The Concert
Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, has been hung with his fair share of adjectives over the past decade or so: arrogant, talented, controversial, troubled, drama llama (is that an adjective?)...
Who would have ever predicted he'd become boring, though? Sadly, if Eminem: Live from New York City is any indication, that's exactly what he's become. Compared to the infectious brilliance of his strongest material ("Lose Yourself" and... yeah, no, pretty much just "Lose Yourself") the candy-coated rapper's later material -- which dominates this 2005 made-for-Showtime concert -- is monotonous, and his pithy, affected, faux-suicidal stage persona is pretty much played out at this point. His manufactured rivalries seem toothless. His cockiness seems unfounded. And his self-parody has devolved into meta-self-parody.
But what do I know? I've never had tens of thousands of screaming frat boys and sorority girls yelling my own words back at me, so maybe I just don't get it.
The Picture
I do know that the 1080i AVC transfer gets off to a rough start, with noisy, up-converted standard-def footage that looks to have been shot on a consumer camcorder -- and not a great one at that. The actual concert footage itself is a drastic improvement, though, with adequate detail and a beautifully rendered palette of colors. Black levels tend to be a bit gray, but contrasts as a whole are solid. Audience shots tend to be quite noisy, but the view of the stage is generally artifact-free. Pause the image at the right time and you'll find that many shots in Eminem: Live from New York City look as good as one could hope for. But on the whole, it's a somewhat flat, uneven presentation that belies its television origins.
The Sound
The audio is certainly more consistent, but really nothing to get terribly excited about. Whether you opt for the PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, or DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, the mix really sort of sounds like mono squeezed through the aural equivalent of a Play-Doh Fun Factory. But given that the only elements to work with here are vocals, beats, sparse instrumentation, and crowd noise, it's hard to expect much more. The surround mixes follow a familiar template: music up front, party in the back. The stereo PCM, meanwhile, tames the crowd noise a bit, but doesn't differ significantly otherwise. Surprisingly, bass isn't as powerful as it could be, which is perhaps the only area in which the audio could have been significantly improved.
The Extras
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Final Thoughts
If you like Eminem, especially his work with D12, by all means add this one to your Netflix queue. But nothing about this disc -- the music, the presentation, the pointless backstage interstitials -- will win over any new fans.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
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