The Rolling Stones: Let's Spend the Night Together - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

This concert film is a very fun, straight-ahead celebration of the Rolling Stones’ greatest hits from their first 20 years of touring as a band. The film includes footage from three shows during their 1981 tour, mostly showing their performances in Ohio and Arizona. Shot with over 20 cameras, Director Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) captures the Stones at an interesting time in their career, as these shows feature the Stones performing their best hits from the previous 20 years of touring. With a deliberate setlist focused on the danceable, upbeat songs in their oeuvre, the Stones made it a point to make this concert film as fun as possible.

There is nothing much to this film except being an energetic concert film. The footage captured by Ashby looks incredible, especially after the 4k scan of the original 35mm camera negative. The design of the stage is not entirely as engaging as the performance of Jagger alone. The stage is built with Jagger especially in mind, with two prongs jutting into the audience. Jagger sprints up and down the stage, strutting his famous moves, all while giving amazing performances of their greatest hits. Along with the stage, there are fun gimmicks with some songs, like a slideshow of the members of the group as children during the “Time is on my Side’ sequence and when they bring out a cavalcade of honkytonk women on stage to dance during “Honkytonk Woman”. The rest of the band remains almost stationary throughout the film, which isn't terrible because Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood just stay back, looking cool. There's one moment when Ronnie Wood just coolly lights a cig in a break during a song, and both he and Richards play their part of cool rock stars.

This film is a good concert film, but it has little else to it. Fans of the Stones will love this film, as it unabashedly showcases a great, fun performance. That being said, I feel like the best concert films have a little something extra, like The Last Waltz, where the band is interviewed about their career and how they became the band they were, or like another Stones concert film, Gimme Shelter, which is about the tragedy that occurred at Altamont. That is honestly my only problem with this release: it is a concert film in its purest sense. The only thing that makes this somewhat unique is that Ashby has footage from 3 different shows during the 81 tour, which doesn’t provide enough change for my liking to make it super interesting. I think it would be better if they followed them throughout the tour rather than just at three venues. Other than that, I did enjoy the music and the great performances in this release of Let’s Spend the Night Together.

Vital Disc Stats: 4k UHD, Blu-ray
Rolling Stones Let's Spend the Night Together starts it up with a new two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. This release is housed on a UHD100 Disc, along with a Blu-ray version on a Region A  BD50 Disc. Both discs are housed in a black case featuring artwork from the original poster. This release also includes a slipcover featuring the same artwork.

The video in this release looks incredible. Being scanned from the original 35mm camera negative, the new 4k scan looks clear and immersive in 2160p SDR. The concert footage is warm and kinetic simultaneously. Jagger's costume is really crisp-looking; his red, white, and blue outfit with football-pads-style pants is great to look at and an inventive nod to the fact that they’re playing in American football stadiums. I was looking at the crowd the entire time during the film and was very taken aback by how in focus they all looked; there was definitely no AI upscaling, as it seems. The video in this is really great and worth the purchase just to see the incredible footage.

The sound in this release makes it seem like you’re right there at the show with all the fans. Presented in both DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Audio, the music sounds incredibly good. The soundtrack, as one can assume, is an incredible collection of Rolling Stones songs, and as I mentioned in the review above, they deliberately chose the most upbeat hits from their first 20 years as a band to keep the vibes lively and fun throughout the night. As a Stones fan, I loved this soundtrack, just 25 of the best songs from a great Rock Band.

The only supplements included in this release are two Audio Commentaries, one with Justin Sosa, Host of Hang Fire: A Rolling Stones Podcast, and another from Entertainment Journalists/Authors Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. The commentaries are pretty decent. They mostly just revel in the Stones' performances and talk about how they got Hal Ashby to direct. The commentaries are cool to have, but the supplements are definitely not the selling point of this release.

• Audio Commentary featuring Justin Sosa
• Audio Commentary featuring Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
• Theatrical Trailer

This release of Let's Spend the Night Together from Kino Lorber is a great addition to anyone’s collection, Stones fans and music fans alike. While the film looks and sounds incredible, the structure of the concert film leaves a little to be desired. The supplements are also not a huge selling point, but the music and visuals make up for the negatives in spades. This release is definitely worth picking up, seeing the Stones perform 25 of their best hits is such a great time. I would definitely recommend picking up Let’s Spend the Night Together from Kino Lorber. Recommended