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Hard Rock Treasures
R0 - America - MPI Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (26th January 2007). |
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The Film
 The Hard Rock cafe started life in 1971 as a small shop in London near Hyde Park Corner. The cafe was popular among musicians and was occasionally visited by London's most famous crop of artists and soon enough the walls of the cafe became adorned with rare memorabilia donated by rockers. The trend soon kicked off and a new concept cafe was born, 36 years later the cafe can be found in cities all over the world and the walls of which hang rare memorabilia from album covers, to costumes, signed guitars, photos, original sheet music etc, just about anything one can think of relating to music and musicians. The cafe is part museum part eatery, but to be honest I don't actually know anyone that's eaten there, most people seem to check out what's currently hanging on the walls and maybe buy a t-shirt or two (I have owned 2 myself). This film "Hard Rock Treasures" briefly glosses over the cafe's history, but mainly follows around Don Bernstine who travels the world on behalf of the company in search of rare stuff to acquire and ultimately display as part of the Hard Rock collection, the largest collection of musical memorabilia. He travels to various auctions and also stops by a few famous artists friends to see what he can get from them. This documentary plays out more like a video diary of it's subject Mr. Bernstine, a music fan boy and general collecting geek and by the sound of his job you'd think that following this guy would deliver a plethora of wild and crazy moments throughout the travel (after all this guy hangs out with rockers!), but instead his personality isn't all that interesting and he's literally on the road almost all the time making this a rather uninteresting film for the most part. I also felt like a chump being marketed to at almost every turn of this film and would not be surprised if the Hard Rock in fact financed this because aside from a brief history and seeing what lengths the company goes to to acquire stuff for it's collection the only other thing I learned is how freaking cool working for the Hard Rock is and also how awesome the cafe is in general...is this necessary? Who are they trying to impress? Because the only people that would be remotely interested in buying this DVD are those that already think the Hard Rock is an awesome place. On the other hand there were elements that did in fact interest me. Seeing the various rare memorabilia and learning the history behind the pieces was worth the time, also the segments where our intrepid host meets up with musicians is also of interest to fans. In case you care Bernstine meets up with Jeff Beck, James Hetfield, Tommy Iommi, Jimmy Page, Richie Sambora and Brian Wilson among others. It was also nice to see how far the Hard Rock goes in collecting, archiving and displaying the various items for fans to see, and the tour of the warehouse was also a welcomed addition to this film. As a collector of stuff myself it's cool to see other people passionate about what they love but this certainly has limited appeal. The regular retail price for this DVD is around the $25 mark and you can find it online for around $20-22 which is far too much to pay for this title unless you absolutely, positively, really, really need to know about how these guys collect their stuff. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend buying it until this makes it to the $5 bargain bin, then it might be worth picking up...maybe.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1, this anamorphic transfer is quite good. Transferred from its original digital source the image is sharp and clean, colors are well represented and skin tones appear natural. Being a documentary shot on DV the image does tend to be flat but overall i can live with it. There isn't much wrong here aside from some very minor compression artefacts and some moire effects, otherwise it's fine.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included both of which are in English, we get a Dolby Digital 5.1 and also a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 5.1 track. This film is largely made up of talking heads so surround activity is minimal, which is what we get here, most of the audio is directed to the front speakers so depth is not achieve with this track, but that's not entirely important. What is important is that the dialogue is presented here clearly, cleanly and without distortion. Optional subtitles are also included in English.
Extras
MPI have included three featurettes on this disc, below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have "A Visit With Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul" a featurette that runs for 16 minutes 7 seconds, in this clip has Don visiting the home of the brothers from Pantera as they talk shop about their various projects including their new band and also takes a look at the guitars that they gave Don for the Hard Rock. "Backstage with Slayer's Kerry King and Judas Priest", which runs for 14 minutes 26 seconds. Backstage at Ozfest Don shovels some praise towards King as he shows off some guitars and tells stories about visiting various Hard Rock locations around the world and Don also talks with the band members from Judas Priest. Rounding out the extras is a "Tour Of The Hard Rock's Vault" a featurette that runs for 16 minutes 3 seconds as Don shows us through the warehouse were all the stuff is stored for archiving and shipping to various locations around the world.
Overall
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