Product Details

• Actors: Bono, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, U2
• Directors: David Mallet
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: November 17, 1998
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305166005
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #280,570 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This stunning concert documentary sheds fresh light on U2's controversial 1997 Popmart tour, the Irish rockers' gaudy, epic trek in support of their electronica-edged Pop album. Mixed reactions to the pulsing, dance friendly music on Pop and disappointing ticket sales to stateside Popmart shows were interpreted as evidence that the band's new sound and look were merely opportunistic.

Yet one need only view Popmart Live alongside the Rolling Stones' contemporaneous Bridges to Babylon 1998 long-form video to grasp U2's underlying passion and conviction. While Popmart trumps the Stones (ringmasters of the original rock & roll circus and among the principal inventors of stadium rock) in terms of sheer scale, U2's presentation still strikes thematic sparks missing from the Stones' more conservative designs for the Bridges stage.

With its vast, ramped stage and enveloping video backdrop, the Popmart set serves the band's posttechno impulses, yet the music remains rooted in U2's passionate, high-flying rock style, using its skittering dance rhythms and garish pop-art motifs to support the band's underlying themes, not replace them. Filmed in Mexico City before a huge reverent crowd, the concert balances close-ups against the quartet's often mesmerizing staging effects; the camera work sustains a sense of the show's outsized physical setting, while expertly closing the distance between us and the band.

The band also shrewdly integrates older songs into the pumped up, burnished arranging style heard on Pop while stripping down newer material in less varnished, more vulnerable settings. A series of duets with just Bono and the Edge on acoustic guitars underscores that strategy. --Sam Sutherland

From the Director

Disc 1 1 Pop Muzik 2 Mofo 3 I Will Follow 4 Gone 5 Even Better Than The Real Thing 6 Last Night On Earth 7 Until The End Of The World 8 New Year's Day 9 Pride (In The Name Of Love) 10 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 11 All I Want Is You 12 Desire 13 Staring At The Sun 14 Sunday Bloody Sunday 15 Bullet The Blue Sky 16 Please 17 Where The Streets Have No Name 18 Lemon 19 Discotheque 20 If You Wear That Velvet Dress 21 With Or Without You 22 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me 23 Mysterious Ways 24 One 25 Wake Up Dead Man

Disc 2 1 Please 2 Where The Streets Have No Name 3 Discotheque 4 If You Wear That Velvet Dress 5 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me 6 Mysterious Ways

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have for U2 Fans, September 1, 2007

By 

Anthony Ian "anthony_ian" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: U2: PopMart Live from Mexico City (Limited Edition) (DVD)

There are so many reasons to recommend this--I can't believe it's finally on DVD!

The Pop Mart tour and album were incorrectly derided by some critics--and even the band apparently--as a failed experiment. Wrong. That album was some of their coolest music ever, and the tour, while it started rough, by the time of this show is just monster (no pun intended). This BTW was the largest video screen every constructed; after the tour it was sold off in pieces to sports stadiums and the like.

Granted, it you don't like the "ironic" U2 and songs like "Discotheque" you'll probably hate the "lemon" part which is totally Spinal Tap (although that was sort of the point). Too bad, because right after that song they do THE definitive version of "If You Wear That Velvet Dress," which far surpasses the recorded version.

The show opens with a seamless segue from "Pop Music" on the P.A. into "Mofo." "Mofo" was an interesting, if not fully realized, track from the album but here it absolutely kills in a different arrangement. Just like "Elevation" live blows away the recorded version, so it goes with "Mofo."

There's also a slightly altered version of "I Will Follow" (different guitar patch, Larry alters the drum pattern) and a great version of "Last Night on Earth." One of the better versions of "New Year's Day" appears on this disc. Interesting thing to note: all the people at the show cheer all the new tunes and apparently know the words (even to tunes like "Already Gone"). Americans tend to applaud only the singles and the well-known hits.

The sound's great, the band's tight, the crowd is absolutely bonkers. For videos I rank it up there with Live from Sydney (Zoo TV) as their best.

Sure by this point, after Zoo TV, U2 fans had pretty much had enough of the "irony" phase and thankfully they moved on. But it's a kick to see that huge video screen and the whole spectacle.

The "limited edition" of this DVD includes a second disc which includes videos, tour documentaries and addtional tracks, although the tracks on this seem taken from raw video feeds while taping the shows--not bad, but not as polished as the final versions on the concert proper.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best concert I've ever been!, September 5, 2000

By 

Antonio Jiménez Rahal (Mexico City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: U2 - Popmart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Is very nice to have a video when you know you are one of the thousands of heads (or lighters) there, and live again the intensity of a fantastic band like U2; not to mention the great scenery and videos on the TV-Wall (I love the Lichtenstein secuence on "Bullet the blue sky"). Still is quite fun to hear Bono describing Mexico City in Spanish: "Muchos Huevos, Grandes Corazones, Mucho Tráfico" (Big balls, Great hearts, a lot of traffic), and trying to sing "La Bamba" at the end of the acoustic version of "Desire"; also singing "Arriba...México Now!" in a new arrangement at the end of "Where the streets have no name", etc. First I bought it 'cause I was there, now I appreciate it 'cause the quality of the video itself; it have great camera movements, framing and direction so you can enjoy a spectacular concert in a spectacular city of one of the best bands of the world. The only thing you will miss in this video is the fact that the night was really cold.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars U2's best concert video!, October 19, 2000

By 

George Combs II (Trenton, Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: U2 - Popmart [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"POPMart Live From Mexico City" is a great video that avoids the mistakes of their previous concert video efforts.

Their first video, "Live At Red Rocks Under A Blood Red Sky" (1983) featured a very young U2 banging out the best of their first three albums, "Boy," "October" and "War." The video and sound quality is nowhere near spectacular, but you cannot fault the band for it as the video was shot on a very stingy budget, and in a sometimes driving rainstorm. However, their youthful energy more than makes up for the technical shortcomings.

1988's "Rattle And Hum" was a theatrically-released concert film. U2 was more confident on stage and in front of the camera, and it showed. My main qualm about "Rattle And Hum" is that it's a bit too somber and melodramatic at times, especially the concert footage. But, like "Live Under A Blood Red Sky," the energy of the band makes up for it. Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. matured greatly as musicians and entertainers between 1983 and 1988, and it's readily appearent in the film.

"Zoo TV" was a tad too theatrical, although the band never sounded better. It seems U2 was trying to make an artistic statement with the stage. Once again, the music drove the show, but the emphasis on technology detracted from it.

"POPMart Live From Mexico City" is nearly perfect! The stage, featuring a mammoth video screen and a giant arch added a lot without being in the way. With the exception of moments during "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," Bono avoids his alter egos (The Fly, MacPhisto) of years past and is just Bono. One definite high point of the video is the Bono/Edge acoustic set. Bono forgetting a verse to "Desire" and breaking into "La Bamba" was funny. Edge get an all-too rare turn, singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday" before breaking ionto the best live version of "Bullet The Blue Sky" I've ever heard. Another great moment was their performance of "Pride."

SIMPLY AWESOME. A "must buy!"