Sunset Strip

I've always been fascinated by Hollywood, and the Sunset Strip. I remember leafing through magazines and dreaming about walking up and down the strip, catching great music and meeting some interesting people. I haven't been able to make it out there yet, but this doc is the next best thing. The film covers the Sunset Strip from its inception as a no man's land between the studios in Hollywood and Beverly Hill up until present day. Throughout you learn that the Sunset Strip has been instrumental in shaping from the speakeasies of the 20s, to the hair metal bands of the 80s. I had no idea how many famous and interesting people have been through this little strip of land.

Watching this documentary in 2022, post pandemic hysteria, post hyperinflation, post RvW, post EA & J6, post George Floyd & BLM, post Elliott Page, post Weinstein, post Matrix, post JDvAH, post *everything*...is a trip.

2012, the year this documentary was filmed, feels like a hundred years ago. The heydays of the previous century feel virtually ancient.

But man, what an era! And it's captured so explicitly. This is a must watch. Oh, the scenes you will see when you take a cruise down the Sunset Strip!

You won't be bored at all watching this film. It is full of interesting nuggets about the Strip but it is so disjointed in its telling. Some of the important people in the history of the Strip tell some great old stories, but many of them have little relevant stories to tell. I have a certain nostalgic feeling for the Strip myself where I probably spent over a hundred nights in the 70's being a bad boy and seeing some remarkable music.

Rodney Binginheimer who should be able to tell great stories about the glam era on the Strip has surprisingly little to add. Mickey Rourke whom I admire as an actor and some tattoo artist guy have a lot of screen time but add little to the proceedings other than the viewer wanting to figure out if Rourke is still using after all these years or not. On the plus side you have some great comedians telling stories, STeve Jones from the Sex Pistols and Johnny Depp and some other nice story tellers, but there are just as many folks involved that probably should not have been. I am sorry, but Kelly Osbourne is just too young to be nostalgic about anything. It is a really disjointed film, but always interesting in spite of itself.

Like many other people past and present I was drawn to Los Angeles attracted by the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown, and like many other people the first thing I did when I arrived was drive down the Sunset Strip. I remember seeing the billboards and feeling the energy of knowing that amazing things were happening, and that I was far removed from my mountain roots. Although I was fascinated by the strip I always wanted to learn more about its history. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about this documentary. I rushed to my computer, bought the film and screened it that moment on my laptop and let me say I was not disappointed! The history of the strip from its formation to the speakeasies of the 20s up through present day is covered through interviews with the people who lived it. You really see how the sunset strip was shaped by, but also influenced culture and the personalities! A great film and I will make sure to watch it again soon!

I thought this was a really interesting film about the Sunset Strip. I loved all the footage from all the different eras on the strip. For example, there is footage in there from when it was just a road but nothing on either side of it but dirt, just emptiness. This original strip (not the Vegas one) has so much history. It's great hearing celebrities (like Johnny Depp, Ozzy and Sharon Osborne, Peter Fonda) telling their stories as they re-live their personal memories from famous hotels and clubs. Also in the film, there's footage and recollections of both River Phoenix and John Belushi's deaths on this famous strip. It's an awesome strip so you've got to have both happy times and sad times to go along with it. There's just a lot of good stuff in this film.