going on several significant diatribes throughout in his unique tone that is a gold mine for impressionists around the world. Speaking of Lars, another scene that stood out to me is the scene with Lars talking deep about art when selling off his artwork collection and enjoying cocktails at the auction for it as my jaw dropped when I saw at least a few of the pieces go for well over a million. I would also be remiss if I did not point out that Lars reminds me of Brad Pitt in Oceans 11-13 since he is constantly chomping and snacking away on something in nearly every other scene he appears in.

I recalled seeing brief excerpts of Some Kind of Monster on cable one time many years ago, and those were the scenes with the band searching for a new bassist and eventually hiring Ozzy Osbourne bassist Robert Trujillo. Robert’s audition was showcased and his scene where Metallica tells him he is in the band is one of the movie’s standout scenes. Robert does not join the band until late in the documentary, and is only seen in the last act which is a shame since he brings such a charismatic presence to the band and it is apparent he is a much-needed uplifting force for James, Kirk and Lars.

With the band fully formed, the documentary highlights the closing steps on finishing off the record and Metallica performing their first gig on the tour to promote St. Anger. There are a ton of extras in this two-disc set. There are two commentary tracks. One is with Metallica and the other with the two primary filmmakers: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. I bounced back and forth between them on my second viewing of the film. Metallica is more subdued throughout their track, but they occasionally have notable thoughts on past concerts and the scenes where Mustaine and Newstead are in. The filmmakers have more nonstop commentary that is the perfect supplement to the film.

On the second disc there are three categories of bonus features combining for nearly three hours of extras. First is 28 deleted scenes totaling around 90 minutes. Not all the scenes are must-see, but at least half of them I found myself wishing made it in like Kirk in driver’s school for a traffic ticket, Lars jealous of not being informed of the band throwing a surprise birthday party for Kirk, Ja Rule throwing down with Metallica and Robert reflecting in the middle of a snowboarding session on how he broke the news to Ozzy he was leaving them for Metallica. There is a ‘Festivals & Premieres’ section of extras with film festival press conferences and Q&A session clips collected for roughly 40 minutes. There are at least a couple interesting responses in each presser, with Lars standing out in particular in one where Lars did not back down and stood his ground when a fan was calling him out to apologize to Napster. Finally, there is ‘This Monster Lives’ which is an assortment of band debates and therapy sessions. The band discussing and eventually agreeing to play at a Raiders game popped out the most to me and watching Metallica jam out at the stadium was a pleasing sight to take in.

I have owned Some Kind of Monster for nearly a decade and have been kicking myself to watch it for a great while now. I think what kept me from it was the universal hate for St. Anger and occasionally hearing a random snippet of a podcast rip on the documentary. As I stated above, I am a big fan St. Anger so I was fully invested in this film throughout. Only takeaway is that the melodramatic ‘band drama’ moments in here are nonstop throughout the feature and I can see how they could easily be a turn off. We are 15 years removed the album’s release so I recommend to put your personal feelings of that one album aside and take in this engrossing time capsule of a tumultuous period for Metallica that saw the band overcome their differences to make one of their most polarizing albums yet.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Lockdown 2008

Greetings and welcome to the fourth installment covering every year of the all cage-format PPV from TNA/Impact Wrestling, Lockdown. Catch up with past editions by clicking here. Since the previous Lockdown, the following major changes have transpired for TNA: In May 2007, TNA came to an agreement with the NWA to end their partnership. This saw TNA putting NWA World and Tag Team titles in a state of abeyance by relinquishing them back to the NWA. The other big change was when Impact expanded to two hours on Spike in October 2007. There is a part of me that loved the ‘one-hour adrenaline rush’ era of Impact because somehow TNA found a way to cram in their entire roster and I barely had a chance to breathe by the time it was over, and even though I detested the name, that one-hour show delivered…..Total…Nontstop…Action.

