They could have cut this section and lost absolutely nothing. They even have some producer made a remixed version of their TV theme homage. It was incredibly confusing and unnecessary. As far I can tell, it wasn't on either of the IBB albums. Why? This song has no relevance to anything that has been talked about in the movie. However, they choose to spend several minutes showing these guys playing their version of the Hawaii Five-O theme song. However, I think this would have still gotten a pass from me if they had played Apache or even Bongo Rock for old times sake. It's one thing to reminisce about the recording sessions of old, but that doesn't mean I want to see a bunch of old guys hang out in the studio.
There's also an incredibly confusing scene near the end of movie where some of the musicians reunite and play together in the studio. I feel spending so much time talking about him was a mistake and the focus should have been more on the musicians. He comes across as a sleazy industry guy who blatantly lied to market his record and who's only redeeming quality is that he inexplicably knows a lot of famous people (including Gene Simmons who for some reason was chosen to narrate the film). His story is terribly uninteresting and apart from knowing which musicians to hire, the film seems to show that he had little impact on the record. Frankly I feel like less time should have been spent talking about the producer of the album Michael Viner. I found the interviews with Grandmaster Caz and Questlove to be the best part of the film, and I enjoyed seeing the different backgrounds of the studio musicians involved in the making of the album.
Despite not being entirely what I expected, there was still some very interesting material in the film. If you know this before viewing, you may have a better experience than I did. This is definitely a movie about the people behind and the making to the The Incredible Bongo Band album with only about 25-35% of the film spent interviewing early hip hop pioneers. I'll have to preface this review by saying that when I chose to watch this documentary, I thought it would focus more on early hip hop and less on The Incredible Bongo Band.
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