Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience

May 29 2009 by The Journal

portrait: jonas brothers 3D (PA: DO NOT REUSE)

THE Jonas Brothers – aka good Christian boys Joe, Nick and Kevin – are an impeccably-styled, multi-million-dollar global phenomenon.

The siblings are pin-ups for an entire generation of excitable teenagers and the embodiment of modern family values, wearing purity rings to affirm their belief in no sex before marriage.

Fans around the world put them on pedestals.

This does it literally, hoisting the singers 20ft above the heads of squealing fans on circular platforms as the boys belt out Hello Beautiful.

This energetic concert film, recorded live at Madison Square Gardens in New York last year, polishes the Jonas brand to an even squeakier clean.

A tongue-in-cheek pre-credits sequence begins with bodyguard ‘Big Rob’ Feggans waking the brothers in their interconnected Trump Tower hotel rooms shortly before they head for the gig.

In gridlock traffic, the brothers squeeze through the sunroof and sprint through the streets with screaming fans in pursuit.

Toe-curling tomfoolery dispensed with, the rest of the film intercuts on-stage performances with backstage shenanigans, including a gratuitous shot of the boys in their changing area.

Interviews with fanatical concert-goers are intercut with footage of the brothers playing sport, rehearsing and practising back-flips and tumbles. A segment with the fake Jonas Brothers is an amusing diversion.

“They’re living the dream, we’re dreaming the life,” quips one of the imitators.

A montage of one day’s promotional activities (an appearance on Good Morning America, a radio show interview, record launch and in-store listening party) hammers home how hard the trio works to maintain visibility in a crowded marketplace.

The 3D technology is used sparingly: sunglasses, a drumstick, plectrums and onstage pyrotechnics all appear to fly out of the screen, and during an audience singalong Joe thrusts the microphone at the camera for us to join in.

No doubt there will be hordes of girls foaming at the mouth at the prospect of Joe, Nick and Kevin singing mostly in tune in the film.

Parents should be thankful their suffering clocks in at only 76 minutes.