I welcomed the change to two hours though because it was the catalyst for TNA launching its Knockouts division on the first two-hour episode of Impact. It could not have debuted at a better time because a year prior both Lita and Trish Stratus retired from WWE and for several years WWE’s women’s roster got watered down with mostly untrained Diva Search contestants that dominated WWE’s women’s division until around 2014. Since its 2007 debut, TNA has had a strong Knockouts division, and there were even a couple periods in TNA history where rating proved and fans stated TNA’s Knockouts were outperforming the men. For all the self-congratulating WWE has been doing themselves for their ‘Women’s Evolution’ in recent years TNA/Impact beat them to the punch years earlier by featuring their women in a plethora of standout rivalries and top-billed matches and having several all-women PPVs before WWE will have their first in several weeks from this writing.

Lockdown 2008 is emanating from Lowell, MA. Once again it is refreshing to see a TNA event not in the Impact Zone and in a bigger arena. They had a great opening too with cameras going to shots of Jeremy Borash and Don West in the stands with a red-hot crowd that kept up their enthusiasm for most of the night. The opener was the annual ‘X-Scape’ match for the X-Division Title. Jay Lethal’s Black Machismo persona was still running wild as he walked in and walked out champion. This marked the first Lockdown with one of my favorite TNA characters, Curry Man and also the first Lockdown to see Shark Boy with the addition of his Steve Austin impression to his act--I do not kid--click here to see proof with a Curry Man and Shark Boy interview. Also competing in the X-Scape match were Sonjay Dutt, Johnny Devine and a pre-WWE Xavier Woods then known as Consequences Creed. The match got the crowd lit up with tons of solid action and high-flying. Johnny Devine played the heel heat perfectly by teasing a win by slowly going up the cage while taunting during his escape attempt, but taking too much time to allow Lethal to recover and leap through the cage door to victory.

The ‘Queen of the Cage’ bout was next and saw Christy Hemme, Salinas, Jacquelyn, Traci Brooks, Velvet Sky, Angelina Love, Rha-ka Kahn and Roxxi Laveau compete in the women’s answer to the infamous ‘Reverse Battle Royal’ match. Yes, all six started off outside of the cage and the goal was to have the first two women who climbed up and enter the cage then square off in a match. Needless to say, it was an ugly start, with Roxxi and Love getting into the cage in order to have an ok three-to-four minute match with nothing too special that saw Roxxi emerge victorious after her VooDoo Drop finisher. Speaking of VooDoo, the tag team known as the VooDoo Kin Mafia split up shortly before this PPV just in time so Kip & BG James could face each other at Lockdown. Kip dominated the contest with his trademark slow, plodding offense to ‘you can’t wrestle’ chants before BG won over the crowd with his comeback that lead to a roll-up for the pin. The only gratifying part of this bout was the post-match when BG wanted to hug it out with Kip, only to see Kip reel the sucker in and repeatedly clothesline BG.

The next match is a debacle and easy inclusion for my dream ‘Top 50 OMG Incidents in TNA/Impact History’ DVD. It is a six team, handcuff elimination match. The goal is to handcuff all opponents to the cage. That may work in a smaller match, but with 12 guys it looks awkward to see so many stationary bodies all around the cage. Fun fact, I saw this match before on a best of Motor City Machine Guns DVD. I found it to be an awkward inclusion on the compilation, because the Guns did nothing special and were in fact the first team eliminated after a minute or two into the match. Speaking of the Guns, the announcers mentioned how it was the team’s one-year anniversary after aligning up at the X-Scape match the previous year. Joining the Guns in this match were the Rock ‘n Rave Infection (wrestlers capitalizing on the hot Guitar Hero-craze….seriously), LAX, Kaz & Eric Young, Rellik & Black Reign (Dustin Rhodes in a B&W themed version of Goldust) and Scotty Steiner & Petey Williams. Petey Williams is awesome here as he is Steiner’s Little-Poppa-Pump-In-Training protégé and came to the ring in the same attire as Scott. This match had a dumb theme with Young getting attacked before the match, only to see him make a late entrance in his superhero themed, ‘Super-Eric’ persona that saw Young doing a heroic leap off the cage and hand-cuffing everyone to earn a victory for him and Kaz…..what a mess.

