Ramones: Raw

There's a difference between “stoopid” (as in not smart, but in a knowing, humorous way) and “stupid” (as in just plain dumb), and while the New York knuckleheads/punk progenitors who called themselves the Ramones were a prime example of the former, this “fully authorized” DVD has a little too much of the latter. The documentary portion covers the band's career in a reasonably comprehensive though fairly slapdash manner: in addition to lots of home movies, the many concert clips (some of which sound and look pretty atrocious) adequately convey the noisy fun of the Ramones' music and the considerable appeal of songs such as “Teenage Lobotomy,” “Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio,” and “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” (among the 21 included here). There's even a revelation or two: the Ramones were big in Italy! They were huge in Argentina!! And there's commentary by Marky Ramone and Johnny Ramone (who died in September 2004), some of which is mildly diverting, if not especially informative or amusing. But the whole thing is poorly presented, jumping around from place to place and time to time while rarely letting us know when and where we are, and the appearances by a host of “celebrity guests” (from Carly Simon and Al “Grandpa Munster” Lewis to U2 and the egregious Gilbert Gottfried) are a joke, as few of them are onscreen for more than 10 seconds. Mere quibbles? Probably, if you're a fan. Ramones lovers will no doubt revel in the hours of bonus material, including a full-length (i.e., about 25 minutes; these guys weren't exactly Springsteen-esque when it came to live gigs) 1980 concert from Rome, a variety of TV appearances, deleted scenes, Easter eggs, and other kinda cool stuff. But others are advised to wait for the DVD release of 2003's End of the Century (from Rhino Home Video on March 15), a more recent and, from most accounts, much better Ramones doc. Optional. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)