The Space Within Us is Paul McCartney's third concert film in four years. Being a lifelong Beatles fan, I eagerly snatched up the first of these offerings, 2002's Back In The U.S., and enjoyed a spectacular musical trip down memory lane. How great it was to watch McCartney and his hot, young backing band sail through an incredible set of Beatles, Wings, and solo material during his heralded 2002 world tour. Ah, but then came the problems.

The Space Within Us finds McCartney again teamed up with producer/director Mark Haefeli, who also filmed his Back In The U.S. and In Red Square concert films. It would have been so damn easy for each of these films to get a ten star rating from me - just put a few cameras in front of the stage, film McCartney and his band in action, and wrap it all around a decent audio mix. But this is far from what we get. All three of these DVDs suffer from an overly self-aggrandizing approach that favors excessive audience shots of teary-eyed, adoring fans, and plenty of celebrities comparing McCartney to Beethoven and Jesus, over just showing the damn concert. Enough already!

Yes, McCartney is a modern day musical genius, and he has been a musical hero of mine for as far back as I can remember, but I don't need to see six different interview segments with Bill Clinton - for Christ's sake! - espousing Paul's greatness to get the point across. Where Back In The U.S. was simply annoying, but more forgivable due to the incredible nostalgia it produced, The Space Within Us is a much worse offender, because we have seen this all before. Is it too much to ask for the director to film Paul and the band performing more than the audience fawning? McCartney performed brilliantly at the Concert For George, and he and Haefeli should sit down together and watch that excellent DVD to see how it is done. It includes two versions — Theatrical Version, and Complete Concert. What a novel idea!

McCartney is in his mid-sixties now, and heading into his sixth decade as a musician, but he is still at the top of his game. Fueled by the release of his most critically acclaimed album in decades, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, and the great high he must get from performing some of his old Beatles classics for the first time in decades, a Paul McCartney concert can still be a very magical experience. This DVD certainly shows some of that magic, but until McCartney stops favoring these bloated documentary-style "concert films" over the straightforward, live concert experience that his fans have been pleading for, then he will never get much more than a lukewarm response out of me.