The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 3, 2016

It might not bear the name Unplugged, but Totally Stripped’s Rolling Stones performances probably would have seemed right at home on that long running MTV offering. The Stones spent time in various studios as well as several concert venues offering “stripped down” versions of several of their best known songs (and a few others). With iconic producers like Don Was helping out, and a documentary filmmaking team following the boys everywhere they went, the result is an interesting if stylistically a bit uneven accounting of the Stones at an interesting point in their unbelievably long lasting careers.

Totally Stripped includes both interview segments and performances (both in studio and on stage) at various locales. The “set list” (in a manner of speaking) as well as the venues are as follows:

Not Fade Away (Amsterdam)
Honky Tonk Women (Paris)
Dead Flowers (Amsterdam)
Faraway Eyes (London)
Shine a Light (Amsterdam)
I Go Wild (Paris)
Miss You (London)
Like a Rolling Stone (Amsterdam)
Brown Sugar (Paris)
Midnight Rambler (London)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Paris)
Gimme Shelter (Amsterdam)
Rip This Joint (Amsterdam)
Street Fighting Man (Amsterdam)

The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rolling Stones Totally Stripped is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Music Group and Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with an upscaled 1080i transfer in 1.33:1. This is the latest in Eagle Rock's so-called "SD Blu-ray" line, and the video is in the same somewhat shoddy league as many others in this format. There is rampant ringing and slight video roll at edges of objects, as well as noticeable aliasing and other anomalies that typically accrue with uprezzed elements. Colors are pretty muddy looking in the color segments, but the black and white is at least marginally more acceptable in terms of grayscale modulation.

The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Rolling Stones Totally Stripped features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks. As might be expected, the talking head segments, and in fact even some of the rehearsal footage, show only incremental differences between the two options. The real benefit of the surround mix comes in the live performances (in studio and on stage), with a nice spread of sound throughout the side channels and good prioritization of vocals. Despite that less than stellar video component, the audio is generally excellent, with a full bodied sound providing ample support for the Stones' always scintillating rhythm section and (of course) Jagger's growly tendencies.

The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the Blu-ray disc. This package also includes a CD. For those with deeper pockets, there's a deluxe version available here: The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped.

The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's fun to see the boys just kind of fooling around in various studios, as well as attempting to put new spins on older material, but this documentary really sparks to life when they actually settle down and play tunes. Video quality is pretty lackluster, as has tended to be the case with these SD Blu-ray releases, but audio is great. Recommended.