Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

RELEASED IN 2009 and written & directed by Tom DiCillo, "The Doors: When You're Strange" documents the rise and fall of The Doors from 1966-1971, narrated by Johnny Depp. From beginning to end, archival footage and photos of the band are featured focusing on the members: Ray Manzarek (keyboardist), Robby Krieger (guitarist), John Densmore (percussionist) and, especially (of course), Jim Morrison (singer/lyricist). I've only seen two documentaries on The Doors, the one featured on Oliver Stone's "The Doors" (1991) DVD, which features modern interviews with the band members & linking people (like Morrison's former babe, who loathed the movie), and this one. Both documentaries are great, but "The Doors: When You're Strange" doesn't focus on modern interviews, although some of the luminaries are asked questions in the archival footage.The documentary is just transfixing from beginning to end and features 37 songs by the iconic band. Depp is, surprisingly, an excellent narrator and not goofy at all. Even if you're familiar with the band you'll probably gain some new tidbits. For instance, the band curiously never had a bass player, although Elvis' bass player performed on their last album; as such, keyboardist Manzarek made up for it by essentially playing bass on one hand. Manzarek, by the way, passed away in May, 2013, at the age of 74. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 25 minutes. GRADE: A

When You're Strange (2009) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Johnny Depp narrates this impressive documentary that covers the rise and eventual fall of The Doors. The documentary mainly takes a look at lead singer Jim Morrison as he formed a band not knowing how to sing and would rise to the top only to die at the age of 27. This documentary originally debuted at Sundance and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't go for your typical talking heads. We don't get a single interview with anyone who was there during the time all of this stuff was happening. There aren't any current interviews with the surviving band members and we don't get to hear from any rock experts on why The Doors were so great. Instead, all we get is archive footage ranging from home movies to concerts to even a movie Morrison made himself. I'm not a die-hard fan of the group but even I've seen quite a bit of the footage here but I think director DiCillo does a terrific job at keeping everything fresh, exciting and fast moving. I thought he did a wise job not having the talking heads and instead letting the actual footage do all the talking. If you know anything about The Doors then I'm sure you know about the infamous Miami concert where it was said Morrison exposed himself. I'm sure you also know about the Ed Sullivan appearance where the band went against the hosts wishes and sang Light My Fire with all the original lyrics. I think this stuff is always interesting no matter how many times you watch it. What was more interesting was the footage that was shot by Morrison for his movie and we even gets clips of a film he made at film school. Another major plus is that Depp does a terrific job with the narration. Many times people do great jobs with their narrating jobs but at the same time you feel as if they're just reading a script and probably don't know anything about what they're saying. You feel the exact opposite here with Depp who, as a musician, tells us this stuff as if he knows what it means. The one downside is some stuff we've seen way too many times about this era and that includes all the political stuff that was going on at the time.

I saw this movie a couple of days ago in the movie theater in its original language ( I guess it is always shown in English).The movie starts with Morrison's HWY. It follows the band in a chronological way: from Jim's childhood days, the first gigs in a L.A. club to the very first album, "The Doors", full halls in the USA and world fame, to Morrison's passing in Paris. Well it does not really end with Morrison's death, but with Morrison swimming in some river and having fun. So the ending is a more positive one.The Doors: When you are strange is carried by the bands music. Almost every song is played, not full of course. Seeing this movie made me realise that the Doors are one of the best bands together with the Beatles and Queen. It was an unique combination of four young men and everyone did his part. Also the live performance of the four, especially Morrison's one made this band big. With the music and its pictures you melt in to the movie and it easy to breath the air of this time. Some historical background information is given. The Doors are band of its time, with a rebelling youth, a new culture and music and a changing country and world. Johnny Deep does a good job, it is easy to understand him even when your first language is not English. But sometimes he lacks passion and someone who was in the late 60s early 70s in his twenties might have been a better narrator. But maybe it is because of the movie a documentary one and Deep has to tell or to read what happened. Also I wished there would be more focus on the three other band members: Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore. Another not so good point is that I missed interviews with the band, friends, school mates and/or family.All in all this one is worth a watch either in cinema or on DVD. I recommend this film to all fans of the Doors and other good music, fans of the 60s/70s and fans of the youth culture.

One of the strongest memories that,I genuinely think I will never forget is seven years ago,when I was sixteen years old and absolutely having no interest in music at all.Until...One night I felt like watching a film,so I picked up a video with the words Apocalypse Now written on the top of it.When the films excellent opening shot of a Vietnam jungle getting Carpet-bombed,I heard an almost indescribable amazing voice start singing,with some jaw-dropping musicianship matching the excellent vocals.After having played the opening scene non-stop for a week!,I quietly asked my dads friend if he knew the name of the band that performed the song.When I got told that it was by a band called The Doors,I rushed out to buy their self-titled album,from the now shut-down Music Zone.Instantly,I went to the track from the film called The End,At the end of the epic 11 and a half minutes,I was completely speechless.Due to how well the whole album was able to hook me in,I played the album ever day for four whole years!!.And even now,I still have some of the stunning lyrics and beautiful music stuck in my head.The outline of the film:The film is a career over-view of the Los Angeles,California band The Doors.The film looks at the background and friendship of each band member.Whilst the band are very talented,the fame that they very quickly get,particularly for their singer Jim Morrison,is something that the group really struggle with.One of the main thing that the film shows,is how much Jim Morrison transforms as the front man of The Doors,going from the early footage showing Morrison being very shy and nervous,to the final concert footage where he is extremely depress, very angry and furious,with people only going to see the band,not to hear the music,but going to see a "Freak Show"View on the film:Over the years,it has seemed that when film makers have tried to make films or documentaries about The Doors,they have always ended up being disappointing,with,documentary makers always using the same concert footage of the band.Thankfully,director Tom Dicillo is able to erase most of those bad memories with this film.Dicillo wisely makes sure to not make the movie into Jim Morrison-The Movie.(something that Oliver Stones film sadly suffered from.)Instead,he makes sure to give a very good amount of the films running time to look at each band member,with lots of very rarely seen photos,and a huge amount of stunning newly- realised audio and video footage of the band in the studio and performing some of their most famous (and infamous) shows.Though,I do have to highlight,the shockingly pristine footage of an un-finished film that Jim Morrison made with a friend.Final view on the film:A brilliant film,with some astonishing new incites of an extraordinary band.