The whole Hollywood hard rock scene of the 80s and 90s really shaped the music world while it was dominant. How you feel about that whole movement, which at the time was called “hair metal,” will definitely influence how you feel about this documentary. Personally, I liked a lot of the music, but also thought a lot of it was over-rated. I was also a bit resentful that it was being passed of as heavy metal when it was mostly glam rock. As a “real” metal head I was annoyed that it was being sold as metal to the masses. So, I’m kind of a bit of skeptic when it comes to this thing.

Now, the origins of this are interesting. There was originally a coffee table book. That gave way to both a multi-disc CD set and this documentary. The documentary was actually initially released in 2008, but from that I can tell, this is the first blu-ray release of it, but I might be wrong about that.

This documentary does a good job of getting into the origins of the scene and does so with interviews (from the time it was produced), music videos, live footage, photos and more. I’m not sure how much the more devoted fan of the scene will learn from this, but as a more casual listener, there was a lot here I didn’t know. I’m not sure I have any greater appreciation for the movement, but I do have a deeper understanding of it. Now, if you come here looking for bonus features, you will be disappointed, but as I always say, I don’t buy movies for the bonus features. They are the icing on the cake.