One of the more interesting concepts for a documentary is on display in the new concert flick "Awesome ... I Shot That!" (a shortened version of the expletive-filled title) starring the ever-popular Beastie Boys. It all began when 50 fans were provided video cameras to record the group's Oct. 9, 2004, concert at Madison Square Garden. By having the participants spread out all over the arena, director Nathaniel Hornblower (aka Beastie member Adam Yauch aka MCA) hoped to get a lot of angles and intimate footage that a regular concert movie would never be able to capture.

"This kid had shot part of a concert on his camera phone ... and I just thought it looked really cool," Yauch says of his inspiration for the doc. "He uploaded it on the Internet to show some of his friends and ... you could just feel the energy from the room in it."

The Beasties had never shot a concert film, and this seemed the perfect way to immortalize themselves while remaining true to their ever-evolving punk/outsider/underground/hipster image.

"Most concerts that I see documented are done so high tech these days," Yauch says. "It's all so smooth and cleaned up, and I don't think you get the feel of the concert."

"Awesome" may not do that either. The movie's biggest problem is that after a few minutes, the footage stops becoming interesting to watch -- even for a hardcore Beastie fan. It doesn't help that the Boys show wasn't that visually interesting either. The Hitlist asked if there was any footage they couldn't use either for legal or ratings reasons, hoping the good stuff recorded by drunk, rowdy fans had just been cut out.

"We weren't really trying to make a porno," Yauch says. "We'd approach it differently if we wanted to do that."

Instead, the highlight is a tame montage of all the participants who decided to bring the camera into the bathroom. Yet, somehow the doc was given an R rating from the MPAA.

"We probably shouldn't have put the [F-word] in the title," Yauch says. "I didn't count how many times the F-word was in the movie, but the title certainly put us over the top."

"Awesome ... I Shot That!" is now playing in limited release.