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Kiss - Symphony: The DVD Actor: Kiss Number of Items: 2 Format: Color Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 180 minutes Studio: Bmg Distribution (VI Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-09-09 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 88 Average rating: 3.5 "BEST ALL TIME DVD !!!" Simply the DVD I expected...The one which was in my foolest dreams...An emotionnal experience with the best rock band in history doing the BIGGEST show in the WORLD... A fan from FRANCE who did a big mistake : staying at home on 2.28.03,the day of this magic show at the other side of earth... "Half of what I wanted" If you are thinking of this DVD to learn more about how the concept came together, buy it. If you are interested in hearing Kiss in the best concert mix ever, buy it. If you are interested in seeing Kiss in concert, DON'T BUY IT! This is without a doubt the most frustrating concert footage I have ever seen. The director must have thought that buyers of this video were more interested in seeing the fans and the orchestra than members of the band. The frustrating part comes in when you realize that the actual pictures are incredible. The boys have never looked better, and the film is beautiful. But, the hyper cutting will drive you insane! Save for some off axis shots, there are no scenes of the band together playing. And you never are allowed to focus on them individually, before the next cut. I don't expect static shots, but I would think that for at least some of the time, you would like to see the most theatric rock band in history strutting their stuff in digital glory. Even during solos, when you would like to see them play, you are treated to more hyperactive cutting. I'm glad I have the Vid, simply for the 5/1 mix, but in truth, this is one that goes down in the "what might have been" catagory. "KISS fans deserve better from a concert film!!" With the exception of some of the slower acoustic songs from Act 2, the concert footage is darn near impossible to watch because of the rapid-fire, MTV-style editing. Many others in this review forum have said it already, and they are RIGHT!! I don't know who chose the Editor for this project, but both he and the Editor need to be strung up by their heels and sent back to Filmmaking 101. There is a HUGE difference between the way you edit long-form concert footage and the way you edit a 3 1/2 minute video. The rapid-fire editing in this DVD is so painful to sit through that I just had to turn it off. I was hoping this DVD would be a "keeper", a concert I could watch over and over and over again over the years. But there is no way in Heck that I could even sit through just ONE uninterrupted viewing -- how distractingly amateurish and misguided the editing is! Shame on Gene and Paul for letting this one slip through their fingers. Surely they must have seen at least a rough cut of concert footage before signing off on the release. KISS, sad to say, already have a history of shooting themselves in the foot now and again. And they have done it once more. Gene, Paul, I love you both -- but you guys blew it. There is now no way in the world anyone watching the DVD can get the "concert experience" from this. The Editor made sure of that. "Even bad DVD editing can't ruin a GREAT Concert..." Considering itfs been almost 20 years since KISS released a full concert on video, I think I can forgive the few shortcomings of this disk. Especially since they are far outweighed by the quality of the performance itself. Sure, the music is mostly (actually, with the sole exception of "Psycho Circus"), a rehash of the live stuff that made them the kings of the stadium shows in the 70's and 80's...but it has never been captured quite like this. First off, the sound on the DVD is absolutely incredible, whether it be 5.1 surround, or 2 channel stereo. And it is far superior to that of the CD (which I still donft understand, considering they used the same masters). The boys in the band have never sounded better (hard to believe that Simmons is 54 and Stanley is 51, with the way they were belting it out!), and the full out gnormalh performance of Act 1 shows that they havenft lost anything along the way. The Melbourne Symphony Ensemble adds just the right amount of feeling to the acoustic set of Act 2, and the full frontal impact of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra really comes through in Act 3, adding previously unknown feeling and depth to the songs in which they participated. The balance between band and orchestra is perfect, putting all the details of the performance right where you can hear and appreciate them. This DVD truly captures the KISS concert experience... and then some. Although the quality of the video footage is absolutely awesome, the editing (as noted in many reviews) could have definitely been done differently. It seems that the AVID Editor for the concert (you can find his name in the credits), the likely culprit, was more concerned with the quick cutting, music video look (you know, the look that can hold the 2.7 second attention span of your average MTV junkie) rather than providing a smoother, fuller concert performance look. And someone needs to have a talk with the gcontinuity guyh as well, although that probably falls to the AVID Editor as well, because it is painfully obvious that multiple takes of some songs (and from the reviews Ifve read by folks who went to the concert, possibly from different shows as well) were edited together with little thought of how it would look. Ifm cool with the