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It Might Get Loud (2009)

tomatometer

79

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 107
Fresh: 85 | Rotten: 22

An affectionate tribute to rock's most distinctive instrument, It Might Get Loud is insightful and musically satisfying.

71

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 7

An affectionate tribute to rock's most distinctive instrument, It Might Get Loud is insightful and musically satisfying.

audience

82

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 17,033

My Rating

Movie Info

Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim focuses his probing lens on a subject that's decidedly less urgent but no less fascinating with this look at the electric guitar featuring Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's the Edge, and the White Stripes' Jack White. Growing up, all three guitarists realized their rebellion through music: Page was attempting to subvert the sugary-sweet pop music of the 1960s, the Edge was hell-bent on making the guitar solos of the 1970s a

Dec 22, 2009

$1.2M

Sony Pictures Classics

All Critics (107) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (85) | Rotten (22) | DVD (2)

Guitar heroes, real or imaginary, will think they've died and gone to heaven.

September 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The trouble is, once you get past the historical information and chummy interviews, you have to put up with the inevitable risk of any ad-hoc jam session: It Might Get Boring.

September 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment (1)
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Davis Guggenheim's contrived documentary is a largely unrewarding essay on the mystique of the ubiquitous electric guitar...

September 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Rock fans and Guitar Heroes in the making will get a charge out of visiting where the happy accidents that put guitars into each man's hand happened. And the playing isn't bad, either. Loud. But good.

September 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

For guitar geeks, the sight of Page, Edge and White together in one room will be enough. Others, however, can't help but wish it might have gotten a little louder.

September 18, 2009 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

While that sounds like a fantasy for rock aficionados, the scenes lack dramatic tension or cinematic enlightenment. It just kind of happens, and then the all-star jam fades to black, leaving few remnants of the filmmakers' initial intentions.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Turn up the volume.

August 29, 2011 Full Review Source: East Bay Express | Comment
East Bay Express

there are some lovely moments in the film simply due to the high profile reputations of the three musicians

August 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment

Guggenheim's depictions of his subjects' artistic development will strike universal chords in anyone who finds meaning in creativity.

February 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Las Vegas CityLife | Comment

Watching this film, we are utterly gripped as we hear the stories of three rock guitar legends and then see them interacting with each other. Yet while there's never a dull moment, the film still feels a bit random.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | Comment
Shadows on the Wall

The mood's too good-spirited, and in that there are great pleasures - not least the sound-of-mind thinking of three rockers putting paid to the tired cliché of burbling rock gods trapped in their own shadows.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

The film might have benefited from a trim and a more linear approach, but mostly it fulfils its role as an illuminating homage to both the protagonists involved and, above all, the guitar as popular music's most timeless icon.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

For guitar freaks and fans of these guys, the film gives you a unique chance to hang out with some real guitar heroes.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

A bizarre follow-up to the fifth biggest cinema documentary of all time, and one that's as testing on the patience as a 10-minute guitar solo with extra tremolo.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comments (5)
Guardian [UK]

It's artfully assembled in an unflashy manner.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comment
Observer [UK]

It's never less than a compelling watch as the trio of turbo-charged troubadours swap anecdotes.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment
Sky Movies

Guggenheim's attempts to inject some drama hit a bum note while the climactic summit between the three axe gods is let down by a lack of chemistry, resulting in more of a cheerful jam than a headline act.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

Fellow players and aspiring rock gods will thrill at the scenes of the trio jamming together, but Guggenheim's film never takes an insular "muso" view and has plenty to offer the lay person.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Radio Times | Comment
Radio Times

If you're a fan of any of their bands, rock music or the electric guitar, you'll find a lot to love here.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Sun Online | Comment
Sun Online

Even for me, a rock illiterate, this is interesting.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Financial Times | Comment
Financial Times

The film gets up close and personal, proving that each is a musician first and a rock 'n' roll star afterwards.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

The film seems a bit too in thrall to U2, which means far too much time is devoted to The Edge at the expense of watching Page fire through some of his thunderous Led Zeppelin riffs.

January 8, 2010 Full Review Source: Scotsman | Comment

The personal stories are informative, interesting and nicely illustrated but the central meeting between the three men lacks both passion and personality.

January 7, 2010 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for It Might Get Loud

Alrighty! It is that time again - Documentary time. It Might Get Loud. I saw this particular documentary about year ago but just had to watch it again this weekend. Why? Well, because this one is about music. Although movies are my number one passion, (obviously) music is my second. If I am awake 16 hours a day I am

September 15, 2011
Tired of Previews
Tired of Previews

Super Reviewer

The White Stripes' Jack White, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and U2's The Edge explore the enduring appeal of the electric guitar. With White, on the one hand, bemoaning technology as a "big destroyer of emotion and truth" and The Edge, conversely, enthusing that effects units "have always pushed music

August 15, 2009
harrycaul

Super Reviewer

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