It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This series of four hourly programmes took us through the long and varied life of Francis Albert Sinatra, combining archive footage with contemporary voice-overs to give a full cradle-to-grave account of one of the twentieth century's greatest singers. I enjoyed the ride albeit with a number of major caveats.Undoubtedly the kid from Hoboken was a complex character, a loved and devoted father to his children, who was a man's man happy to lead the Rat Pack and also a serial womaniser (Sinatra's Greatest Misses, you could say), a conscientious, charitable fund-raiser who never lived down his connections to the mob, a challenger of racial segregation who told on-stage off-colour (no pun intended) jokes at the expense of his friend Sammy Davis Jr and a registered Democrat and supporter of John F Kennedy who later flipped and became friends with the later disgraced Richard Nixon and his Vice President Spiro Agnew. In and out of style and popularity, he ended up being a towering personality in the entertainment industry making some of the greatest records of his time as well as some, though not as many, terrific movies. The series takes a chronological look at the man's life and times, using as its reference point his first, of many, as it turned out, retirement concerts, filmed in 1971 when he clearly was still at the height of his powers, although the idea of interspersing the songs into the narrative to effectively tell his story lost its way somewhat. I could also have done without the endless eulogising of thankfully off-screen so-called experts making ever grander claims of him, far better to let the viewer judge by what they see than be egged on by their endless hyperbole.I would also have preferred a bit more focus on his hit and miss movie career, with no reference at all to his superb performances in, for example "The Man With The Golden Arm", the classic "The Manchurian Candidate" (which is only present in a clever-clever link to the JFK assassination), his hit musicals "Guys and Dolls", "Pal Joey" or "High Society" or even his series of superior hard-edged detective thrillers of the late 60's like "The Detective" and "Tony Rome" these latter made when his old buddy Dean Martin was half-heartedly and self-demeaningly camping it up in his Matt Helm films. In fact there's surprisingly little coverage at all of his relationships with Martin and the rest of his Rat Pack buddies at all, (Shirley MacLaine doesn't get a look-in) and you'd have thought the well-known clip of his role in bring Dean and Jerry Lewis together after years of estrangement might have been worthy of inclusion.Much is made of course of his relationships with his women, particularly Ava Gardner who gave him a taste of his own mistreating medicine and the youthful Mia Farrow who soon resisted his latter-day controlling tendencies while his poorly-treated first wife Nancy is a running presence in the story particularly through the references to his children. There's also no allusion at all to his daughter Nancy's pop success in the 60's or much time given to his last wife Barbara Marx or indeed his death, funeral and artistic legacy.I'm no Sinatra completist but I also noticed some major omissions in the songs which otherwise pepper the soundtrack, like "Three Coins In The Fountain", "All The Way", "My Kind Of Town" and his surprise mid-60's number 1's "Strangers In The Night" (which he hated) and his duet with Nancy "Something Stupid". In the end, I came to the conclusion that this man's life was too big for this show's allocated time, indeed it could have run to twice the length and been much more detailed, cohesive and interesting accordingly. Undoubtedly though, Frank Sinatra is a difficult man to pin down or categorise and I think in this series, the prey eludes his hunters. What is beyond doubt is the greatness of his singing as shown in several concert and TV clips although the funniest thing you'll ever see him in is his unintentionally hilarious team-up in powder-blue Austin Powers chiffon with the then hit group the 5th Dimension in a groovy late 60's TV clip.In conclusion then I found this a muddled, inconclusive life of Frank, very good in parts, weak in others, a bit like the man himself I suppose, but I believe in truth he deserved a better biographical tribute than this in the final summing-up.

