Sunset Strip (2012)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Fun from start to finish, and a history lesson as well. It does not get much better than this as far as biographical documentaries go. Pop culture in the Unite States has for a long time centered on the happening of the Sunset Strip, and now we have a chance to hear what it was like, from the people who lived it. Stories from speakeasies, night clubs, hotels, brothels, and comedy clubs make for great laughs and insight.I really enjoyed hearing about the change in musical genres, and how it affeceted the people who frequented the strip from decade to decade, especially the change from the 1950'2 to 1960's. It was also quite interesting to hear first hand about the drug use, and death of certain stars. A must see for sure.

I've always been fascinated by Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip. I remember leafing through magazines and dreaming about walking up and down the strip, catching great music and meeting some interesting people. I haven't been able to make it out there yet, but this doc is the next best thing. The film covers the Sunset Strip from its inception as a no man's land between the studios in Hollywood and Beverly Hill up until present day. Throughout you learn that the Sunset Strip has been instrumental in shaping from the speakeasies of the 20s, to the hair metal bands of the 80s. I had no idea how many famous and interesting people have been through this little strip of land.

Interesting documentary (and an overdue one) chronicling the history of the infamous Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, extending from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood to its western border with Beverly Hills. Lots of celebrities pop up to tell their own personal histories of life on the Strip, but the textbook facts are more interesting. Beginning with silent star Alla Nazimova's hotel, the decadent, sex-saturated Garden of Allah, the Strip quickly became the haven for Hollywood's elite (and their imitators) who wanted to party their nights away. Smelling easy money and opportunity, gangsters and gamblers invaded in the 1940s, but the rise in popularity of night-life in Las Vegas seemed to zap the spirit of the Strip. With the Big Band sound on the way out, teenagers ruled the territory throughout the 1960s, with rock and roll evolving into protest music, which then brought in the riot police. The film is a nice mix of stills, recent interviews, vintage home-movie footage and movie clips--but nothing here really sticks in the memory (with the possible exception of Peter Fonda's recollection of being arrested and calling for help from passing actor Bob Denver of TV's "Gilligan's Island"!). The 2006 closing of Tower Records music store (a Strip-staple) could well be the death knell for a generation of partyers, yet time inevitably brings a wave of new faces and personalities to the scene...and the Strip lives on. ** from ****

"Fragmented Hell" "I have never started a Review with -Closing Credits, but I will do so here! An several minute animated sequence that runs for the Principal Closing Credits is much better done than the Movie I just screened. As a matter of fact, if this Filmmaker would stick to animation.. wonderful stuff.But lets get on with it.. this Fragmented hell and Chronological nightmare is a big mess. You don't know what the date is anyone is referring to, switching in seconds from the 1960's to the 1980's and then its Today! And the testimonials don't help you get there either. The biggest problem is the management of the time periods discussed. There is plenty of content biased as it is. And most of that content I found to be very interesting. But the order everything is makes this film a one time event for me.The Sunset Strip is much more than the History this Doc tells. I suppose one must think of George Hickenlooper's "Mayor of The Sunset Strip" to see one of the most thought provoking Docs on this subject. But this "Sunset Strip" does not even deserve to be named such a film. A handful of mostly has-been actors and burned out rock stars tell you their stories with lovely graphic details such as Blowjobs under the tables of the bars they preformed in. What I really hated is that this film glorified drugs, sex and rock & roll to the point of a comical display. "Only in America can woman be tortured by members of the Band Led Zepellin and dig it! Seeing Peter Fonda being thrown into a paddy wagon basically sums up that era.. and then there is Pryor and the cocaine jokes throughout the film which made me physically sick as if I was on a week long binge myself. I actually did not think I was watching real people any more but a facsimile or empty shell of people that once were actually artistic in their lives. When they were funny, I cried, and when they were serious.. I laughed out-loud. Is this really what the Filmmaker wanted? "Sunset Strip" strips you of your own identity and throws in your face just how cool it was to be so stoned you could not even remember going to the gig let alone playing it! I was not surprised that every stoner and x-stoner you can think of came out for this show. It was a who's who of; "Wow, can't believe that guy is not dead! The stars of Sunset Strip are the buildings, the clubs and that horrible ugly Tower Records where deals were made in the parking lot. That, I won't take away from this Filmmaker.. which he Documents well. But the never-ending jump cuts and complete schizophrenic time-lapses was like a bad LSD Trip in the Editing Room.I suppose this was one stoned out wrap party, but my first screening went straight to hell! JEV / CSPS-MEDIA