it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I really enjoyed reading Ozzy Osbourne's biography "I Am Ozzy" and found this movie was a great companion to that book.Due to reading his biography, I didn't encounter anything new or that I didn't already know about him. If that great book was to be made into a film, then this would be the logical one to be made.Ozzy Osbourne is a lot more intelligent than most people would realise, which firmly comes across in this movie. Many would be forgiven for thinking this is another "sex, drugs, rock n roll" music doco, but it's more a triumph over adversity tale with great soundtrack! How a bunch of long-haired hoodlums from working-class Birmingham made it big as musicians and pioneered an entire musical genre is inspirational in itself. His resultant battles with addiction and subsequent triumph over these also provide inspiration and unique insight behind the myth.The crazy rock n roll stories of Ozzy are of course here also, which both add large doses of humour and after a while, sadness and somewhat sympathy.A must-watch for Ozzy Osbourne and rock music fans!

Some of this isn't new, let's get that out of the way. Many of us know that Ozzy "John" Osbourne came out of dirt poor beginnings in a suburb of Birmingham and had little choice with his life but either work at a factory or become a rock and roll star, so he chose the latter. But as a child with dyslexia and a crippling level of insecurities, he went to drugs and alcohol - LOTS and LOTS of em (he could arguably be one of the only people to go head to head with Keith Richards as far as famous British rock Gods on substances) - and yet kept on with being a major figure in Black Sabbath and his solo years from 1980 onward. He continues, against all odds and some common sense perhaps, to tour to this day.The documentary, co-produced by Ozzy's son Jack, is flattering on some levels (if nothing else about his stature in the industry and his legions of fans), but it also is absorbing because it shows all of the darkness that he had. And, more importantly (or concurrently), the loss that he had to endure: his first wife and set of kids after a harsh divorce, the passing of his father, the still shocking passing of guitarist Randy Rhodes, and that loss translated into a sense of self-worth. The film is in praise of the man because, despite ALL that he did, including what should have been unforgivable acts against his family (one story involving his wife Sharon shocks me now more than when I first heard it in the Behind the Music special), he kept on going, trying to sober, but never quite getting there - till his kids intervened in the best and worst ways.I won't say you'll get anything mind-blowingly revelatory (then again this is a shorter cut than what is available elsewhere, i.e. Argentina has a 2 hour version), but it moves at a great pace, uses Ozzy on tour and his own mixed feelings about that as a backbone for the rest of the main story, and of course some of it by its sheer outrageousness is very funny. But some of the things in the film, mostly about the TV show the Osbournes, I was most happy were kept in the film. I like when a documentary can give a whole different perspective on things, and what seemed like a fun if sometimes odd show like the Osbournes was really a horror show when the cameras were off (or were on, as Jack says there's hours of footage of Ozzy as a full-blown alcoholic). If the show ever comes on TV again, and you watch this film, you won't be able to look at it the same way. That's something special.

God Bless Ozzy Osbourne (2011) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Very good documentary on the life and times of Ozzy Osbourne who is certainly one of a kind. The film covers Ozzy's early days growing up poor and follows him to Black Sabbath, the fame, the drugs, the partying, the solo career and of course his comeback, which itself had many highs and lows. GOD BLESS OZZY OSBOURNE is an appropriate title because if you know anything about the madman then it's really amazing that he survived the 70s. The documentary uses behind the scenes footage mixed in with both past and present interviews as well as news footage. All of this is perfectly mixed together and in the end you really get a great idea of who Ozzy is and why he did some of the crazy stuff that he did. The majority of the running time deals with the craziness, which of course means a lot of wild pranks, drugs and alcohol. There's no question that all of these stories are used for entertainment because as sad as it might be to see a father neglect his children, the crazy lifestyle Ozzy was leading just puts a smile on your face because he survived it all. Had Ozzy died then it's doubtful these same stories would have been as amusing as they are today. We get interviews with his family, friends and fellow musicians who all tell their stories of what Ozzy means to them. At just 91-minutes the documentary goes through pretty much every stone leading up to the musicians current state.

A heavy metal fan I'm not, the only Ozzy song I know is Sabbath's "Paranoid" and I didn't see a single episode of "The Osbournes" and yet somehow you feel you know this massive personality very well. Broken into two lots pre- and post- his days with Black Sabbath, this bio-documentary covers a lot of ground and does so entertainingly. Even though it's co-produced by his son Jack, it pulls no punches in its true telling of Osbourne's long journey of near self-destruction before he at long last kicked his various habits in his 60's.Yes, he seems somewhat shambling, even ridiculous at times as he warms up his voice before a gig, but elsewhere, as you'd expect, the man himself is brutally honest in his self-assessment, as indeed are almost all his coterie of family and friends. Of course much of the early scene-setting material comprises celebrity endorsements from members of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Metallica and even Sir Paul McCartney, before the story goes back to his post -war Birmingam roots and takes us chronologically through his larger-than-life and times. As you can probably tell there isn't much originality in the techniques used to bring Ozzy's story to life, even the act of taking him back to his childhood haunts, which recalls nothing so much as the well-known re-election Party Political Broadcast by the then Tory Prime Minister, John Major. Yes some of the over-the-top segments seem apocryphal, even by Osbourne standards and sure, the relentless loud HM music blasted way over my head much of the time. All his well-documented vices, particularly drink and drugs, are aired without much shame or regret and yet you do believe he's turned the corner himself.Looking at him today, rather like the other best-known "dead man walking" Keith Richards, you wonder just how he is, to paraphrase Elton John, still standing, but, sanctimonious title apart, this was an intriguing and watchable insight into the life of an old warrior who may just have found peace in his own time, in the nick of time.