
Review by Matt Anderson
For a movie that teams the Rolling Stones with Martin Scorsese, Shine a Light plays it surprisingly safe. The concert footage is great, but overall the movie doesn't break any new ground.
Built around a fundraiser for the Clinton Foundation while the Stones were on tour in support of their A Bigger Bang album, the Stones performed at the Beacon Theatre, located squarely in Scorsese's New York City home turf.
For all the options at Jagger's fingertips, the final set list is simply a jukebox of the band's most familiar hits, Not a lick is to be had from A Bigger Bang. As such, the movie is content to relive the Stones' past, musically and historically, at the expense of recognizing the Stones as a band that, 44 years on, is still perpetually releasing new material.
As it stands, Shine a Light serves as a traditional, albeit big-screen, record of the Stones in action. In that capacity, it does offer some knock-out performances and fantastic on-stage footage of the Stones, still one of the world's greatest rock bands working today.
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