You may now know her as ‘Welfare Queen’ on the hit Netflix series, Glow but back in 2008 Kia Stevens was kicking ass in TNA as Awesome Kong. Kong teamed up with her manager Rihisha Saeed against Gail Kim and the booze-loving ODB (think a more amped-up version of Sandman). ODB was always a wild card and I could not help but crack up as she swigged away from her flask during the match to get psyched up. ODB wound up getting the feel-good pin after a splash from halfway up the cage. Following that was a forgettable mixed tag match with Booker T & Sharmell against Robert Roode & Traci Brooks. I recall the Roode/Brooks tandem always being at odds, and sure enough that happened here when Brooks inadvertently struck Roode and Sharmell capitalized by rolling up Brooks for the win.

TNA’s rendition of War Games known as ‘Lethal Lockdown’ transpired next. 2008 saw Team 3D, AJ Styles, James Storm & Tomko against Christian Cage, Sting, Rhino, Kevin Nash & Matt Morgan. I completely forgot this was around the time when Tomko was surprisingly over for a short period of time in TNA as he was the captain of his team. I recall being disheartened to see TNA pull the plug on Tomko’s push shortly after this as he had some credible momentum at this time. AJ and Christian (in the last year of his TNA contract) opened the first five minutes. I was surprised to see Nash enter into the match earlier than anticipated and thought he would be somewhat prominently involved in this match. I should not have raised expectations because after a couple quick-fire clotheslines, someone started working over Nash’s leg and Nash went on to take a nap alongside the cage for the rest of the match. Also legit surprising to note is that Brother D-Von was the sole person of the night to bleed. This is jaw-dropping compared to the buckets of blood spilled in previous Lockdowns. Once all the wrestlers entered, the weapons-filled roof shut, and AJ and Christian proceeded to wage war on top of the cage which saw both men fall off the top of the ladder through a table that was on top of the cage for an impressive visual. This entertaining shmoz wrapped up when Rhino got the pin for his team after he gored James Storm.

Finally it was main event time with Samoa Joe fighting Kurt Angle for the TNA World Title. Props to TNA for building up this match throughout the night with interviews with Samoa Joe, Angle and several of their supporters between matches to stress the importance of this feud. TNA also had an excellent history montage of the two’s past matches with Angle being the most dominant of the two and there being an added stipulation that if Joe loses, he will retire. Angle mentioned earlier how he underwent a big MMA-training camp in preparation for the match and he came out in MMA attire and wrestled in a MMA style throughout the match. This lead to a lot of close striking and submission sequences interspersed with an occasional suplex to pop the crowd. This was a daring way to book the match, because it could have flopped big time, but Joe and Angle were total pros and made the MMA-style match work and surprisingly the crowd was red-hot throughout the submission-heavy bout. Samoa Joe won his first ever TNA World Title here after his muscle-buster for the pin. If memory serves right, Joe’s contract was coming up for renewal and TNA guaranteeing him this title nudge Joe to re-sign with TNA. If I also recall correctly, TNA did not appreciate Joe forcing their hand into make Joe the top champion and they went on to book him to have an ugly failure of a title reign that tarnished his overall act much like Mysterio’s 2006 WWE Title reign.

There are three extra features on the disc. Like last year, there is a quick photo gallery of all the matches that I will give credit to for snapping pics of with my cell of for use in this blog. Also like last year, there is a 14-minute compilation of Jeremy Borash interviews with TNA talent at a fan expo meet-up the weekend of Lockdown. I would say it is worth the quick watch to see how much the Knockouts love Jeremy and you can tell everyone was having a legit good time with the fans while staying in character for their promos. Finally there is bonus Impact match with a Kurt Angle/Samoa Joe re-match at the following Impact. It is a good bout, but is plagued with ref bumps and interference setting up Joe’s next rivalry. I will give the 2008 Lockdown a thumbs up, despite some bumps in the mid-card. I would recommend sticking with only the Lethal Lockdown, X-Title and World Title matches and skipping the rest. Also props to TNA for finding a way to seemingly work everyone onto the show, I did a tally on my notes and in the eight matches counted 48 different wrestlers! I will close the 2008 Lockdown entry by once again referencing my love for Curry Man and being bamboozled that Brother D-Von was the only person to bleed the entire night!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

I have owned the Indiana Jones collection on BluRay for quite some time now, and regrettably it has remained in my backlog for far too long….until now. The globe-trotting treasure hunter has always been a favorite genre of mine. It is why I also dug the National Treasure and Uncharted franchises over the years. Other than the lackluster Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which I saw upon its 2008 release, I have only vague memories of the Indiana Jones films from seeing bits and pieces off cable as a kid. The only scenes that rung a bell when re-watching the series debut entry from 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark (trailer) were the moments with the lines “bad dates” and “don’t open your eyes!” I subscribe to the Retronauts podcast, and their newest episode was dedicated to Radiers and that was the impetus I needed to inspire me to finally boot up this George Lucas/Steven Spielberg collaboration.

