Have the Stones been tamed?

What happened

A hip crowd of young stars joined the Rolling Stones on Wednesday for the U.K. premiere of Martin Scorcese's documentary, Shine a Light, which tracks the band's career. Mick Jagger and bandmates Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts, and Keith Richards praised Scorcese's work, and said they enjoyed revisiting the past. "I like me when I was younger," Richards said. (Hello! magazine)

What the commentators said

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What happened to the “whiff of danger” that the Stones used to have? said Mark Mauer in an LA Weekly blog. In Shine a Light, during the band’s performance of “Sympathy for the Devil,” Mick Jagger “leaves out the line ‘Who killed the Kennedys?/When after all/it was you and me,’” and he drops a line from “Some Girls.” And “the NYC crowd Scorsese shows us” certainly isn’t “the decaying, exciting, dark NYC of 1978”—Bill and Hillary Clinton are there, along with Hillary’s mom.

Keep in mind that the Rolling Stones “are a combined 254 years old,” said Ben Raymond in The Villanovan (free registration required). But even so, “Jagger—shriveled as he is—still kicks his legs and thrusts his pelvis with the oversexed delight of a pre-teen Swedish boy,” and he can still make audience members blush. Shine a Light is “a special kind of documentary” and “it works beautifully.”

Shine a Light is “worth checking out if you’re a Stones or Scorsese fan,” said Rudi Greenberg in Diamondback, “but it doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to merit drawing non-fans in.” But the “film is a testament to the staying power of the band.” On top of that, “there are bits of archival footage throughout the film,” the 2006 Beacon Theatre “show has a very loose feel,” and the band “shines on the older, slower songs.”