KISS: eXposed (1987) (V)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Claude Borenzweig

Writers:

Claude Borenzweig (writer)
Len Epand (writer)
(more)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

A mix of mock documentary footage, interviews, comedy sketches, videos and live clips from the then 14 year history of Kiss. |

Cast

Paul Stanley	...	Himself / The Starchild
Gene Simmons	...	Himself / The Demon
Bruce Kulick	...	Himself
Eric Carr	...	Himself
Peter Criss	...	Himself / The Catman (archive footage)
Ace Frehley	...	Himself (archive footage)
Vinnie Vincent	...	Himself / The Pharaoh (archive footage)
Mark St. John	...	Himself (archive footage)
Kymberly Herrin	...	Bikini babe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mark Blankfield	...	Interviewer
Blondi	...	Envelope Licker
Candie Evans

Directed by
Claude Borenzweig

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Claude Borenzweig		writer
Len Epand		writer
David Greenberg		writer
Gene Simmons		writer
Paul Stanley		writer

Produced by
Len R. Epand	....	executive producer

Runtime:

90 min

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating)

Good clips but dull otherwise

KISS is a legendary band, and when "Exposed" first came out they were trying to gain a foothold in the 80's, already having a few platinum albums in that decade but still trying to get back to something close to their 70's concert attendance. And since the 80's hard rock/metal bands always showcased how many girls were around, there are a lot of girls in this, although they really don't do anything except walk around trying to look good for Gene and Paul.

You hardly see any of the other KISS members in this video, despite the fact that drummer Eric Carr (with a few seconds of screen time) was in the band almost 8 years already when this came out. But it generally accepted by fans that Gene and Paul "are" KISS, so they do all the talking, as usual. It's no coincidence that on the back of the video box, there's a picture of replacement members Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick, with a monkey. Yep, that's Gene and Paul for you! I think they were sending their hired hands a message.

It's a pretty dull show around the "KISS mansion," as Gene and Paul tell stories, give recollections (and exaggerations), and tell a LOT of really bad jokes. The script is very bad, actually this was written by both Gene and Paul, who no doubt write much better songs than they do comedy. The comedy is mostly based around really bad sexual humor, and basically it's downright embarrassing to watch. (Example, give or take a word or two: Interviewer to Paul Stanley: "Do you eat meat?" Paul, touching a girl's chin: "Only if it's fresh.") Oh man.

However dull the interview sequences are, it is good that Gene and Paul don't try too hard to be "rock and roll" to impress everyone and do stupid things like break stuff, use drugs or alcohol (both denounce such things, with is a good thing) and other similar things. So in that respect, the fact that they are actually quite dull off-stage isn't a bad thing at all. It doesn't make for thrilling TV, but it's better than seeing more rock stars act like morons, tripping over beer bottles, talking about how they "almost died from heroin" and such.

The one true plus on this release is that there are a lot of really great promo videos and live clips (from make-up days) of the band, but even this doesn't help much because KISS fans are such rabid collectors of the band's material, just about every big fan already had most if not all of the clips included on this release in heir bootleg VHS collections. However, for for a non-fan checking out KISS, the clips are no doubt a great thing to see included.

KISS definitely knows that their fans rabidly collect this stuff - so why they don't include a few clips of footage that is truly rare, something that they know every KISS fan doesn't already have in their boot collections, is a mystery.

So really it's best to just FF through all the talking and just watch the clips. Someome must have known this, because on the KISS Exposed DVD, there is an easter-egg where you can just make the DVD play the music clips. (I don't have this yet.)

That's really the best way to watch this. One interesting bit of trivia: on a bootleg tape of girls trying out to appear in this video, one of the girls is 80's porn star legend Tajia Rae.