Ramones: Raw (2004)

Just perfect...

best movie i've ever seen.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I just finished watching RAMONES RAW. And two weeks ago I watched for the very first time the Ramones documentary END OF THE CENTURY. The two are the ONLY stuff I have seen from this band, and the two are, thankfully, completely different from each other; "Raw" is much more in the "for the hard-core fan" vein, and while it does inform you (for instance, I didn't know about the Paul McCartney-inspired origin of the band's name!), it ain't a documentary. It could be easily part of the bonus material of END OF THE CENTURY, I mean, like a minor and really nice companion piece.At one point of "Raw", near the ending, there's footage of a TV host talking about the band. He says something like "those home movie-making Ramones". Yes, the guys filmed a lot during their tours. And of course some of it is pure gold. Let me be clear: "Raw" is mostly a collection of footage of the band while on tour and many live performances. We see different kind of stuff, from the band warming-up prior a show to the band visiting a zoo! The negative things of "Raw" mostly come from the live performances. Don't get me wrong, the band is doing perfectly their thing, but sometimes the sound quality is not the best (like in "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World"). Also, I didn't particularly like is all the TV stuff. I mean, is great that we have footage of all kind, but is also inevitable that I was like "poor Ramones! What are they doing there?" once I got to see the s***** shows in which they appeared… the fifth Ramone? What the heck was that?But aside of that, this is always entertaining. Terry Gilliam once made a reference to what Stanley Kubrick once said about SCHINDLER'S LIST. Kubrick's quote was something like this: "Spielberg's film is about success. The holocaust was about failure". While this has NOTHING to do with the Ramones, I just wanted to sort of use that quote and point out that while END OF THE CENTURY was more about cult-following and, at the same time, lack of recognition (just like I wrote in my comment for it), "Raw" is more about success. I mean, just the thing with the album "Mondo Bizarro" is quite interesting: while in "Century" it is barely mentioned (aside of having Johnny being like "I don't like it at all"), in "Raw" we have celebration towards it (thanks to its gold certification). What doesn't change is that thing about South America; here there's a lot of footage of the impressive reaction that fans in Argentina, Chile and Brazil had when the Ramones went there. I can relate to those fans waiting outside of the Ramones' hotel, hoping for an autograph or a photo, as I have done the same here in my city for Roger Waters and Pearl Jam! But obviously what we see here is something else, just f****** crazy. Also there are great images of lucky Japanese fans! I really enjoyed RAMONES RAW. I could forget the stuff I didn't like with, for instance, footage of the Ramones playing "Take It As It Comes" by the Doors with *ROBBY KRIEGER*! So enjoy, there's plenty of material, there's the always-hilarious Dee Dee (he can be also a unintentionally funny rapper!), sound-checks and Lemmy f****** Kilmister! Oh, there's also some of the Ramones in the toilet, so you have been warned. *Watched it on February 06, 2012

The band that began Punk music was definitely the Ramones. They were usually a 4 man band, but different people would join in at different times. This documentary was the greatest film about the Ramones ever. It really showed, their gigs and the releasing of Rock 'N' Roll High School that they starred in. This was a great film for everyone to see who really invented the brand of Punk music. Punk music is only 4 chords you play over and over with no long chorus and then you say what you have to and end the song. The Ramones are my favorite band and one of the best bands ever. Sadly now almost all but one of the originals is dead. They all are dead now and it does really stink badly. We will miss them always.

I liked this movie. On the other hand I didn't buy it until it became available as a budget DVD (less than $10).I liked the Ramones before, and I like them after seeing this movie.It have a little bit of everything and no real deep, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Live footage, backstage footage, TV appearances, goofing around, "private" shots of the band etc. all you want from a Music DVD.If you don't like Ramones don't buy this, if you like them do buy it. It won't change your life but you get a few hours of entertainment.. It's far better than watching a bad Hollywood movie or such.

I bought the DVD. As described elsewhere, this has a lot of drummer Marky's hand-held videos. So it could have been REALLY bad. Fortunately, the massive pile of video has been well-edited, and it flows about as well as is possible. The video segments are broken about every 5-10 minutes by live performances, cartoons, etc. There are many TV appearances and a great 11-song live show from Italian TV.For non-fans, it is worth owning for live performances by this mighty band. If anyone could possibly not know: their first four albums jump-started punk and new wave in the late 70's -- they were directly responsible for English bands like the Clash and Sex Pistols. The Ramones were four guys in leather jackets and blue jeans who pretended to be brothers, to be stupid, to sniff glue for fun, and to be Nazis. None of those things were true, but the image is a blast and the whole thing is played in front of heavy metal surf music: great melodies, slashing guitar sounds, indecipherable lyrics, fast-thumping-unstoppable drumbeat, played TIGHT. And they make it all look easy.FANS: gotta have this. From what I've heard about the documentary in theaters now, "End of the Century", that is a must-own. RAW is EOTC's ugly sister: not as pretty but every bit as valuable. Get 'em both.