Beastie Boys Story

Michael Diamond & Adam Horowitz

APPLE TV+

Spike Jonze-directed film of fabulous Book show.

Originally planned to open at selected cinemas, the film of Spike Jonzes’s modification of 2018’s Beastie Boys Book: Live And Direct tour, filmed at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre last April, went straight to streaming because of the pandemic.

Stripped of theatrics that accompanied the original show, it focuses more on the interplay between Mike D and Ad-Rock as they trace the Beasties’ riotous story from hardcore beginnings in New York, through to its instant cessation when driving force Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch succumbed to cancer in 2012.

If anything, this fresh incarnation of the show becomes even more of a tribute to Yauch, including his deftly cool regrouping of the trio – burnt out following the colossally successful License To Ill album and tour – to create seminal sampling masterpiece Paul’s Boutique, birthing Sabotage with a bass line (resulting in its classic Jonze-directed cop show video) and organising the Tibetan Freedom mega-gig after meeting the Dalai Lama.

The pair’s quick-fire NY-style banter against massive projections ensures non-stop laughs, tempered with endearing self-deprecation and tangible grief; the most touching moment is at the close when Horowitz wells up while paying tribute to their departed friend.

Superbly entertaining, they’ve done their brother proud. ■■■■■■■■■■ larger-than-life standards. That means a whopping 28-song set, with a four-song acoustic sitdown midway and the rest played against a projection screen likely to impress Pink Floyd.

At two and a half hours, Hits Vegas adds a lot of bang for your buck – the DVD box costs 20 quid, the Blu-ray a fiver more (both formats include a CD of each gig) – and the shorter O2 show works just as well: each Hysteria track given a different production, then 32 minutes of arena pleasers. Sometimes less is more. ■■■■■■■■■■