Super Duper Alice Cooper (2014)

Thanks for the memories!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Super Duper Alice Cooper (2014) *** 1/2 (out of 4)This here is a highly entertaining documentary taking a look at the Alice Cooper character. Of course, he started out as Vincent Damon Furnier but soon he found himself in a rock and roll band and before long his alter ego became Alice Cooper. Through interviews with him, his wife, his mom, his band, co-writers and his manager we see the rise of the character and the eventual fall.SUPER DUPER ALICE COOPER is something that fans of the singer are going to love for a number of reasons. The biggest is the fact that there's all sorts of great concert material and a lot of it that I hadn't seen before and this is coming from someone who collected bootlegs at one time. The early concert footage of the Alice Cooper Band was fabulous and really made this something special.Another great thing is the fact that so many important people are interviewed (including Elton John talking about a concert he saw of Cooper at the Hollywood Bowl) and they help narrate this story. We get a great overview of the early Alice Cooper stuff including the pre- fame days as well as his time with Frank Zappa.The film's one weakness is the fact that it clocks in at just under 90-minutes and the "Welcome to My Nightmare" era doesn't get talked about until the 57th minute. That tells you that the later portion of the Alice Cooper story is pretty much gone through very quickly and it ends with his comeback special during 1986. Obviously there's a lot of material left out and there's no great discussion of his various albums.With that said, this documentary really does work as a "document" of the Alice Cooper character. Not really the man but the character and it's interesting to see clips from the 1920 version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE shown as a way to show us how Vincent was overtaken by the Alice Cooper character.

If you wanna know the truth - I have never, ever liked (by one iota) the music nor the grimy, grungy, goofy character of Alice Cooper (that absurd stage persona thought up by Vincent Furnier). Never.To me - Vincent's "Alice" was such an inane and easily dislikable alter-ego, that I'm convinced this bottom-of-the-barrel character could have only been the brain-child of a total buffoon (which, I guess, sums up Furnier).Despite this celebrity-documentary being very well produced and actually featuring some really first-rate graphics - I, personally, do not think Alice Cooper was, in any way, "Super Duper" (as the title suggests). Nope. I think he was a sniveling dweeb, of the highest order.And, with that, I sure wish he'd get his hideous "Maybelline Eyes" right out of my face, once and for all.

Although it featured some great film footage of the early band, the story of Alice Cooper as told here is a miserable whitewash and a complete insult to fans of the band. Glen Buxton gets little mention and no credit; Michael Bruce doesn't even get mentioned. Not even once. How can you tell the story of this band and leave them out of it? Answer: you tell the story as if Alice Cooper (the individual) was the only person who really mattered and the rest of the band just happened to be there in the beginning. (I don't understand how Dennis Dunaway could have participated so much in this without feeling like a complete traitor to the rest of the band.) Basically this smells like somebody's manager trying to sweep history under a rug while polishing his client's reputation for all of the fans who arrived after "Welcome to My Nightmare." As the documentary rolled on and it became ever more clear what a nice, quiet hatchet-job this was, Alice's la-di-da narration really started to grate on me. (I know: that isn't exactly thoughtful or deeply analytical criticism, but I found myself increasingly outraged by this travesty.) A highly disingenuous presentation.

Over the last forty-plus years Alice Cooper has found himself answering the same questions in interviews and thus he often repeats the same anecdotes. Thankfully the makers of Super Duper Alice Cooper, two of which were responsible for the excellent documentaries Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and the underrated Global Metal, have decided to approach the subject from a different angle.Instead of following the traditional interview route by merely featuring Cooper on-screen talking about different parts of his career, Cooper himself narrates the story, starting with the formation of his Beatles spoof band the Earwigs in the mid-1960s and their through the brief time as the Spiders, before eventually settling on the name Alice Cooper.Everything is covered here; their arrival in Los Angeles to find a city of free love and LSD, something which they sought to challenge with their outrageous brand of rock 'n' roll; the band's rise to success and how Cooper found himself in the spotlight; the group's split and Cooper's descent into alcoholism as he struggled to keep the character of Alice at bay while launching a solo career.The documentary comes to an end following the Nightmare Returns tour of 1986. Fans may have wished for the filmmakers to continue through his success with Trash and Hey Stoopid, the rediscovery of his faith in the early 1990s and his evolution into heavier metal with Brutal Planet in 2000, but the movie ends on a perfect note so this is not a flaw.Instead of showing the interviewees on-screen, Super Duper Alice Cooper incorporates the technique of animating photographs in a similar way to Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas 2009 documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story, while also including stock footage from classic movies such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, old films of the band and footage taken from TV.This is a unique and entertaining approach to telling the story of an iconic artist that, in one form or another, has been told several times before. Super Duper Alice Cooper is a must for any fan.