Product Details

• Actors: Tim Armstrong, Dicky Barrett, Clem Burke, Nicolas Cage, Danny Fields
• Directors: Mandy Stein
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: November 4, 2008
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001DHXSXU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,431 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Too Tough To Die (Starz Inside)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

TOO TOUGH TO DIE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Legend, January 24, 2009

By 

Rogue (TN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Tough To Die (Starz Inside) (DVD)

Johnny is a legend and he won't let ya forget it even in death. This DVD has the extra added bonus of *not* having famous hanger-on Legs McNeil in it. And as for the last heartbreaking 15 minutes, heck, I cried. Gabba.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "4,5,6,7 All good cretins go to Heaven.", September 29, 2010

By 

trashcanman (Hanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Too Tough To Die (Starz Inside) (DVD)

Too Tough to Die began as a concert put together by legendary guitarist Johhny Ramone and his many friends in the music industry to pay tribute on the 30th anniversary of the original punk rock band The Ramones and raise funding for cancer research. The Ramones are not only among the most influential and beloved rock bands of all time, but are almost certainly the most famous band in history to never have a single legitimate smash hit. Countless bands imitated their way to massive success, but the originators of the punk rock art form kept paying their dues until the very end. But real music fans and the armies of musicians who first picked up an instrument and started a band immediately after hearing The Ramones know where it's at. With singer Joey Ramone having passed on in 2001 and original bassist/songwriter Dee Dee following the year after, Johhny and friends decided to commemorate the anniversary to pay tribute to the fallen heroes by planning a show to bring together many of the artists whose lives were changed forever upon discovering The Ramones. What wasn't planned was that by the time the concert came to pass, Johnny would be on his deathbed and unable to attend.

Too Tough to Die is a documentary consisting of interviews, classic Ramones clips, performances from the all-star concert, and even footage from Johnny's funeral. The festivities of the concert are exhilarating and the extremely heartfelt tributes to Johnny Ramone's legacy were beyond moving to a fan like myself. I was holding back tears at times. There are certainly better and more complete Ramones documentaries out there, but there has arguably never been a better tribute. The centerpiece of the film are the performances. The Red Hot Chili Peppers put on an energetic but uninspired performance of some middling Ramones songs to kick it off, which had me worrying that this was going to be as awful as the tribute album Johnny and Rob Zombie put together,"We're a Happy Family". Thankfully, The Chilis would prove to be the low point.

In between songs and occasional during performances the film offers up interview segments where various musicians, ex-bandmates, friends, and family discuss the massive influence of the band and swap stories and anecdotes. It's very well done, but I do was angered a few times when a particularly killer performance was shoved aside. I also wonder about some of the bands choices for covers. Hell, X didn't even play any Ramones songs, they just played their own stuff. Come on now! These songs aren't exactly hard to learn. On the other hand, I was extremely pleased to see underrated punk goofballs The Dickies involved. It's cool that Johnny let a lesser known band take part in an event that they were literally turning big bands away from. But the real highlights were the all-star jams. Ex-Ramones Marky (drums) and CJ (bass) took the stage with producer/songwriter Daniel Rey on guitar and were joined throughout the set by a parade of amazing artists. I can't say I ever expected to see Eddie Vedder of Pearl jam share a microphone with Tim Armstrong from Rancid with Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz busting a guitar solo. That's just great stuff. Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) and ex-Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins teaming up for a few tunes was damn awesome as well. But my favorite surprise was former Mighty Mighty Bosstones Dicky Barret and Lawrence Katz performing "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg", which is my favorite Ramones song ever. That performance was just tailor-made for me. Too bad they talked over it. Grrrr.

At one point during the show, Zombie calls Johhny Ramone from the stage so that he can hear the crowd engage in the legendary Ramones chant "Hey! Ho! Let's go!". It's a moment that those who were with Ramone at the time say brought him a huge amount of joy and relief to hear so many people still excited about the bandhe started so long ago. Two days later, he would be dead. Hearing the testimonials of his friends and family was extremely touching. Johhny Ramone was known to be a very prickly character and his strained relationship with Joey is the stuff of rock and roll tragedy, but by all accounts he was a fantastic man to have as a friend. Seeing the eulogies at his funeral from guys like Vedder and Nicolas Cage was great and it was actually painful for me to see the always-cheerful CJ break down, unable to even speak through the anguish over the loss of his ex-bandmate. Powerful stuff by any standard.

The Ramones' legacy is one that hundreds of more successful bands would kill to ever have a chance of attaining. They are a unique musical phenomenon unto themselves and probably only The Beatles have influenced as many successful bands. The bizarreness of the band of four is exceeded only by their sheer force of will. None of them could even really play or sing, yet somehow they became one of the most influential bands of all time over a decades-spanning career. Friends and family say that Johnny literally willed himself to stay alive until the concert was through and Joey refused a feeding tube on his deathbed because he didn't want to ruin his voice. These are REAL musicians who never let anything short of death stop them. They may have passed away, but the reality is that the music will always be there.

Too tough to die.

Ever.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good piece for the Ramones collection., February 24, 2009

By 

Eric Wagner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Tough To Die (Starz Inside) (DVD)

I am not a professional writer or critic but Ill just state the facts of my opinions on this video . First ,If you are well informed about the Ramones already there really isn't any information you would not know anyways . If you have seen the other documentaries , interviews and perhaps read the books it is just more of the same info .If you are unfamiliar with the Ramones than This video does relay the basic story of the Ramones. The performances were descent except the audio in some performances could have been much better.Soundchecks for the audio recording were probably rushed the night of the concert due to the fast pace stage changes. The highlight of the DVD is seeing Marky and CJ on stage together performing some Ramones classics for the first time in more than 8 years .I think the ceramony for the Johnny Ramone statue was edited too much for the video or wasnt thurough but maybe for the better if there was a lot of down time that day .I rate this one a 3 out of 5 . At least there was footage recorded of these 2 events and if you are a Ramones collector than buy it .