editing...I just feel you should just make sure that the musicians are in the same positions, or that the same guitars are being used, or that they are singing the same song, all the way through the song edits to add credibility to the video. And for crying out loud, did he have to use gbabe-camh footage for so much of the show (enough is enough already!). HOWEVER, after youfve watched the concert a couple of times, you get used to the editing, and although it never quite feels right, you can live with it. The gmaking of...h documentary is interesting and informative, but could have certainly been longer than the 30 minutes it takes up. Act 3 is contained on both disks (taking up time that could have been used for more documentary or special features), but I can see where the documentary just flows into it naturally on disk 1, and where it maintains the overall continuity of the performance on disk 2. The only other gspecialh feature is the groupfs appearance on ROVE(live), an Australian music show. Again, interesting, but very short. This concert has some of the best live performances of these songs ever captured on any media, most notably "Let Me Go Rock & Roll", "God Of Thunder", and "Black Diamond". There are also some songs that have never been released live (on legitimate media) before..."Psycho Circus", "Shandi", and "Great Expectations" (which lends itself incredibly well to this format, aided by the voices of the Australian Childrenfs Choir), so there is a trace of uniqueness to this particular live set. And although a few of the songs don't sound as good with full orchestration, a good double handful of them sound absolutely incredible (far better than the originals), especially "Beth", "God Of Thunder", "Shout It Out Loud", "I Was Made For Lovin' You" (I HATED the studio version), and "Black Diamond" (speaking of which, if you like this, check out Yoshiki's (X-Japan) piano version on the "KISS My Ass" tribute album). And I thought that "King Of The Night Time World" wouldn't rock with strings...WRONG! Although it appeared to me that the members of the MSO were a bit uptight at the start of their segments, by the end of the show, they were rocking their socks off, and having a great time. gRock gNh Roll All Nighth never sounded so full of life! So what if Ace Frehley isn't playing with the band? Tommy Thayer fills his shoes perfectly. And, right, wrong, gspacemanh makeup arguments, or otherwise, you really canft tell the difference between the two anywhere but the close-ups. No, itfs not truly the goriginalh KISS, but I guess itfs close enough to sell some concert tickets, CDfs and DVDfs. Overall, this DVD is an excellent live collection of material from KISS. Yes, the songs have been overplayed (c'mon...6 live albums, and no fewer than 5 greatest hits collections), and the editing and special features could have been better, but it will still make a decent addition to your video concert library, because nobody puts on a concert like KISS. And that makes this DVD well worth the price of admission. "Pull the plug...KISS is dead" Didn't these guys have a farewell tour a couple of years ago? Didn't they say they wanted to end KISS before it got ridiculous? Well maybe they should have quit before 'Music from the Elder' was released. KISS is an embarrassment, to rock n roll, to it's devoted fans, and to musicians everywhere. The biggest complaint here is the absence of Ace. OK OK we all know Ace's story, he's a drunken, lazy, bum who could have had a great career without KISS, but just has way too many problems and deserves little of the credit he gets. Sure back in the 70's he was great, young and hungry, now he's a pathetic bum. He may keep promising a solo record to be released soon, but Ace fans have heard this way to much to believe. It's not 1989 anymore, and Trouble Walkin' is ancient history. OK as for this DVD. Ho-hum KISS with an orchestra. Gee here's a new idea that's never been done (ha ha ha ha!) As if Metallica's butchery of classic material wasn't raked through the mud on S&M. Now we have KISS performing in front of an orchestra wearing KISS makeup. Oh what goes through Gene's mind sometimes is baffling. Put a KISS logo on anything, no matter how stupid, and watch the sheep spend their money. I said goodbye at the farewell tour. It was a great ride, but now this band needs to be put out to pasture. It's gotten to the point of ridiculous. This DVD is nothing more than a home movie for Gene to expand his already overly bloated ego. How much of this film concentrates on the audience? Far too much I'm afraid. Between the orchestra and the crowd, there is KISS, which gets the smallest amount of camera time. The set list has the classics, but is missing anything having to do with Ace. (No Cold Gin, Parasite, New York Groove, Shock Me, or Rocket Ride). Who wouldn't have loved to have seen Ace perform on this and shoot rockets out from behind the orchestra? But again, Ace being gone may only prove how ridiculous Gene has become. Peter is only remaining with the band, because without KISS he is nobody in the music world. Like Gene he's only in it for the money. But while Peter needs it, Gene does not. KISS ALIVE IV is by far the worst of KISS live albums and God knows how much over-dubbing was done on this project. I mean let's face it. Fans of the band know that none of the ALIVE! Albums are that live. ALIVE II being the most obvious. No no no. KISS is done and this only proves it. What the heck will Gene think of next. It wouldn't surprise me a bit to hear that Gene is planning for KISS to be the first band to perform on the moon.