I feared that watching these original trilogy films with an adult set of eyes for the first time would expose them as outdated flops that do not stand the test of time. Luckily, this has two things working in its favor - Raiders is a period piece from 1936 and the HD transfer on BluRay is especially well done. I was a little worried at the beginning of Raiders however. Indiana Jones’ (Harrison Ford) initial treasure jaunt inside a South American temple sees Indy playfully evading booby-traps in comedic fashion to the point I thought I was watching a satire. After the opening scene when Indy sets out on his true worldwide adventure is when Raiders eases up on the lighthearted-ness gradually throughout the movie and around halfway through I had my hoki-ness qualms put to rest and became fully invested to see Indy thwart the Nazi’s attempts at beating him to the treasure.

It should go without saying that Ford is the perfect Indiana Jones. The man can yield a whip like no other! I was bamboozled upon watching the extra features to discover Tom Selleck was originally casted as Jones before CBS reeling him in for Magnum PI cleared the way for Ford to head up this brand. Karen Allen is dead-on as tomboy love interest, Marion and has a killer drinking duel introductory scene that blows away Indy’s opening booby-trap-filled debacle. Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) is a mysterious, but valuable ally of Indy that was fun to see where he would turn up next throughout. Toht (Ronald Lacey) and Brody (Denholm Elliott) round off the cast as the stereotypical, yet effective foreign villains constantly on Indy’s tail throughout his quest for the fabled ‘Ark of the Covenant.’

It is difficult to imagine my words here doing the iconic scenes of Raiders any justice. As kooky as the opening scene is, the giant-rolling boulder chasing Indy out of the temple is one of the most memorable scenes in cinema history. Indy showing why you do not bring a knife to a gunfight had an unforgettable resolution and I instantly cracked up at it. The aforementioned “Don’t open your eyes” scene petrified me as a kid when I first stumbled upon it on cable, and while the melting special effects are kind of cheesy now, they are hokey in a cool way because the filmmakers went completely over-the-top with the melting of the skin! The climactic airplane duel with the burly Nazi that goads Indy to bring on the fight had me rooting for him all the way. Finally, I am guessing Raiders is the film responsible for the “top men” line I have seen used several times in various news stories over the years, and could not help but sport a grin upon hearing that line.

The BluRay collection has a fifth disc that is dedicated solely to extra features for all four Indiana Jones films. Of those extras, a hearty amount is focused on Raiders. I am not kidding when I state there are three comprehensive ‘making of’ features all running just shy of an hour apiece. All three are highly informative and well put together pieces worth watching, but if you have time for just one I would recommend On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark. It has a vast amount of vintage on-set interviews with many of the cast and crew of their experience with the production, and expertly pace it throughout with inserted deleted scenes, between takes b-roll and outtakes. It made for a smooth viewing experience by mixing up all the standard extra features into one comprehensive feature, and to have it all be taken directly during production from this old of a film was quite rare from that time.

A fair amount of the interview excerpts from On Set with Raiders are reused for the 1981 Making of feature so you can probably skip that one, but if you have the time I would suggest giving the updated 2011 Making of feature a watch to see how gracefully the cast has aged and how they fondly recount their memories 30 years later. Finally, as a bonus extra I highly recommend checking out this documentary on how these children spent seven years doing a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders and how it took them over 20 years to release it into the wild. Just trust me on this one ;D

I was trepid going into Raiders of the Lost Ark based on the hijinx of the first half hour. I am glad the filmmakers dialed it back afterwards because Raiders laid the groundwork for the modern-day treasure hunting genre that I crave so dearly. Raiders held up far better than I imagined, and with its exquisite HD transfer will likely hold up for years to come. I am excited to see how the films progress next when I re-watch the sequels. Make sure to check back here in the coming months for my takes on them.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past