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Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts

Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Supplemental material ultimately disappointing
Review: "Alice Cooper - Prime Cuts" is a terrific documentary tracing the Coop's career from his earliest days to the early 90s. It has been available on DVD for some time. It is very good with some rare and wild footage and is nicely reviewed in a number of places. This DVD presents the documentary in anamorphic wide screen with 5.1 sound. It looks and sounds great.

The question here is the 80+ minutes of new material available on a second disc in this limited edition release. And the answer is that despite a noble effort, in the end, this new material fails to deliver.

Starting with the noble effort, the additional material consists of interviews and performances - natch. But they actually went to the trouble of interviewing the guys from the original Alice Cooper Group. Their comments are intercut with comments from Alice leading up to a performance of a song. Here's where the disappointment begins.

These musical performances are fairly recent. They are shot in such a way as to only reveal Alice - you can't see which band is doing the playing. And it appears they were shot without an audience creating a deadness, a flatness, no reaction or energy for Cooper to bounce off of. Indeed, stack these performances against the same songs captured on the "Brutally Live" DVD and they pale considerably.

It was great that they filmed the original guys for the interviews. But what this release called for was the unearthing of more rare videos, film, and concert performances from the old days.

The final disappointment comes with the second disc itself. The material on the second disc is accessible through this rather frustrating "board game" interface. Every time you choose "Play" on the menu, it just replays the menu. You must choose "Coopergame." This brings up a playing board reminiscent of the old "Chutes and Ladders" game but showing chains and snakes. By pressing the "Enter" key on your remote, a purple dice rolls across the screen - its final number causing an indictor to move along the board. Everytime you hit the top of a chain, you get to see a videoclip from the disc.

Now this would have been okay - fun even - if it gave you access to some hidden material. But as the only way into the main items, it's just a nuisance.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Supplemental material ultimately disappointing
Review: "Alice Cooper - Prime Cuts" is a terrific documentary tracing the Coop's career from his earliest days to the early 90s. It has been available on DVD for some time. It is very good with some rare and wild footage and is nicely reviewed in a number of places. This DVD presents the documentary in anamorphic wide screen with 5.1 sound. It looks and sounds great.

The question here is the 80+ minutes of new material available on a second disc in this limited edition release. And the answer is that despite a noble effort, in the end, this new material fails to deliver.

Starting with the noble effort, the additional material consists of interviews and performances - natch. But they actually went to the trouble of interviewing the guys from the original Alice Cooper Group. Their comments are intercut with comments from Alice leading up to a performance of a song. Here's where the disappointment begins.

These musical performances are fairly recent. They are shot in such a way as to only reveal Alice - you can't see which band is doing the playing. And it appears they were shot without an audience creating a deadness, a flatness, no reaction or energy for Cooper to bounce off of. Indeed, stack these performances against the same songs captured on the "Brutally Live" DVD and they pale considerably.

It was great that they filmed the original guys for the interviews. But what this release called for was the unearthing of more rare videos, film, and concert performances from the old days.

The final disappointment comes with the second disc itself. The material on the second disc is accessible through this rather frustrating "board game" interface. Every time you choose "Play" on the menu, it just replays the menu. You must choose "Coopergame." This brings up a playing board reminiscent of the old "Chutes and Ladders" game but showing chains and snakes. By pressing the "Enter" key on your remote, a purple dice rolls across the screen - its final number causing an indictor to move along the board. Everytime you hit the top of a chain, you get to see a videoclip from the disc.

Now this would have been okay - fun even - if it gave you access to some hidden material. But as the only way into the main items, it's just a nuisance.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: PRIME CUTS INDEED
Review: A totally worthwhile double disc set. This gives one view of "Alice", and uses dated material that has it's limitations; but since a perennial star like Alice has been around since the 60s, there is bound to be some fall in Master tape quality. The first disc is a gem, all Alice, no filler. The Coopergame format for the clips on the second disc is original, and very surreal. If you want a good view of Alice in other formats, look at BRUTALLY YOURS(2000 concert tour in London), and if you can get it, RETURN TO THE NIGHTMARE 1986( VHS tape). No Single disc or even double disc set could ever give an adequate view of the Alice. Like Alice Says:"... I designed this generation..."
Alice is one of a handful of stars who still fire on all cylinders and this 1991 documentary gives a dated, but still valid view.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great autobiography!!!
Review: Alice does a great job talking about the highs and lows of his life. He doesn't glorify himself at all. He talks just as much about his personal problems with alcohol and such as he does the fun they had back then.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Its Cooper, of course it gets 5!
Review: Here we have a very nicely presented dvd package. Disc 1 is a great documentry of the legends career with interviews and live footage. Quality. Disc 2, now then...this is a bit of fun; it offers very up to date interviews and cool rare live footage only accesable via an interactive game of snakes and ladders! Bizarre but appealing. However it does grow very tedious wen u want to see the xtra footage and have to go through this process.
This is the one and only problem with a great dvd. An awesome package for any fan of alice's work.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best vintage Alice available
Review: If you need proof to give your friends that Alice Cooper was among the best bands in the world, this is it. The majority of this VH-1 style documentary is pre-1975 footage of the original band hammering out the classics live in a way that Alice has never really duplicated since. Todays Alice and the Alice Cooper band are different animals, and if you weren't there the first time around, you'll wish you were after watching this. Alice's interview segments are very funny and insightful, but my only problem was there was no interviews with the original band members. They are spoken of as if they're all dead! A small complaint, when pretty much all the classic tunes are represented in their original live forms. After watching this you'll never look at Marilyn Manson the same way again.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: prime cuts lacks song footage
Review: Prime Cuts is a pretty good DVD if you want to find out about Alice Cooper as in interviews.....but apart from that it is very disappointing as you get hardly any song footage, as for the Jukebox its a waste of time as you start getting into the song and then it cuts off as you only get a taste of the song, which is very frustrating! I was pissed off.
The Coopergame is annoying and the songs you actually get to see in whole form are still made around interviews and the song footage is poor quality.
If you want to see Alice cooper in action do not buy this DVD buy Brutally Live.
I paid $60 Australian Dollars for this DVD as i expected to see all the songs featured as whole songs not clips! I feel ripped off!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent viewing
Review: Prime Cuts on DVD is an excellent review of the coops history which varies slightly from the video cassette version.The only reason why it doesnt get 5 stars is because it only covers his career up to Hey Stoopid now several years and albums past.This has been rectified with the very recent release of the Prime Cuts LTD edition DVD with an extra 40 plus minutes of footage (get this one if you can).However this is still a very good buy for the fan who wants to know more about this legendary showman,BUY IT!.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If you have the VHS edition, don't bother with the DVD
Review: The VHS of Prime Cuts was frustrating to watch.