This documentary was absolutely fabulous. Sinatra has always been my favorite, as his music is what I was raised on. I can openly admit though, that I only knew bits and pieces about his life before watching the documentary. I feel so informed after having watched hours about the man's life, and I greatly appreciate that the documentary included high points as well as low points. To know a person, you have to know all aspects of his/her personality, and I think that this documentary did a wonderful job of trying to cover so much material in only a few hours.I would definitely recommend watching this documentary if you want to learn a little bit more about Ol' Blue Eyes and the fantastic work that he accomplished in his lifetime!

I just saw this off HBO GO the other day, and thoroughly enjoyed. It goes through Sinatra's entire life and career- from his humble beginnings with immigrant parents; to his fame and fortune, and countless affairs; plus tie-ins with the mob, relationships with presidents, etc... So much is covered here, they had to do this as a two-part, over four-hour documentary. But no matter; the time just flies by. The music is great; the performances are mesmerizing, and this doc. is quite a lot of fun actually. Look for interviews with Mia Farrow (damn!-was she cute), producer Robert Evans, Frank Sinatra Jr. (who refers to his father as Sinatra in professional references), Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, the list goes on and on...

The big question about this tele-biography was whether it would be a balanced overview of Frank Sinatra and his career, or just a fawning snow job.Now in me, you have a person who has, I think, a somewhat balanced view of Sinatra. I neither love nor hate him. I have all of his Reprise studio recordings and many of his Capitol albums…the good, the bad, and the ugly. And make no mistake, for a while in the early Reprise years many of Sinatra's recordings are probably the best versions of those songs – both in terms of his vocals and the arrangements – ever recorded. His concept albums for Capitol were groundbreaking. On the other hand, during the Reprise years you have recordings such as "Everybody's Twistin'" and "Life's A Trippy Thing". And, since Frank was totally in control during the Reprise years, there was no one else to blame. I look at his performance in "The Joker's Wild" and can't think of many actors who have ever turned in a better performance. And then there were some of the later films when he just didn't seem to care much. He was a flop on early television, but his 1960s specials were "cherce". So, I can admire much of what Frank Sinatra accomplished. He made a difference in popular music. But when it comes to the kind of man he was, well...my 100th birthday gift is to not finish that sentence.Some of what is said in the program doesn't seem to match with accounts which have been presented in the past. For example, in talking about the Capitol years they indicate Sinatra was in total control. Really? Then why quit Capitol to form Reprise, which at the time he said gave him artistic freedom? Where is the story of "dropping" Peter Lawford for the Kennedy incident? Dropping Joey Bishop? Having a long-term falling out with Dean Martin? Oh, conveniently omitted. The whole mob issue is brought up, but sort of dismissed as the mob did it and the Kennedy's did it, but Sinatra and his friends did everything out of the goodness of their hearts. And, in my view, far too much credit is given to Sinatra and friends for the election of John Kennedy.I didn't have high hopes for this television broadcast when I learned that it was produced by Frank Sinatra Enterprises. Much of the story here is told by Frank himself (in old interviews) and Nancy Sinatra and Frank Jr. After all, Frank thought he was wonderful, Nancy always fawned over her father, and, while Frank Jr. is a bit more balanced, it's almost always pretty positive. Even when the criticism during the war years is brought up (for example), it's within the context of how unfair some people were being to Sinatra. So, make no mistake, this is no penetrating, balanced biography. It should have been entitled "A Love Letter To Frank Sinatra".That's not to say it doesn't have something worthwhile of your time. You'll see film here you will probably never see again. It's comprehensive, if not objective. It's almost as if Sinatra was the only singer, the only actor, the only nightclub performer. He was big, but he was not alone. There was Cole, Crosby, Como, and many more. Frankly, the program couldn't have been more positive toward Sinatra if Sinatra had written it himself.Well, happy birthday, Mr. Sinatra. Your bio reminded me of all the reasons I admired so much of your work...and some of the reasons I didn't really like you as a person. I guess that's a very special way of appreciating you -- it's not easy to dislike someone personally, but buy almost all of their albums, watch all of their television specials, and go see most of their movies. Yup, you were very a very talented man.