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Movie Review: Rock of Ages
Jun. 17th, 2012 10:18 amRock of Ages is a musical movie based on the recently popular Broadway musical. I just wish i had the foresight to make a musical based on 80s power ballads. In retrospect, it's a license to print money.
The musical is homage, not parody; and in a way, the earnestness of those songs makes the musical work. I am not a huge fan of that genre, but it is the music of my youth, so I feel drawn to it.
Of course, the plot is paperthin. Catherine Zeta-Jones as a Tipper Gore-style politician's wife who wants to shut down the Sunset Strip. The main story a love story of a boy and a girl who left their small towns to make it big.
It's that part that is the weakest. Julianne Hough, like in Footloose fills a role as eye candy, but doesn't bring much more. Diego Boneta is even worse as the most recent 'terribly miscast male teenage rebel'. He's so soulless, he makes Daughtry look like Ronnie James Dio. It's hard to really care that much about these characters, and their love story is too generic to be inspiring.
Of course, I didn't expect Tom Cruise to fill the lead role, but it's an inspired pick. Cruise plays a slightly past-his prime star who is just a bet mentally imbalanced (if the litigious Cruise ever reads it, I would like to point out here how very different this Stacee Jaxx character is from his personal life). cruise channels his inner Axl Rose to comedic effect. This is probably my favorite Cruise role in years, and I would love to see him make a sequel to this rather than doing another Mission Impossible film.
I was excited for this film because of Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin. Brand is laugh out loud funny in every scene he is in, and he's the reason I'd watch this film over again. We now know Baldwin has strong comedy chops, so that really isn't a surprise, but he's strong.
Paul Giamatti is excellent as a scumbag manager. There's only a couple of unexpected twists in the movie- one good (with Gaimatti and Boneta), one unnecessary. I expected some cameos but it's largely devoid of that (Kevin Cronin and Sebastian Bach show up.)
Mary J Blige shows up in a supporting role, and unsurprisingly bring a lot of necessary soul and is a highlight.
This is pretty much what you would expect. pretty lightweight fare, but it's fun enough, that if it sounds like you might enjoy it, you probably will.
The musical is homage, not parody; and in a way, the earnestness of those songs makes the musical work. I am not a huge fan of that genre, but it is the music of my youth, so I feel drawn to it.
Of course, the plot is paperthin. Catherine Zeta-Jones as a Tipper Gore-style politician's wife who wants to shut down the Sunset Strip. The main story a love story of a boy and a girl who left their small towns to make it big.
It's that part that is the weakest. Julianne Hough, like in Footloose fills a role as eye candy, but doesn't bring much more. Diego Boneta is even worse as the most recent 'terribly miscast male teenage rebel'. He's so soulless, he makes Daughtry look like Ronnie James Dio. It's hard to really care that much about these characters, and their love story is too generic to be inspiring.
Of course, I didn't expect Tom Cruise to fill the lead role, but it's an inspired pick. Cruise plays a slightly past-his prime star who is just a bet mentally imbalanced (if the litigious Cruise ever reads it, I would like to point out here how very different this Stacee Jaxx character is from his personal life). cruise channels his inner Axl Rose to comedic effect. This is probably my favorite Cruise role in years, and I would love to see him make a sequel to this rather than doing another Mission Impossible film.
I was excited for this film because of Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin. Brand is laugh out loud funny in every scene he is in, and he's the reason I'd watch this film over again. We now know Baldwin has strong comedy chops, so that really isn't a surprise, but he's strong.
Paul Giamatti is excellent as a scumbag manager. There's only a couple of unexpected twists in the movie- one good (with Gaimatti and Boneta), one unnecessary. I expected some cameos but it's largely devoid of that (Kevin Cronin and Sebastian Bach show up.)
Mary J Blige shows up in a supporting role, and unsurprisingly bring a lot of necessary soul and is a highlight.
This is pretty much what you would expect. pretty lightweight fare, but it's fun enough, that if it sounds like you might enjoy it, you probably will.