I realized that the VHS edition had limitations as far as length of clips, but it was still hard to see just a minute of "Black Ju Ju" and "Dwight Fry" live with the original band.

Longtime fans like myself want as much of the original band as possible in these compilations.

Problem solved with the re-done DVD version, right?

NO! These are still just clips, NOT THE FULL-LENGTH versions! Geez....who put this thing together anyway?

The "Alice Cooper Virtual Jukebox" feature will have the full-length versions, right?

No, this is just an direct access to the clips in Prime Cuts via a page designed like an old jukebox.Whoopee...

Wait! Disc 2 has "Over 80 minutes of comprehensive supplemental material assembled specially for this DVD", that will have the full-length clips of the original band, right?

No, it is an annoying, little game you play where you roll the dice on the screen to access different clips.

If you land on square 100, you can watch the entire feature all at once.

There has to be an easter egg for this but I haven't found it yet.It would be just like this stupid DVD not to have one.

The feature is different interview clips of Alice, Mike Bruce, Neil Smith, Dennis Dunaway and Dick Wagner from the Behind the Music show on VH-1, I think. It's pretty good because it's ALWAYS good to see the original lineup, ya see.

The incredibly stupid thing about it is that each clip leads into a FULL-LENGTH live song clip from the Brutal Live concert vid or The Nightmare Returns vid.

They interview the original band ONLY (plus Wagner) and then feature the 1986 and 2000 lineups ONLY via the clips! Huh?

These were fine shows (especially the Brutal vid), but why do they keep the material most wanted by the fans in the vault?

Anyone that would buy this DVD already has Brutally Live and The Nightmare Returns anyway.

Alice Cooper finally let some live material with the original band go on the Billion Dollar Babies 2CD reissue early in 2001.

I sure hope he has plans to make more of the original band's live material available via CD or DVD.

The Prime Cuts (Limited Edition 2-Disc Set) DVD release here is a big disappointment.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If you have the VHS edition, don't bother with the DVD
Review: The VHS of Prime Cuts was frustrating to watch.

I realized that the VHS edition had limitations as far as length of clips, but it was still hard to see just a minute of "Black Ju Ju" and "Dwight Fry" live with the original band.

Longtime fans like myself want as much of the original band as possible in these compilations.

Problem solved with the re-done DVD version, right?

NO! These are still just clips, NOT THE FULL-LENGTH versions! Geez....who put this thing together anyway?

The "Alice Cooper Virtual Jukebox" feature will have the full-length versions, right?

No, this is just an direct access to the clips in Prime Cuts via a page designed like an old jukebox.Whoopee...

Wait! Disc 2 has "Over 80 minutes of comprehensive supplemental material assembled specially for this DVD", that will have the full-length clips of the original band, right?

No, it is an annoying, little game you play where you roll the dice on the screen to access different clips.

If you land on square 100, you can watch the entire feature all at once.

There has to be an easter egg for this but I haven't found it yet.It would be just like this stupid DVD not to have one.

The feature is different interview clips of Alice, Mike Bruce, Neil Smith, Dennis Dunaway and Dick Wagner from the Behind the Music show on VH-1, I think. It's pretty good because it's ALWAYS good to see the original lineup, ya see.

The incredibly stupid thing about it is that each clip leads into a FULL-LENGTH live song clip from the Brutal Live concert vid or The Nightmare Returns vid.

They interview the original band ONLY (plus Wagner) and then feature the 1986 and 2000 lineups ONLY via the clips! Huh?

These were fine shows (especially the Brutal vid), but why do they keep the material most wanted by the fans in the vault?

Anyone that would buy this DVD already has Brutally Live and The Nightmare Returns anyway.

Alice Cooper finally let some live material with the original band go on the Billion Dollar Babies 2CD reissue early in 2001.

I sure hope he has plans to make more of the original band's live material available via CD or DVD.

The Prime Cuts (Limited Edition 2-Disc Set) DVD release here is a big disappointment.


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