Green Day has been gracing stages since 1986, but it has become a fairly new phenomenon to understand what the band is doing and document it.

On March 25, Green Day’s newest documentary “Heart Like a Hand Grenade,” made its world debut at the Egyptian Movie Theatre in Los Angeles.

Green Day’s most loyal fans flocked to the scene, coming from as far away as Germany. Surprisingly, fans ranged in age from the lowest age being 18, all the way to the tops of 45.

The documentary, created by John Roecker, leaves much to be desired to anyone who calls themselves a fan of the punk rock band Green Day.

When the documentary came to an end, grumbles from fans really described the overall feeling of discontent, examples consisting of “There go two hours of my life that I will never get back.” Fans trickled out of the theatre.

The documentary took you into the recording session of the band’s most recent
album, “American Idiot.”

For the average fan this may sound like the best documentary to come out, but Roecker did an awful job of executing the behind the scenes look of the actual band. The word awful could be used to describe this because whenever Green Day is actually playing music, it is the CD recording dubbed over the live sound. So essentially, a fan could just listen to the CD and save him or herself a two hour chunk of life.

That was not the worst part; Roecker seemed to feel compelled to bring an aspect of his art into the project. All throughout “Jesus of Suburbia,” there are clips of dancers doing some obscure dancing, which is beyond labeling with a category. Fans are left with a bitter distaste of: Green Day, random dancers, Green Day, random dancers, Green Day and then back to random dancers to finish off the tune.

If those two things don’t seem to bother you, then here is one more fact that may keep you at home and force you to just listen to the CD: The documentary could have, and should have ended in about three places.

There are points in the film that just leave you begging that the movie will come to an end but it all turns out to just be a tease then it kicks back in again and keeps on going.

IF those three things don’t faze you all that much, then congratulations, this documentary may be right for you.

If there is one part of the documentary that Roecker does get right, I would have to say it is the following around of the band of Green Day just being themselves in the recording studio.

Another benefit to the concert would have to be the fact that you did get to see some the creative side of Green Day’s music making. In some scenes you go to see Joe going through and working out lyrics and shifting them through to find the perfect fit for his song.

Punk-rock fans who have been following Green Day since the early days are still debating whether or not they think it is still worth keeping an eye on them. A live show would be without a doubt. Cool confirms the stereotype that he is in fact, the wackiest member of Green Day, while fans get an inside look at what it is that Dirnt and Armstrong do to contribute to the attitude of the Green Day that fans have come to know today.

A trip through the recording of “American Idiot” sadly came up short and failed showing fans the story of how a concert got recorded. Hopefully Green Day will be able to do it again next time and do it better with the next concert that is on the way title “21st Century Break Down.”