The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story (2019) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
12 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
8/10
Good documentary
nickchase-1818021 March 2020
Amazing documentary, but it fails to focus more on how he tricked all those people and how much money he actually stolen. It is more focused on his personality and how people close to him perceived him as a person. His personality trait to always brag, talk too much and always be at your service is red flag in the any kind of the business. Also I thought I'd see more of the FBI investigation and a more detailed explanation of his fraud. I'm coming from music business and his contract agreement between artists, and him as an manager, is basically how all the contracts in music business look. Even big artists like Taylor swift signed that same contract. I'm not saying this is normal but you should investigate more that side of music as a business. There would be some interesting facts, and you will find out that record labels and a bunch of other people were profiting with no work at all on these bands, while those bands were doing all the hard work. Then you will understand where he find his ideas for fooling people and stealing money.
4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Controversial Success
mihai_alexandru_chindris11 November 2019
Found it very interesting and appealing. Didn't know so much about the back story of those two popular bands (and of the other ones) until now. Know I guess I'm a bit more knowledgeable about this :). Oh, and I finally know why the "Bye Bye Bye" song is titled this way. Cool documentary, with great insights, after all.
4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Fascinating. Another story everyone should know, yet you never hear about.
josiescho7 January 2020
The other reviews here are odd. I found this documentary to be informative and super interesting. Obviously it is going to be a little biased, like every documentary is. However, it is also obvious that this is not just a shot at revenge for the boy banders that speak, but more of a warning. Plus, the scope of the fraudulent activities go way past just the boy bands and are well covered and explained within the film. I was left wondering if I had missed something at some points but overall it was well worth watching. These kinds of stories are fascinating to me because they are things you would think everyone should know about, yet until a documentary like this comes out most people are oblivious and there are lots of life lessons to be learned in events like these.
3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Its Not Just About The BSB And N Sync. Watch It
davidsask28 July 2019
I thought this was done really well from start to finish.Be nice to have few more of Back Street Boys and N sync with opinions even if phoned in on camera from other destinations. After older people got duped in business with Lou. I feel sad how much life have left in them. Aaron Carter, I don't get the stupidity of his words and believe. The other bands after the great two parted ways in very public fight. Puzzling to one, how much wants band fame and pay, so still signed with this lunatic. Those are incidents that they could have stopped but didn't. So I have little tears for that middle story piece.

This deserved better than YouTube show, but maybe rights and showing move to other carriers after contract done or side deals made from start. 7/10 PS.I wonder if Lou was the paperboy when in jail?

Most written here was common knowledge before doc and what i wrote so i see no spoilers given out.
5 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Really well produced
Alexandra_Rotaru13 February 2022
I enjoyed it, the story was cohesive, there was a diverse group of people talking about what happened, it kept me engaged. This things need to be told so everybody can protect themselves in this kind of situation.
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
An informative and frustrating doc.
SnobReviews17 April 2020
"The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story" is a bittersweet and frustrating film that will either get you to feel bad for Lou Pearlman or make your blood boil. . In this documentary, a look at the rise and fall of boy band manager Lou Pearlman, who not only discovered NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, but set up one of the largest ponzi schemes ever. . After hearing about this story years ago, I thought it was smart to make a doc about the situation. Lou Pearlman was one of those guys you couldn't hate but deep down a twisted individual. I enjoyed this film and I think it covered most of the ground you'd be interested in hearing about. I did think it was repetitive at times but none the less captivating. You can now stream it for free on YouTube. . Follow @snobmedia for more reviews!
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Very interesting and surprising
delilah_p3 March 2020
I had no clue how much of a scam artist Lou Pearlman was. I always assumed he just dealt with music. It was a very sad story. It was put together really well.
3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
"I'm a victim of the machine"
scottishhitchhiking20 December 2019
Welcome to the world of most people. This is capitalism and within the rules, he did nothing wrong. Because within capitalism, there is no humanity. That only exists when you prioritise other things or people over profit.
3 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Wonderful
mikeiskorn7 December 2020
Even though I'm not necessarily a fan of the bands I do enjoy a good music documentary and this is one of the better music documentaries I've seen lately. Very informative and has a great behind-the-scenes feel to it. Definitely worth a watch either if you like the fans or just for a good music documentary.
4 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
very interesting
ops-525352 May 2019
This is a documentary movie about the innocent 90's, the boy band wave, and about one of the big wizards in managing bands of music, lou pearlman. he was also a scamer of proportions and that is the main subject of this documentary

