That was painful to watch.
(U2, not you. You're a delight to watch.)

YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Fuck U2. they're the Nickelback of post-Punk. They got lucky with Joshua Tree, had a decent run with Achtung Baby and ripping off Joy Division early in their career. Ever since 2001, the stuff they made is like seeing Chad Kroeger impersonate an Irish pub singer.

The reason why Bono is hated is because his take on philantrophy and charity is shallow and has no impact whatsoever.

yeah, Africa is Poor. But what can be done? How do we help them through money and aid? How can we give money and aid to those poor Africans without having it taken away by the dictators and the authoritarians? How do we make sure that the food we give can be send too those people in Uganda without having it taken away from the Lord's Resistance Army? How do we make sure all our aid is in the hands of the citizens and not in the hands of Charles Taylor, Muammar Gaddafi and Mengistu Haile Mariam? Well, we will never know because Bono doesn't care about those. he just wants to make a name for himself.

I work for MERCY, Amnesty International and Invisible Children and people like Bono are making us harder solve the problems in Africa because celebrities like him and Bob Geldof are ignoring the causes and reasons of African poverty in favour of just selling tickets. Hell, Bob geldof doesn't even know that the Ethiopian famine was caused by a dictator named Mengistu Haile Mariam and his army called "The Derg", and that most of the aid money from Live Aid was sent to The Derg to fund weapons. So fuck them.

Yeah... Basically what people do when they send money "to Africa" is make themselves feel better. It's an easy way to get rid of that nagging shame of living happily in a rich country when elsewhere people are suffering.

Oh and one thing is that we in the western countries tend to like to see Africa as something that needs to be saved, when we really should help them save themselves. I don't claim to have the all the answers, but I know that the change needs to come from the inside, not the outside, and that there ARE Africans fighting for the future of their countries as we speak.

And it's not that we need to save Africa so much as we need to stop screwing it up by letting corporations exploit its natural resources. Africa has plenty of riches, but they continue to get stolen from them by the big boys who control the markets.

One possible way to help would be to create production industry, or whatever you call it, in Africa, which would add to the value of the exported goods and keep more of the potential value of the product within the country of origin, where it can be used to boost the local economy instead of it flowing out of Africa to help the already rich western countries where it won't even help the economy since our situation is even more complicated and screwed up in a different manner.

It would be a long process but a very probably effective one, as we've already witnessed in the western countries (and Japan) when industrialization first began and as we're now witnessing in China and India other Asian countries. Not that it would get rid of all the problems, but it would raise the general welfare of the people and make it easier for them to compete globally as well, giving them more possibilities independently. That is, within the current global economical model.

In fact, apparently Chinese companies are already starting to move industry to Africa, interestingly enough, continuing the cycle that started when westerners started production in Asia. It might be that free market is already working its magic. (And this is coming from a socialist, ironically enough.)

... yeah, er... sorry, I kind of got over-exited here. orz I can't help it, it's one of my favourite subjects.

If U2 is the Nickelback of post-punk, I'd absolutely hate to see the Kesha of post-punk.

Who really cares if his take on charity is shallow? The way I see it is this: if the needy get help, whether it's from Mother Theresa or if it's from a complete douche, then it's still helping them. Anyone who at least watched Batman Begins knows that it's not the person, but their actions that define them.

How do you plan on distributing the money directly to the people then? I doubt the African poor people are simply going to get in a line, wait, confirm their identity, get a sum of money, and then eventually poverty in the African country will be wiped out. On that note, how the hell are people gonna know what people to trust in a country they know little about.

P.S. Obviously, you're forgetting about the War, The Unforgettable Fire, and Boy albums.

Elvis movies are bad, the music is an INFINITY times better. Glad you finally see the light on why people hate Bono so much.

P.S. The opening to the movie was so stupid in so many levels.

I think I now hate U2

Yeah, I think Achtung Baby is their best album. I never noticed the prentention apparent in the film, but then again I was eleven when I saw this movie. Funny though because I just watched an episode of South Park that was pretty much saying Bono is a douche.

"Wooooooo economic sanctions!"
You did a great job expressing both your appreciation of their music, and rejection of their pretentious preachiness. Their activism comes across as superficial self-serving attention whoring. Still, it's better to be selfishly-charitable then selfishly-materialistic.

Man was that a pretentious documentary. It was in black and white the entire time.

