If Metallica seems like just another high dollar metal outfit that does five interviews a year, wins a Grammy, then goes backstage to immediately fornicate with prostitutes and blow piles of cocaine, you'd only be half right. The worlds most voyeuristic headbangers once again invite us (the viewing audience) on a do or die mission of guts and sob stories. Metallica is a heavy metal band that that formed in California in the year nineteen eighty one. Lars Ulrich planted an add seeking out like minded rockers and got a call back from James Hetfield, and with that a legacy of mainstream metal was born. They had shifting bassists for the first year until they saw the diabolical Cliff Burton playing with his band "Trauma" and started to formulate a deal. They would record three amazing albums with Cliff before a tragic buss accident ended his career. After much grieving Metallica acquired the curly ginger Jason Newsted who they would go on to record some of their biggest albums with. In this film Newsted has quit the megalith for various reasons. Some may say this was good timing, and that he avoided being apart of one of the worst metal albums ever. But these are just opinions, even though fan reception to the album was mixed, and critically panned, it still sold a bazillion copies and hit the billboard at number 1. Record execs show up for listening party's bored, Lars's dad who looks like a wizard says the album stinks, Hetfield bolts often and Kirk whines like a little boy. Whenever a band or baseball team starts falling apart the owners usually bring in a headshrinker to make love not war. This little creep comes in and unravels the band to their root, constantly gutting each mans entire life to find some meaning that just isn't there. He decides Lars has to clean house entirely so one time loose nut Dave Mustane is brought over to the couch to do some whining along with the rest of us. This is the part of the movie that gets to me, Dave Mustane who's the founder/frontman of MEGADETH, actually whining about being kicked out of Metallica? I lost what respect i had for him right there. It's such an interesting movie though, these guys who have made and will continue to make so much money are at a crossroads of interest in playing music together, and while people often say "money isn't everything", these guys say money is the only thing. How can we make lots of money, coupled with the God like status they've received for being the biggest mainstream metal band of all time collide. Their just not relevant anymore, some of the stuff their jamming on in the film is so floppy, Lars i might add, has lost a considerable step. Lyrics: stupid, playing: weak, personality: zero, and Mustane wussing it up. It's the metal version of "Let it Be" and were all along for the ride. Please, i beg you Metallica, just bow out, end it, spare the overcrowded metal world another bad album.

A lot of people have mis-interpreted this film as a documentary about the rock band Metallica's latest studio album.What we actually have here is a psychological case study of grown men who have the emotional intelligence of pubescent teenagers... men who have not had to grow up simply because they existed in the right place at the right time with the right image and name.Their legend has grown far beyond their talents and abilities, and they are expected to turn out a quality product without a solid knowledge of songwriting or instrumental technique.We see constant sessions of "jamming" ostensibly to write songs but with riffs that are all essentially the same. Attempts at playing end in frustration over inabilities to execute simple instrumental technique.This is a cautionary tale about the kind of monster that has been created by our culture's overwrought adulation for popular musical acts and record companies' willingness to exploit people's emotions for personal gain.

I bought this movie at the same time as U2's Rattle and Hum. I had thought they were more or less the same type of "concert-film". Unfortunately, that is not the case. Rattle and Hum is one of the best concert movies I own, but I doubt I will ever watch "Some Kind of Monster" again. It is a documentary on Metallica's creation of their latest album, "St. Anger". And what is very surprising, it shows over and over again how puerile the members of the band are. Lars is nothing more than a baby, constantly whining about things which would only concern kindergarten kids. It is absolutely no surprise that he so vigorously pursued Napster after seeing how he is in "real life", it was completely in line with his character. James Hetfield is not much better, although he would equate to a primary schooler rather than an out-and-out baby. He would pick fights for the smallest slight, and he and Lars would argue like pre-schoolers.There is not a single complete song heard in the movie despite many concert clips. Every song is cut-off about 30 seconds into it just to show some additional petty little fight the band is once again trying to work out. It is almost like Lars was only willing to give movie-goers a "free sample" of his music rather than the full song. I guess you also need to purchase St. Anger to hear the complete songs. It's the only "album-making-of" movie I have ever seen where you don't even get to listen to the songs! I am a fan of Metallica and have been since the days of "Kill Em All". I am also the opposite of most Metallica fans in that I think the Black Album is a great album. Metallica fans divide themselves along the Black Album / Bob Rock line; purists believe that only albums made before the Black album are any good, mainstream fans believe that ever since the arrival of Bob Rock has the band been any good. Personally, I like all of their music, from "Seek and Destroy", to "For Whom the Bells Toll", to "Master of Puppets". But I have to say that no album works as a whole as well as the Black Album, one of the finest pure rock and roll albums ever released. And if that makes me a Metallica "bandwagon heathen", then so be it. (For that matter, I also couldn't care less if Greedo shot first).I don't think Metallica should have made this movie. It just made me think they were a bunch of spoiled children. I would have preferred to continue to think of them as rock and roll superstars. I understand perfectly why Jason left the band, it would have driven me insane after 14 years of putting up with all of that garbage. There is a particularly funny scene where Lars is selling some of his art collection "to let others share the artwork" as he states. He then goes on about how it is not about the money, but it is much higher than that. Of course he doesn't donate his newfound riches to an art museum or anything like that, but when he sees some of the paintings selling for millions, he is laughing like a spoiled little rich kid.All in all, a waste of time. I expected a concert-movie, and instead got a documentary about a bunch of whiny children pretending to be adults.

Some Kind of Monster is a brutal and honest documentary, which exposes the 2003 version of Metallica as 3 guys who have COMPLETELY lost touch with the scene they helped create. Jason Newstead perfectly sums up the current state of Metallica with a quote from an interview in 2003, "On all previous albums, Metallica sounded like leaders. On this one, they sound like followers."The film follows Metallica during the creation of what was billed to be the return-to-form, classic Metallica album, St. Anger. Instead, the world was delivered a misguided and un-administered(thanks Bob Rock) attempt at sounding like modern mainstream metal bands. Note the scene in which Lars tells Kirk that there should be no guitar solos on the album because he feels they've been "outdated." Lars requested this because it was the trend at the time amongst modern "metal" bands. Kirk even calls him out on this.During the mid to late 90's, the general public seemed to have a rather low opinion of Metallica due to the Napster lawsuit, high ticket prices, and poor album output. This film provides some explanation as to what (and more importantly, WHO) were the internal causes of Metallica's fan backlash. The answers of which should come as no surprise to most Metallica fans, but the degree of ignorance amongst the decision makers in Metallica's "Inner Circle", still comes off as a shock with every viewing.As a further testament to the film, you almost feel like you are not watching a documentary at all. Rather, you feel like you are watching a tragic drama, full of anti-heros who are so pre-occupied battling their own demons that they cannot come together as normal human beings to solve the simplest of problems. It is hard to feel sorry for any of these "characters", considering the massive levels of both professional and personal success the have all had. Instead, I found myself being mad at them for almost forgetting their roots. Their communication internally is so forced and fake... yet at the same time, THIS IS REAL. These interactions REALLY happened. There was no script. This really was a documentary.Some Kind of Monster gives all of us all a behind the scenes look at the internal decision process of a struggling multi-platinum metal band. It is a privileged sight that most people never get to see regarding their favorite band... but for most Metallica fans, this intense look is sure to be upsetting.