Knock, knock. Who's there? Phil Verone. Phil Verone who? If you are not familiar with the name, I will save you the "Google." Phil Verone was the drummer for Saigon Kick, a hard rock band from Florida that, unfortunately for them, broke on the down side of the hair metal movement and because of that, and other reasons, had a short life span, although they did enjoy moderate success with songs like "Love is on the Way." He then went on to drum for Skid Row, post Sebastian Bach, and watched his life and career spiral into the crapper. Phil Verone seems to have been on the short end of the stick for most of his rock-n-roll life and made some monumentally bad decisions, both personal and business related, and this is his story.

This film is the work of Phil Verone and producer/director Fabio Jaffet. It is supposed to be Phil's message to the world about how kids shouldn't join rock bands and how vicious the music business can be. Yes, the "business" , for the most part, sucks and most records executives could care less about their artists and are driven only by dollar signs. However, this is only one man"s story and while most musicians fail to ever achieve a level of success even like that of Phil Verone, they don"t fall to such lows and watch their lives and families fall apart while they continue to chase their tail.

For music fans, the film is laced with some good footage of live performances from both Saigon Kick and Skid Row and begins happily enough. However, it goes on to tell how badly he was treated financially by the industry and his former band Saigon Kick. He then goes on to become the drummer for Skid Row and while he enjoys all the trappings of a rock star he inks a very poor financial deal with the band and ends up with nothing at the end of the day. The movie then discusses the topic of groupies and there's more than enough tour bus, hotel room and backstage booby footage here to satisfy anyone, to the point that it quickly becomes boring and gratuitous. Really, five minutes would have been more than enough. The viewer then explores the rapid decline of Phil Verone and his related drug problems which completely engulf his life and eventually result in heart problems but again, the footage is too long and monotonous and could have been edited down significantly.

Besides a shorter run time, another thing that could have helped make this file more exciting and marketable would have been to have more cameo appearances from people in the industry. It would have been fun to see more interview footage from the guys in Skid Row but in most of the footage and photos their faces are screened out, which is odd, and the only ex-band mate that even goes on camera is Dave "Snake" Sabo. There is, however, ample face time with the front man from Saigon kick.

According to the DVD notes, this movie was made "to make him come face to face with his own demons" and, at times, you do feel genuinely bad for Phil because of how his life ends up. However, it seems, based on what the viewer is shown, that Phil Verone got exactly what one can expect from being in a rock band; sex, drugs and rock n roll. So, as documentaries go, this one is average but it is worth checking out if you are a music fan or enjoy this type of film. One caveat however, keep your finger near the fast forward button and when you see breasts or blow just press and hold, unless that's why you bought this thing.

Reviewed by P Nurple