At first I thought the weird cuts was from the video editing. But then I realized it was the movie.

Wonderful to see a review from you up so soon, Todd. Enjoyable as always

U2 = crap.

So is there supposed to be no ending credits and end on a still of todd?

I have no idea what's causing that. Reuploading a new version and if that doesn't work I'll try again in the morning.

Yay! Always up for some U2 bashing. I have always felt they are one of the most overrated bands in rock history. Hopefully they will join the ranks of other bands in being totally forgotten in 20 years so I don' t have to hear their crap on the radio.

I registered a account for this.

Sunday Bloody Sunday isn't a reference to the IRA blowing anyone up but is rather a reference to the Derry Sunday Massacre where British troops fired on and killed 14 Irish protesters during the troubles. It remains a highly controversial issue to this day (there have been many books + movies about the event) despite the fact it happened more than thirty years ago, and is not something that should be taken in jest - although that obviously wasn't your intent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)

Thank You.

U2 is to me what Katy Perry is to you, Todd. I wish I could hate them, but they keep releasing music that I end up loving, sometimes in spite of myself, and sometimes just genuinely good music.

I honestly find it a relief every time they release a song that I hate, because then I can be like "AHA! Not this time, U2!"

But yeah this is why my policy is to refrain from paying any attention to celebrities. Life is so much easier when I can listen to a song or watch a movie without having to think about the douchey things the band or actors did.

I used to like U2, but became really sick of their attitude (probably Bono's attitude to be fair) and then I heard the old rumour that they funded the IRA.

That kinda put me off them for a while until I read up about it and most people seem pretty convinced that the band were against their actions. In fact, they were even threatened by the paramilitary group.

I don't quite know how to feel about them now. At the end of the day, I guess it has to come down to a bands music and for me some of their music is good, some is bad and some really hits you in just the right way ...

...but in the end I find myself thinking back to that South Park episode where Bono essentially has a crapping competiton with Randy... which for some reason kinda sums the guy up for me.

Weird, huh?

I can't stand U2. Don't get me wrong, I think Bono is a great humanitarian and he deserves all the humanitarian awards he gets. But, in my opinion music is not the place for political and social messages, mostly because it's called "MUSIC".

Having political messages in your music doesn't make it good, it makes it have a message yes, but that does not make the quality of the music any better. Also, in my opinion, Edge has never really had to push himself as a guitar player. Brian May he is not.

Bono's voice was never that good. I'd rather listen to frickin' Katy Perry, and believe me, I hate Katy Perry. Again, that's not a jab against who Bono is, that's a jab against his musical talent, not who the man is.

All I ask of my rock music is that it's beautiful, fun without being obnoxious, and emotionally moving without becoming pretentious or cliched bullshit.

Personally, All I Want Is You is the best original song from Rattle and Hum. Period.

"SPOILERS: U2 will not get over themselves"

classic!

Speaking as someone who's never listened to U2 before, I can now safely say that I do not like them. Besides that I just don't like how their music sounds, their attitude is REALLY insufferable.

Then you are missing out on some really great music.

It's really a matter of perspective. A few years back I never did like U2 but I thought I should at least listen to some samples of ALL the songs on their most popular albums, like Joshua Tree.

I can tell you that even after listening I still didn't like U2 at all. This is what I mean about music being such a massively subjective aspect of entertainment. I don't care for a lot of really popular stuff at all, and as a result people probably think I am insane. Example, I'll take Devo over Led Zeppelin any day of the week, I'll take Hall and Oates over Aerosmith any day of the week, and so on.

God, I fucking hate U2, but I watched your vid, because you, dear Todd, are awesome - and you didn't let me down... other than saying Achtung Baby is one of your fave albums... I may not be able to get over that...
The only talented musician out of the bunch is Edge. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why people love their music so much. Cool, put as much politics and stuff in your music as you want, but it still needs to be good music. Sadly, U2 is no Bob Dylan.

I went through an Elvis movie kick back in early high school. They were just gloriously campy. My mom and I would watch them and have lots of fun. I still remember one of my favorite quotes from one of his movies, one about nuns helping some rundown neighborhood.

"The last two women who came to work here were raped! One against her will."

I mean, it's an awful, awful line and says so many horrible things about that era but...I have to laugh.

It's my same reaction to a line from an equally campy and bubblegum movie from the same era, Gigit. Which at the end had the mother take aside her tomboy of a daughter and remind her, "A woman is only as good as the man she supports."

