User reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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!

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.

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.

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.

The Boy Bands were basically, now that we get to really see what their only real talent was, barbershop quartets/quintets with drum machines manufacturing songs written by professionals... musicians other than the boys themselves, who were handed big deals but, so it seems in the case of The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, their deals weren't big enough...

Making the most intriguing aspect take place during the first part in which we learn of the rise of these two very famous groups (on the heels of New Kids on the BLock) alongside their founding manager Lou Pearlman, who made money with blimps, or airplanes, or something...

It's after both boy bands sue the central figure Pearlman does the documentary get a bit dry and uninteresting, mainly because the leftover groups that Pearlman created never made any kind of lasting impression... in fact, they weren't even worthy enough to make fun of, and hardly even register on the pop culture conscience...

Since this was produced by Lance Bass, there should have been more info centering on those two big bands and Pearlman's connection with them, and then leave the last half of the third/final episode about all the people he ripped off instead of that stuff being dragged through one and a half episodes...

Either way, this wasn't a bad doc, and filled the time nicely... but didn't stick to the things that people would actually care (or know) about.

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.

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.

Excellent execution and full of information and emotions.

As a teenager in the 90's and until now I had no idea what a dark background these successful boy bands had.

It is clear from the documentary that there was even more wrong that we will never know about.

I'm afraid Aaron Carter has stolkholm syndrome in this documentary. And it can be feeling its there something more behind that aggressive defence of Lou. Sad. RIP

It is good that the guys made this documentary because it can serve as a warning and also as a healing for them.

Trust but verify.

I'll say this - Lou Pearlman was a disqusting man.