The mystique of the Rolling Stones isn't well served by Stoned, a speculative film about the last three months of the life of original guitarist Brian Jones. But nor will their legend be marred by this inept and ineffectual bio-pic.Directed by famed producer Stephen Woolley (The Crying Game, Breakfast On Pluto), Stoned shows us Jones final days through the eyes of Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine), a contractor brought into the fold by the Stones road manager Tom Keylock (David Morrissey) to help with the landscaping of his East Sussex manse and, eventually, keep an eye on the free-spirited rock star.Since we know that Jones (Leo Gregory) drowned in his pool, Wooley stages it with a flash forward of the body's discovery near the start of the film. But any mystery about the relationship of the working-class Thorogood and the rich Jones begs for more incisive scenes than the clichéd mise-en-scene of all too familiar 60's tropes. To believe that the contractor could be moved to murder Jones, we need more than a mild scene of humiliation and a dismissal without final pay. We need shadings of Thorogood's psychological discord, and a fuller performance from the usually reliable Considine.Not that the other actors fare any better. Gregory plays Jones as a Lost Boy and an opportunist, sporting a Little Lord Fauntleroy shag that turns him into David Spade's somewhat sexier brother. The women are lovely, but basically negligible – whores or hangers-on – and the rest of the band loose approximations of the younger Stones, with Keith Richards the moral center of the film.Neither the script, by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade, nor the director, shapes scenes for drama. Jones life, like the film, seems aimless; we never understand his importance as the architect of the original Stones. On the evidence of Stoned, one can rightly say that as a director, Woolley is a great producer.

The Rolling Stones ripped off the blues greats, and were just another example of white men ripping off black men, like Elvis and all the rest. I have no idea what contribution Brian Jones made to their tinny dance records, and I tended to agree with the outraged father of a fourteen year-old girl (depicted in an early scene) who said how much he despised him for getting her pregnant. Jones's despicable answer was that a doctor could do away with it. Way to go, Mr Wooley, set up your hero as a total tosser right from the get-go! Now we don't care about him at all, let's get on with the rest of the film, eh? There's no mystery about the pool death now, any more than there was in Sussex at the time: I was there. The guy was a decadent poltroon who had an asthma attack while swimming and accidentally drowned because he was hopelessly overweight and weak from chronic dypsomania. No one killed him, he killed himself, blatantly. Looking at the footage of the half-million attending the free concert for Brian held in Hyde Park, I wonder what got into everyone at the time. It must have been the very powerful sound systems that were coming in, and could reach big crowds and make more money than anyone had ever imagined. Give me Nora Jones instead of Brian Jones any time.

Originally posted as a rebuttal to Peter Travers review in Rolling Stone magazine: Good times, bad times and very, very sexy! Oh, behave. Stoned is not an action film, nor is it dull, as Mr. Travers would suggest. It's also not a movie about the band, although they are an important part of the story. Woolley shows us the moments in Brian Jones' life that lead to his early death with beautiful, if sometimes awkward pace, great music, and quite a bit of good nookie and acid. Monet Mazur is breathtaking, Leo Gregory poses handsomely as Jones, and David Morrisey and Paddy Considine are worthy of more than just a mention. Yes, some early Stones tunes would have been a plus, but the White Stripes, The Counterfeit Stones and a hand full of others pull off a nice mix of devilish blues. After all, that's what Jones was into. The Rolling Stones did their best work immediately after his death, I'd love to see a movie that chronicles that period, as would Mr. Travers it seems. After several viewings, I'm as intrigued as ever about Brian Jones life and death. Go to your local video store and get Stoned. (Did anyone else not take into account the movie's title when preparing to watch it?)

I was so disappointed by this movie! I mean... there are NO songs by the Rolling Stones in the movie that I (or anyone else I know) would recognize, Brian Jones never wrote any of their songs, and the Stones "members" might as well have been extras on the set for all the lines they got and acting opportunities received. All of that in itself makes the movie awful. But it gets worse, if possible. Unless you grew up in Cockney Town England, you're not going to understand a THING any of the actors say in the whole movie - they might as well have been speaking Japanese! Just a bunch of Blimey mumbling, cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, and a stupid, twisted, pointless plot line that would probably have been more intelligible with the sound off. In fact, that's my advice to any future watchers - just turn the sound off and the movie won't seem quite so bad.This movie is a prime example of dollars wasted on a stupid theme, a stupid subject, a stupid premise (about the Rolling Stones, but no Stones are really present in the whole movie), and just stupid in general. If you've seen Oliver Stone's great movie "The Doors", and think this one is going to be the same kind of ride except about the Rolling Stones you are in for a grave, deep, and permanent letdown - buyer beware!