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I think the clue to why this seemed like such a mess to me may be in the first few minutes of the movie, when the cameras capture Scorsese trying to prepare for the show and not getting a whole lot of cooperation from the Stones.

They won't give him the set list until just before they go on, so he can't properly prepare. He wants to use certain lighting and effects but is told there's a chance that, the way it's staged, he might end up lighting Mick Jagger on fire. The band is more used to huge stadiums than more intimate theaters like The Beacon and there are arguments over the staging.

It is interesting to see the inherent clash between Scorese's famous precision and the relative chaos of the Stones. That's not to say the Stones aren't precise in their own way -- Mick draws up pages of carefully considered set lists to choose from, but doesn't narrow it down and lock it in until hours before the show and Scorsese seems to get the list just moments before the band goes onstage. But as interesting as this sort of back-stage backstory is, it drags on a bit. This is especially true when Bill and Hillary Clinton show up (the shows were filmed as part of a Clinton Foundation fund raiser) and the band spend what seems like an eternity meeting and greeting people, shaking hands and kissing cheeks, only to be told that that was only the FIRST meet and greet and there's more to come. Keith Richards expresses what could be the audience's sentiment at the end of this ordeal by turning to the camera and punning: "Hey, Clinton -- I'm bushed..." and cackling at his own little joke.

President Clinton gives a brief, awkward little opening for The Stones (he's taken off his tie, so you know he's ready to rock). While recalling that the band played an environmental benefit he was at in 2001 he somehow says with a straight face (he is Bill Clinton, isn't he?) that the Stones "know as much about" global climate change as anyone. It conjures images of Ronnie Wood and Keith passing a joint back and forth while watching "An Inconvenient Truth" on a giant flat screen in the back of a limo, Charlie Watts taking notes for Mick because he's busy knocking up Brazilian teenage supermodels on a "fact finding mission."

But all of this is side-business. I think the film should be judged largely on the performance -- and here's where it falls a bit flat for me. It's not fair to compare the Stones of today to the Stones of the sixties or seventies, sure -- but just a few years ago they did a show in New York for HBO where I felt like they were much better than this. Of course, that was in a stadium and the set-up was very different.

In a recent Rolling Stone interview Mick talked about how, these days, he tends to give more to the performance than the vocals -- dancing, gyrating, trying to work the crowd into a frenzy to the point where he sometimes can't hit the notes, misses words, etc. This was definitely on display in the film. During several songs he seems to only be getting every third word or so, or leaving out whole verses and not signing so much as chanting or shouting. You could say this has been the case with Jagger for a while now -- but I think it's a shame as he's got one of the great, iconic rock voices. He hasn't lost it -- it occasionally turns up in the film. But not as much as you'd like.

The set list was actually really interesting. A few gems I haven't heard them do much -- "She Was Hot," "Far Away Eyes," "You Got the Silver." But -- and this could either have been because of the big wig Clinton Foundation mucky-mucks in the audience or because the film was (inexplicably) shooting for a PG-13 rating -- they changed or omitted a lot of the lyrics.

In "Some Girls" Mick does the catalog of what kind of girls want what -- but leaves out the line about what black girls want to do all night. More PC that way, certainly -- and according to Scorsese they were only allowed two F-words without getting smacked with an R-rating. But if that was the case it seems strange that Mick decided to add an F-bomb to "Just My Imagination," which never had one even in the Stones re-working. Several curse words were covered with dubbed in drum sounds.

The guest spots were good -- the best easily being Buddy Guy on "Champagne and Reefer." I'd love to have seen Scorsese pan over to the Clintons and friends when Guy thunders: "Well you know there should be no law/on people that want to smoke a little dope."

Jack White shows up to duet on "Loving Cup" -- and he seemed to be loving it as much as a kid plucked out of the audience might have. Aguillera wasn't a bad fit for "Live with Me" -- but I could think of a few other songs that would have showcased what she does a bit better. That soul diva thing she's got going stepped on it a bit. Next to Sheryl Crow doing "Honky Tonk Woman" during that HBO special it was a little disappointing.

There is some archival footage mixed in between the performances -- and to help cut two nights of shows together as one product. And part of me wishes there had been more of that. It hits some of the highlights of the Stones' history - their break in America, the drugs, the media saturation, the changing mores of the 1960s, their almost comic longevity. It's interesting.

I've read some really positive reviews of this flick -- but as I was watching I wondered if this was the same film I'd read about. Unlike most Stones movies, I think this one is really for hardcore fans only.