This is treated as a good and positive message. I love you history.

I think U2's an ok band with some really good songs. But I never realized until now just how pretentious they are.

I hate the the u2 of the last ten years also, but often do like your opninion so I had to watch. Turns out to be they always were not really likable people.

Everytime I see Bono now in the media still reminds me of that famous Southpark episode where you see bono between starving children screaming 'yeah yeh yeah'.

I pretty much wanted to hate U2 for my entire life, but I could never really say it truthfully, because of Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years day, which led me to buy WAR and then everything changed. I was shocked that its such a damn good album and I actually became somewhat of a fan, surprisingly. Drowning Man is hauntingly beautiful, but whatever they are now I don't really enjoy.

I couldn't watch the number one, as soon as I saw who it was for, I had to turn off the video. Not that I dislike *YOU* Todd, in general I love your work, but I just didn't want to feel anymore embarrassed for these guys.

Man... it's so cool to hate U2...

well... I still like 'em... well, I still like the songs of theirs I hear on the classic rock station.

So, Bono's a self-important asshole. All famous creative people (that is: people who are famous because of their talents) tend to be in some way. In fact, most people who have talent are self-important, fame or not.

And, honestly, the whole Bono thing is like 10 or 20 years ago.

Still U2 makes much better music even today than most current pop artists.

I can basically say that apartheid means the divide between black & white people in South Africa. A lot of South African words are the same as Dutch words. I'm dutch so the word apartheid really stood out for me. I'm not a U2 fan but i'll agree that they have made some classic songs along the way. There are some egotistical moments in this movie but i don't really see a problem either.

"Still U2 makes much better music even today than most current pop artists."

Name one. Britney Spears makes even better music than the last album of U2. And Spears isn't popular anymore.

I lolled for that "Britney Spears makes even better music than the last album of U2". You can't be serious with that. I just can't take you seriously after this but thanks from the laughs.

I look forward to more Top 5 reviews like this. There are so many crappy music-related movies out there, so there's a lot of potential with lists like these. Great job.

The last u2 album I quit liked was discotheque. Although other artists already had made a phase of something electronic in their music and u2 wasn't a runner up. It still was very enjoyable.

The Rattle and Hum album was one of the albums that got me into rock music and U2 is one of my all time favorite bands. But I still think this movie is ridiculous.

"If you couldn't communicate this during the actual song you need to re-write the song!"

That's a very true sentiment. If a musician wants the listener to get some message from a piece, put the message in the piece. Don't leave it out and then talk about it whenever the song's brought up.

Besides that, notice Bono's hypocrisy. He's so bothered by the IRA but he sympathizes with a black guy wanting to kill white people. So he's a self-hating Irishman.

#1
MLK isn't sacred. Jeez Todd, you'd treat him like Mohammed.

No, he's not sacred, but it's still an incredibly pretentious moment in a movie full of them.

What makes Mohammed more sacred than MLK? I'd say MLK (non-violent, by the way) has had more of an impact on me than Mohammed.

Anyhoo.

Incredible as always, Todd.

no, bono is not a "self-hating irishman" for railing against the IRA and Irish-American attitudes about something they don't understand. Incidentally the IRA are primarily funded by Irish-Americans.

I'm mostly indifferent about U2: except for one major problem - While Bono lectures the world about third world debt, U2 are tax exiles from Ireland [their money is in Holland but they live in Ireland].

And yeah Todd, 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' was about a massacre of innocent protectors by British troops. It is a major and contentious event in Northern Ireland's civil rights movement.

p.s. Before anyone makes the argument that Bono's constant wearing of sunglasses is pretentious - he actually wears them for medical reasons. He has a condition where his eyes are extremely sensitive to light.

If the "black guy who wants to kill white people" that you speak of is MLK, then 1) you need to go back to school, and 2) you really you shouldn't speak on such things until you have a basic knowledge of modern history.

"sympathizes with a black guy wanting to kill white people"

Oh my god. You are a goddamn stupid fucking moron.

Martin Luther King advocated PEACE and BROTHERHOOD among Whites and Blacks, you stupid fucking asshole.

Are you honestly confusing Martin Luther King with Malcom X??!?!?! You are. Holy fucking shit.

You have got to be the dumbest mother fucking shithead in all of existence.

Then again, i'm sure they "all look alike to you", you ignorant racist piece of shit.