boy bands, well in fact at the time i hated most of the kind, and the hype of it. it was so bad at times that my nerves wrenched, and whenever my wife was behind the driving wheel its was bsb or nsync or new kids on the block. i threatened to walk out of the car in frustration while still driving, so thankfully my wife turned it of, and after that weve always driven car in silence....what a schmuck you might think, but when things enerves you that much its pretty devastating, and i cant understate the vast differece in taste of music that me and my better half has. though today we have our best moments together at big stadium concerts, having even enjoyed robbie williams on the stage, in addition to iron maiden,sting, imagine dragon, a-ha, erasure, phil collins among others. so growing up at discos in the 80's, the 90's pop music were a major anticlimax for me.

but the film, its a witch hunt an masse', and there are just one or two who has something nice to say about the perputrator . i do understand why ron is and was a hated man, but its not told well enough why he became such an con artist. though the people that take part in this intermesso of this adhd-candidate pranker, tells a good story, and have experienced being on top of nthe world and on the charts, there are just small parts of gratitude in their words.

the filming, editing and use of archive and kinda found footage material, really builds a good story, but there are something still missing. to all the scamed investors sitting left with no money, has to realize that life is a gamble. i hope that there has been made some kinda compensation given to you all, and that there are some geeks still searching for the fortune hidden out there. con men are out there everywhere, and i may be one of them myself, but im too scared to be conned so you might say im yours trully.

the grumpy old man might have revealed some of his sour sides of himself, but this documentary is after all good and fairly recommended.
3 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
A bit one sided but very entertaining
prettybirchreloaded6 August 2019
At some point you get the feeling one of his artist must have produced this and low and behold....Lance Bass. Well, what was mentioned very quickly was that Mr. Pearlman Bought a talent agency (who he un knowingly) was under investigation and that when the FBI starts spying on him etc. Because he bought a company that had a bad track record.
8 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
Rich peoples problems
mymusicblocktv13 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
So this documentary seems to be a very one-sided look into the singing group nsync's success and the audacity that Louis Pearlman would want the millions of dollars that he invested into making such a successful group back plus a profit. Lol seems as though he was a pretty good guy that people made out to be a monster and it seems like all of the artists were angry at him because they didn't like their contract however only one artist in this whole documentary took accountability for signing their contract. Her reason for signing it is because her attorney advised her and said it's a bad contract but, you're never going to see one like this ever again and yet she signed it anyway knowing that it was a bad contract. It's so funny how no one pointed the finger at themselves they only pointed their finger at the guy who gave these men an opportunity to pursue their dreams. I looked up Lance Bass net worth he is worth 22 million dollars and I seriously doubt without the help of Louis Pro men he would not be there today. And it also seems that they won their court case because the judge was a fangirl of theirs. Think it's pretty lowbrow that they make all of these accusations and all of this kind of stuff about him two years after the man's no longer here to tell his side of the story. So in otherwise this documentary is very biased don't tell from the side of Lance Bass. And his mother about a man that they did not know until they were contracted to work with them. They want to tell his whole life story but don't know his whole life. These people definitely are ungrateful on my end because I don't see it as they got cheated I see it is that they got a fair chance to become who they are today. Most people who dream of singing and selling out Arenas don't make it. It seems like they had a lot of things that they're disposed however they were just angry because it wasn't enough money they didn't consider the fact that all of the money that it took to get them to the top went back to owing that and because of that they believe this man scam them.
4 out of 20 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed