Customer Reviews

Iron Maiden: Flight 666

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Maiden at the LA Forum in February '08, their first US stop on this tour and also the setting for the Number of the Beast live footage. I also saw them on the summer '08 US tour, in Phoenix. Although my copy of Flight 666 is in the mail right now, I, too, saw it on VH1 Classic over the weekend, and can say that it captures the intensity and sound of the live performances (as much as can be, that is), and all the backstage and tour footage and interviews add to the experience. If you're interested in an amazing band of professional, mature musicians, and how they've stuck to their guns for over 30 years, 14 studio albums, and numerous tours, buy this.

It's no wonder that they can still blow away bands less than half their age: they're obviously clear on what's most important, which is writing music about which they are passionate, and delivering it to fans as best they can; there's no puking, bloated old rock star behavior here. I thought it was funny to see Lars Ulrich, who is younger than these guys, chattering backstage at the LA show, looking like a tired old drunk...add to that Kerry King of Slayer, also at that show, who looks like he swallowed the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man...and contrast them both with Dave Murray and Nicko McBrain playing golf, or Adrian Smith fishing, while on tour -- and still bringing the house down every night. All of these points come through clearly in the documentary, through footage of the band on and off stage, and interviews with them and their road crew. Another outstanding documentary by Sam Dunn.

I am in no way associated with Iron Maiden, DVD retailers, or any of the like. I am a lifelong Iron Maiden fan going back to 1982, and I wanted to share my take on the new DVD release.

= "Flight 666: The Film," came out today, June 9th, and it is worth every penny of its purchase price. For anyone who saw Iron Maiden on The Somewhere Back in Time Tour, or has seen Maiden at any time in the past, I don't have to tell you how good of a show they put on, we all know, already. I wanted to just add my two cents about this DVD release, for anyone who was thinking about buying it, because not only is it an official Maiden release, it is also one hell of a bargain for what you get.
= Whether you get the "standard" issue, or the "deluxe" issue (only difference is the packaging, and you get an expanded booklet in the deluxe version) you get two discs. Disc 1 is "Flight 666 The Movie," and Disc 2 is the concert footage from the film in its entirety, city to city.
= All footage from both discs is shot in high def, so everything looks great, I can't imagine what this looks like on the BLU-RAY format, must be mindblowing. The sound mix is excellent, and each disc caters to various sound systems no matter how simple or how high end they are. Sound formats include Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, NTSC-PCM, and DTS. Personally I always like DTS, so I was pretty excited.
= As far as being a good bargain..... It is. I purchased this at Best Buy. They only had the "deluxe" edition which was listed at $16.99, but it's on sale for $11.99 !!!! It's less expensive than most audio cd's.
= As far as the content is concerned, well that is left up to the viewer. I thought the movie itself was pretty entertaining, a good mix of live footage, and documentary footage. The live concert disc is excellent because they go song to song, city to city, and you get to check out different Maiden fans, and venues from all over the world.
= As usual Iron Maiden delivers the goods with a class and integrity that most bands have never had, or lost a long time ago (ie. see Lars Ulrich in movie footage). Overall this is a quality DVD release, at a very fair price. It seems like Iron Maiden is always a step ahead of the game.

I have to say this band really knows how to put out quality DVDs for us fans. 'The Early Years' and 'Live After Death/The Early Years Pt. 2' are one of the best DVDs by a rock band ever released - even Kiss(another huge favorite of mine). Both DVDs have a ton of concert and documentary footage on 2 discs each as well as pictures, easter eggs, rare footage, etc. It's virtually impossible for any Maiden fan to be dissapointed. Although I would have to say getting through all the english accents is a challenge to my American ears. Thank God for closed-caption.

Now comes Flight 666. It is very high quality just like their previous DVDs. The thing that struck me the most after watching it was how much fun they have on tour and how much they love what they are doing and thats a fun thing to watch. Nicko McBrain is funny and good natured(as I'm sure Maiden fans already know) and is never seen in a bad mood or even a little tired anywhere on this documentary. The crew seem to enjoy what they do and flash hand signals and sign language to each other from across the stage in accordance to the lyrics of whatever song Bruce is singing while on stage. Its fun to see the band ham it up while on the plane going to a show('so much for sleeping' manager Rod Smallwood says), seeing the extreme hysteria of fans in every country(think BEATLEMANIA x10 is the best way I can describe it. Even the band is a little freaked at times and laughing over it). One fan is shown in tears and crossing his chest and looking to the sky thanking God that he is at a Maiden show and holding one of Nicko's drumsticks(it's a fairly long moment so we the viewer can realise his reaction) or signing hundreds and hundreds of photos while on the plane(and pushing each picture off the seat tray and seeing hundreds of the pictures in one big messy pile on the floor and Steve's son George collecting them or talking to Steve Harris' 4 kids or seeing what the band do on their days off(Nicko & Dave play golf, Adrian comically gets smacked in the forehead and gets his hat knocked off by a pro-tennis players fast serve causing the camera man to say 'thats in the movie!', etc). The concert segments are really good. Again, the band look like they are having the best time of their lives - not an easy thing to do I would think after nearly 30 years. I was surprised they didn't do 'Flight of Icarus' or 'Where Eagles Dare', 2 standout songs from the era of songs they are performing.

The packaging is great. Its the size of regular DVD case except that it is more like a hardback book with pages of a diary Bruce did for a rock magazine as well as pictures. The very back of the book-like package has the 2 DVDs one halfway over the other to save room but very safe from scratching.

Great band. Great DVD. If you like their past DVDs then this one is a no brainer. They are really good to their fans when it comes to home videos/dvds. BUY IT.

I recommend this movie even to people who don't like heavy metal. This is a film about six guys doing what they love, living outside the stereotypical debauched rockstar existence, and making millions of people quite happy with their rather gentle (for heavy metal) music.

Whether you like heavy metal, or even rock music, it's part of life. It's how teenagers learn about the world, among other things, since their parents are busy working and our cultural centers like churches and traditions are on the wane. If you had to pick a heavy metal band to respect, Iron Maiden is it, and this documentary tells us with gradual anecdotes why this is true.

Flying around the world in their own plane, piloted by their vocalist, the band attempt a mega-tour of 36 dates around the world, delighting audiences in Latin America, North America, Asia and Europe. Dunn and McFayden start their portrait of this band by showing us the typical rock star stuff: the thronging crowds, the complexity of setting up the stage, the giant amplifiers and security.

Having introduced us to the ostensible, they go deeper, into the personalities of the band and what they are as people. The answer is that they're fairly mild-mannered musicians who are thoroughly enjoying making music, touring the world, playing golf and scuba diving, and in some cases, bringing their families along. They don't seem to care at all about upholding the rock star image that negative propaganda like "Dethklok" hopes to make us see everywhere heavy metal is mentioned.

The point of this movie is that success isn't just about being money or being popular. It's about putting together songs people like with an image people find inspiring, and the origin of this mentality is in well-adjusted very normal people who simply love what they do and want to keep doing it. Whether the subject is lawyers, technical divers or rock stars, this subject brings calm to the mind as we all like hearing about success stories that involve the soul as well as the credit card.

In addition to this insight into the character of one of heavy metal's longest-running and most wide-selling bands, "Flight 666" offers us expertly-edited live shots of the band that include most of a dozen of their most emblematic and enduring songs. It's not quite a concert video, but there's a concert video hidden within it, in addition to scenes of the band recording, playing for personal enjoyment, and talking about music.

Not only would I let my kids see this, but I'd encourage them to see it -- this is a wholesome portrait of people who got to the top of the world by doing what they loved, doing it well, and not getting sidetracked into the politics of image. It's a great life-affirming documentary as a result.

I picked this up for $11 at Best Buy and burned through it all in one sitting...the documentary is very cool and what I really love about these guys is that instead of frustrating us (see Black Sabbath reunion DVD) they include the uninterrupted concert on bonus DVD ...truly value and consideration shown for fans! This is also a very good show and I felt the cutting of the concert was better than the recent batch of ADD edited shows...but that was my first impression and biased due to excitement over seeing a new show....I may change my mind with more comparison. Anybody who has agonized over the frenetically cut recent shows knows what I mean.
Nice book with the DVDs...just a darned classy package and good value by a group who kicks butt on stage and takes good care of their fans!

If you buy this and play it once it would be worth the money.

The performances are outstanding. Bruce in fine voice, the playing excellent, the sound really not stadium affected, the band is VERY tight, the crowd shots and involvement just amazing. A way to attend a Maiden concert without having to mingle. I have most of their concert videos and this one is WAY better than the others. I will play it over and over (my favorite Maiden stuff really well done and filmed.)

I thought the documentary stuff was pretty much standard rockumentary stuff. (the part where members say only nice things about members of the family, the part about how hard the crew works, the drummer who is a good hearted goof,etc...) Suspect Maiden is another one of those bands where the members have grown into adults and don't want their family to be part of the circus that comes with fame. It was worth watching once but I can't imagine wanting to see it again.

Just watched a VH-1 broadcast of this last night. WOW!!!!! One of the best music docs EVER! If you are a Maiden fan at all, BUY THIS. If you haven't listened to an album in 20 years, BUY THIS. The quality of the performances is better than ever. The tour is incredible. The ED Force One flown by Bruce?!?!?!!?!? Stellar! The crowds at these shows are like the most insane of all time. You will get incredibly pumped watching this crystal clean looking and sounding MASTERPIECE!!!! LOVE IT!! Buying it now, you should too.

I had the opportunity to see the IRON MAIDEN'S movie in cinema, and I don't hesitate a second to pre order it on Amazon!!

The quality of the documentary is amazing and I like it because it does print the personality of each member of the band and their manager!

Just one more thing: in the booklet which reads Dickinson's notes on the tour, said he enjoyed the Chilean pisco. I'm glad IRON MAIDEN came to Peru in 2009 and I hope that Dickinson might have taken a PISCO SOUR and check THAT ONLY ORIGINAL PISCO IS FROM PERU!!!!!!!!

Flight 666 The Film follows the band during their Somewhere Back In Time tour in the 23 concerts the band were plaing. Being a huge fan of Iron Maiden, when Flight 666 came out this June along with soundtrack of the film(the live songs on disc 2)I had to buy it. This film was said to be showing the band's life on tour and everyone who knows the band know that they are private to a certain point about their lives. Here they are showing the fans what it's like to be in the band or working for the band. And I haven't been disappointed, I've been surprised on how complete it was as it goes into details and there are interesting stories from the countries they played during the tour.You have to understand first that Iron Maiden is not your average band. No other band has a lead singer who also pilots the band's own private plane during a tour across five continents. They are also respected everywhere they go and they have influenced many bands of today.

You have to admire them for staying down to earth people even with their success and for the fact that they have many great songs and albums. They are entertaining onstage and fans will find out just like I did that they are as much offstage. Capturing the intensity of band on tour is not an easy task but Sam Dunn's team (for those who don't know him, he made the Metal - A Headbanger's Journey and Global Metal documentaries which I would recommend watching if you are a fan of rock n' roll music or heavy metal or whatever YOU want to call it) just did that, I'm glad they were the ones who did this documentary as someone else might have screwed up. Oh and this is not about Dunn it's about the band.

The purpose of the Somewhere Back In Time tour was to offer their increasingly younger fan base those classics song they might not have seen the band perform before. This means for the band going back to the classics, for this tour they performed songs like "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner"(Bruce Dickinson said it was his favorite song to perform during the tour) and "Can I Play With Madness". They always played their old stuff but this goes further into the songs they didn't play, of course the tour still featured songs they always play like "Number Of The Beast" and "Fear of The Dark". The stage set was even reminiscent of the one used during the Powerslave tour mixed with a little of Somewhere In Time, it looks very good. The live footage shown in this film will likely blow you away, the band sounds amazing.

It also shows people talking about Iron Maiden and their stories are interesting to hear. For instance the Priest who has many tattoos of the band and claims to be their biggest fan. Or someone saying just how much an Iron Maiden concert means to them, for how long they've been waiting etc. It may sound boring here but it certainly isn't. You see the road crew, how they build the stage, the fans nearly making a riot at a hotel where the band stays. It seems everyone was having fun during this tour, everyone smiles and tells jokes, fools around or something, you see that the band enjoy each others company and they still like selling out their concerts all over the world.

Iron Maiden has always been exciting to watch and this DVD is another reason why. You also get another disc of the 17 live songs used on the Flight 666 soundtrack; the songs have been picked from different cities so each song is different from another and makes a show altogether. The film shows a good part of this disc already but if you only want to watch the live part it's nice to have. I have it and I've watched it already a good dozen times and each time I find it as good as before. Live After Death is the best Maiden concert DVD but Flight 666 is a great look at the band and is just as good. If you're a fan this a must never before has Maiden been shown this way, it's hard to believe just how good it is. It's hard to describe but if you are a fan of the band you just have to see this.There two versions the special edition has a better booklet, I own the standard edition as it was what was available to me.

As huge Iron Maiden fan growing up, I have lossed interest in Maiden when Adrian Smith left the band. Ever since the reunion they still haven't quite won me over till this DVD came out.
Into the first minute of the movie I got chills like listening to Piece of Mind for the first time. The two disc set is very well put together. The director did an amazing job with all of it. The concert DVD is top notch and the sound quality is better than anything that they have put since the reunion. If they could record a new CD this sound quality with heavy guitar sound and let Bruce write all of the lyrics (via his solo stuff), Maiden would have a hugely successful album.