Reviews

1 Review
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
Hired Gun (2016)
4/10
Missed shots!
13 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I wanted to watch this documentary after I read that Steve Vai was in the credited cast because I'm a huge fan of his unique music and musicianship. In my opinion, he is the ultimate hired gun ever, being "used" by "gunslingers" like Frank Zappa (who used to call him "Stunt Guitarist" and "Little Italian Virtuoso"), Graham Bonnet, David Lee Roth and David Coverdale. And guess what? He barely talks in this documentary. I think that in total he has less than thirty seconds on screen saying a few thoughts of his about the business. It's so disappointing watching ordinary session musicians in this video talking about their adventures and misadventures while waiting for something that never takes place: Steve Vai's stories of his amazing career. Not to mention that exceptional hired guns of the highest caliber as well like Joe Satriani and Steve Morse in Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz or Jennifer Batten in Michael Jackson's tours and in Jeff Beck's band are not even mentioned.

Expanding a little bit about what another user wrote, it would have been great to see or hear real video and audio recordings from the rehearsal sessions in order to show how a hired gun learns and discusses the stuff they have to play before going on tour or making a record. The documentary is okay, but it gets boring after a while. I say point-blank that it misfires big time: they aimed too low and missed a lots of great "shots".
4 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed