Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper

This film shows the Alice Cooper band at its peak -- and unfortunately, during its final tour. The comedy segments where a film director and viking are pursuing the band are very weak, but the concert rocks! All of AC's classics (18, Billion Dollar Babies, I Love the Dead) are represented and rendered expertly. Alice was a major influence on rock and metal, but his crowd interactions are pure punk shtick -- taunting and insulting front row fans. The theatrics are minimal compared to other performances, but the music overshadows the stunts with a guillotine and saliva drenched mannequins. If you're an Alice fan, check this out on DVD -- and play the Concert Only option. Or, if you'r an AC neophyte, prepare to be surprised by a great performance by an underrated rocker.

After being forced to sing show-tunes, Alice Cooper and his band wreck an entire Hollywood movie set and drive off to their concert. Along the way they are pursued by the always angry German director and, for some reason, a viking. At some point they even enlist the help of a Lone Ranger-variant who's mask keeps falling off. The campy, Keystone-style chases are great fun for those with a goof-ball sense of humor but the real highlight is the live concert footage (filmed during the infamous 'Billion Dollar Babies' tour), in which Alice sings some of this best loved songs and delights his audience by doing some delightful things. Irreverent, gross, funny, tasteless and always entertaining. Lost since it's theatrical release, this didn't land on video until '05.

'Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper' is based around a concert filmed during the Alice Cooper Group's infamous 'Billion Dollar Babies' US spring tour in 1973, with segments of old B/W movie footage edited in between songs.

The concert footage, though a little dark due to bad lighting, is awesome viewing, documenting the group's most theatrical stage show filmed during their commercial peak (subsequently the group, after recording one more album, more or less broke up and Alice Cooper himself continued as a solo artist taking the onstage theatrics to new heights). However the movie as a whole does suffer from the B/W segments, which are a little long and boring at times, their inclusion not necessary as the concert footage itself would have successfully carried the movie.

Interesting to note that the original version of this movie shown at its New York premiere featured comedy sketches of the group instead of the B/W segments. Apparently that version was badly received by the audience and the movie was then re-edited.

Overall, a near-classic presentation of the classic Alice Cooper Group at the height of their career, a movie worthy of seeking out.

Excellent documentary on the original Alice Cooper BAND. Works in some amusing sidepieces, and features most of the big hits, excellently played and presented. But this was the '70's, so, in the tradition of "Myra Breckinridge" and the like, much of it has been re-edited to provide commentary by contrasting the band with old film clips. Other than the Shirley Temple footage, most of this is pretty weak, and quite distracting from the concert footage. I have heard that a version is out there that does not have all this ancillary footage, but I have never seen one. I've never seen a proper release of this, but it is found at many record shows, and all over the grey market.

--Judex.1--

This film does a bang-up job at capturing the live feel of the original Alice Cooper group's 1973 "Billion Dollar Babies" tour. In this viewer's opinion, this was Alice Cooper at his prime. Too bad this has never been produced and distributed on video or dvd....it's a great time capsule of the earliest origins of shock rock.