Cheap Duran Duran - Arena: The Movie/Making of Arena (DVD) (Duran Duran) Price

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Customer Reviews of Duran Duran - Arena: The Movie/Making of Arena

Arena: The Movie is a 1984 concert/sci-fi movie capturing Duran Duran at their peak. The concert was once aired on MTV, but in edited form and was titled "As The Lights Go Down." This version combines that same concert with a hair-brained sci-fi plot, featuring Milo O'Shea as "the real" Duran Duran (the character from the film "Barbarella."). He and his 3 midget friends have landed from outer space and set up camp below the stage to cause havoc for the band and its fans during the concert, to somehow prove who the real Duran Duran is. Not much of a plot. The sci-fi silliness is no more than a distraction from the concert, as nearly every song is interrupted numerous times with scenes of these ridiculous characters. I would much rather have the edited-for-MTV version of the concert, which cut out the sci-fi and featured the concert only.

On the plus side, the picture and sound quality is excellent. The "making of" documentary has interviews with all 5 band members. The packaging is brilliant. There is a clear slip-case that holds the black dvd box (w/ band photos on the back). When opening the box, you will discover a sheet of Duran Duran stickers! YES!!- stickers! Not to mention a fold-out movie poster w/ photos & credits. This helps make up for the lame packaging of DD's "Greatest" DVD which was not so great.

The bonus features, which are easily found on the main menu (no Easter Egg hunt on this one!!) are as follows:

Arena TV Ad
Arena Trailer
Arena Video Mix
Save A Prayer (live)- with no interruptions from the sci-fi plot
Simon Le Bon Interview (from 1984, discussing the concept of Arena.)

So if you're a Duran Duran fan like me & have been waiting for 2 decades to see this again, here's your chance! The sci-fi plot is irritating, but if you can overlook that, this is a great way to relive the excitement of Duran Duran, circa 1984. Meanwhile I'm STILL waiting for that reunion album. Ugh!!!!

An absurd notion...indeed
Sadly that part of the title is just a hint of things to come. I don't know what the hardcore Duran Duran fan will make of this DVD, but I was very disappointed. I expected this release to be a full, uninterrupted concert of some of their best songs. At least that's what it looks like reading the back of packaging. Instead you get 2/3 music along with stupid vignettes of aliens running around the building. DURING the songs. Not just one song, but every song performed during the concert drops out so we can see rejects from Star Wars running around behind the scenes. I guess the person who directed 'Thriller' decided to bring the production to a live concert. This was very annoying. You only get one full, uninterrupted track, 'Save A Prayer' in the bonus section of the DVD. Hardly what I would want to pay $30 for. This gets 2 stars for good picture and sound quality. Strong recommendation to avoid. I am taking this back ASAP.

"Nobody takes the name Duran Duran in vain"
It was disappointing because of the interruptions. The whole song The Reflex was butchered to accomodate the Sci-Fi plot but Hungry Like the Wolf was great. Careless Memories was great too. Simon is hilarious dancing around like he's crazy or something. Wild Boys was basically the video (the unedited version, I always thought the edited version was cleaner and more precise, if that's the word). This is a live concert with stuff added in afterwards like clips from the movie Barbarella and hokey guys in costumes making fun of the band. It's quite amusing. It's not your average concert piece really. The extras include interview clips with Simon LeBon (his views on making videos is interesting), a montage of the different songs played in the concert and there is also a Making of Arena featurette that focuses on The Wild Boys video. Simon says some weird things (wanting to have the video show the band being tortured as "a metaphor for being in a band and having to perform".) Later when he says that he was glad The Wild Boys video didn't come out as he expected because he was thinking along the lines of cliches, I can only hope he was referring to the earlier remark I mentioned. Not that I know anything about the anguish of having to perform, but it kind of destroyed my vision of what the video represented but hey who knows what they were really thinking. On the positive side, I found out that it was a car John was chained to in the video. I always wondered why on the TV screen in that segment the words "car" and "girls" flashed before him. Now I know. His comment is funny. He claims that he gets to be tortured by being chained to a car and forced to watch girls on screen. Poor guy.
Overall, very good, though I'm sure fans might find the sci-fi clips very annoying. I find them kind of humorous.

Songs are Is There Something I Should Know?, Hungry Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer, Union of the Snake, Wild Boys, Careless Memories, Planet Earth, Girls on Film (kinda raunchy to say the least) and the ending credits roll during the performance of Rio. I might be missing something, I can't remember. I think that's it.