User Reviews

It's the band R. E. M. Live in concert in Atlanta, Georgia during their 1995 Monster Tour. I love the band. This film is rather pedestrian. Quite frankly, the footage is unimaginative. The music is still great. If not for the band, this would be only a passable concert film. At least, it's a good listening session.

This contains footage from REM's 1995 Monster tour. If you attended and enjoyed this tour, then this video will be right up your alley. It contains a full set's worth of performances of songs common during the tour. A definite must for someone who enjoyed the tour as much as I.

As a great fan of Georgia Rock Band R.E.M. this documentary was a "must-see" for me. The Film shows a wildly entertaining range of the band´s best songs. Although one won´t miss great hits like "Losing my Religion" and "Everybody hurts", the film also delivers ground-breaking live performances of rather unknown songs. In addition, it has very good picture and sound quality, which gives you sort of a feeling like being right in front of the stage.Also check out the excellent camerawork! I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

The concert "Roadmovie" was filmed and recorded during R.E.M.'s three final gigs of the Monster tour in November 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia, the band's native state. A very testing trek punctuated with serious incidents like the drummer Bill Berry's aneurysm in Lausanne, Switzerland or the bassist Mike Mills' intestinal tumor after a concert in Köln, Germany. But Michael Stipe's great band overcame these dramas and overall, the tour was a big financial success. When the band landed in Atlanta, they were in excellent mood and "Roadmovie" is a valuable witness of their state of mind. Mike Mills seemed to be on top form these nights.

Although Michael Stipe isn't here at his most talkative, "Roadmovie" also stands as an eloquent witness of the concerts the band gave during the Monster tour with the screening of films and photos behind the stage, Michael Stipe in a Kurt Cobain style due to his glasses, at least for the beginning of the film, Mike Mills in a glittering costume and the order of the songs for most of these nights. As for the set, the usual suspects are here: "Losing my Religion", "Man on the Moon", "Everybody Hurts" or "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" keep the audience overjoyed with new songs to boot at the time which were to find their places in "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (1996): "the Wake-Up Bomb" or "Undertow". My favorite moment was "Let Me In" practically filmed in static shot that gave the performance a harrowing feel. Stipe dedicated this song to Kurt Cobain and Mills plays this swirling guitar part with a guitar that once belonged to the Nirvana front man.

If you stand in awe for R.E.M., this is a must-have in your collection. You can forgive the sometimes flashy effects for some fast songs like "Star 69" and enjoy the rest. The end of their world as we knew it? It was highly likely to arrive in 1997 with Bill Berry's departure but now, let's hope that it will be delayed as soon as possible.

In 1995 R.E.M. released an album of mostly crunching rock songs called "Monster". It was put together with the express intention of touring it as a full-blooded rock and roll band rather than the acoustic/electric songs on the previous albums "Out of Time" and "Automatic for the people" which the band had found difficult to tour with, even though the songs themselves were some of the finest they'd ever written. This concert movie is the record of that tour. Put together from three separate performances, it shows R.E.M. at the height of their powers. From the dark, stuttering crunch of the opening "I took your name" and the shimmering, flickering backdrop of images, the concert is a total performance. Meshing music, image and art - along with Michael Stipe's shape shifting presentation of himself as a performance artist. Some may find the editing of different performances into a single song awkward and jarring, but for me it adds to the art of the performance as a whole piece. Rather than a straight concert show we are given a work of art in itself. Ever changing, ever surprising, never boring. Then there's the music. The songs from "Monster" growl and rasp with heavily distorted guitars, sometimes shuddering with tremolo as on "Crush with eyeliner" or just over-driven to the max on "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" and "The Wake-up bomb". But the finest performance for me is the heartbreaking and yet sublimely uplifting "Everybody hurts". Michael Stipe's voice soars heavenwards as Peter Buck hits the power chords of the chorus. Watch out for the moment when the magnificently Nudie-suited Mike Mills - playing piano instead of bass - kicks away the stool and stands up to hammer the keyboard. A real rock and roll moment.

This is one of the great rock concert films, far superior to the later "Perfect Square". Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in music and movies.

So I'm a huge R.E.M. fan, and I went to see them on their UP tour in 1999, 4 years after this tour (which I unfortunately miss out on because I was very young). Anyway, I must say that this movie doesnt really capture the amazing live show like i saw it in 99...

As you probably know, in 97, REM's drummer left, and they replaced him with three new guys: Scott McCaughey, Ken Stringfellow and Joey Waronker. These guys have been like a blast of freebased speed into REM's collective lungs: theyve rejuvenated them immensely and really brought them to life.

When I look at Road Movie, they just look tired. They look like a group of guys who are ready to just fall down and die onstage. The energy is down, the performances are low.... i'm not saying that road movie isnt worth buying, but they really ought to release a DVD of their last tour, because Road Movie would pale in comparison to it...