All Access

The gargantuan IMAX screen and bazillion-watt sound system takes you up close to an all-star lineup of rock, soul and hip-hop stars (in the case of the corpulent face and multicolored dreadlocks of George Clinton, maybe a little closer than you’d like) in performance before an enthusiastic crowd. The film is essentially an episode of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert writ large and loud, with a bit too much talk and not enough music—director Martyn Atkins commits the cardinal concert-film sin of cutting away from the music for banal comments from the artists (let’s face it, talking is not what most of these people do best). Ironically for IMAX, one of the most effective selections is one of the simplest: Sheryl Crow perched on a barstool doing an unplugged version of “If It Makes You Happy.”