Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 30, 2021

Some fans may want to quibble a bit with a tag line gracing the cover of this release, one which states that title subject Chris Holmes is “the last true rock ‘n’ roller”. There is probably a long list of other suitable candidates some music aficionados could offer to counter this assertion, but whether you even know about Holmes and/or are a fan of his work, he does have the kind of hardscrabble, take no prisoners attitude that many might associate with the rough and tumble world of a hard partying guitar icon. Even those not overly familiar with Holmes' career may remember him from his now infamous interview segments featured in Penelope Spheeris' The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, where he drunkenly rambled while fully dressed and sitting in a floating chaise lounge in a swimming pool (you can see him in screenshot 6 of my The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years Blu-ray review).

This is a kind of Behind the Music styled documentary that attempts to peel back the layers of Holmes' persona, dealing with both career challenges and personal peccadilloes that have made the way treacherous for him at times. That said, Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes seems designed to offer promotional support for Holmes' latest project, which is in fact a band bearing the name Mean Man. As such, some of this piece, while appealing, may seem a bit too self conscious for some, though a lot of the interview segments are interesting and at times funny.

Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment and MVD Visual with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080i transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (as can be seen in screenshot 2, some of the archival video is in more narrow aspect ratios). Cleopatra continues to kind of boggle my mind with its technical decisions on its high def releases. Not only is this encoded with a now pretty "antique" codec, it's also in an interlaced presentation, even though some of the supplements, including the rather lengthy Features and Interviews are offered in a progressive format. The imagery here is decently sharp a lot of the time, though there are combing artifacts that are noticeable in a number of moments featuring quick movements. Some of the archival footage is ragged looking, to say the least.

Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again, a music-centric documentary from Cleopatra Entertainment is granted only lossy audio on a Blu-ray release, and this time there's not even a surround track to help ameliorate the sting. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track included here suffices at a baseline to deliver the talking head and (frankly interstitial) musical elements, but fans of Holmes and W.A.S.P. probably certainly would have preferred lossless audio for at least the music side of things. Optional English, Spanish, French and German subtitles are available.

Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Features and Interviews (1080p; various) offers 24 snippets ranging from about a minute to several minutes that include extended if still brief interviews and the like.


• Slideshow (1080i 1:17)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:10)

Additionally, trailers for other Cleopatra Entertainment releases are offered.

Mean Man: The Story of Chris Holmes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is obviously going to be of most interest to fans of Holmes and/or W.A.S.P., and they may find enough informational value here to offset some of the technical issues. There are some fun (and occasionally funny) interviews here that help to liven the proceedings, but the entire effort ends up coming off as a slightly disguised EPK meant to promote Holmes' new musical endeavors. This is another release from Cleopatra featuring variable video and lossy audio, for those who are considering a purchase.