Rock of Ages Review

The art form known as the musical has been around for over two centuries, and is performed around the world for the amusement of all.  The musical was first brought to film in the mid 1920’s, and saw a huge boom between the 30’s and the 60’s.  Famous musicals such as West Side Story and Singin’ in the Rain revolutionized the musical industry.  In 2001, the musical Moulin Rouge caused the re-birth of the genre, and since then, great musicals such as Chicago, Hairspray and Sweeny Todd have been released.  My favorite style of music, 80’s rock had not yet truly been introduced into a musical film.  Until today.

Rock of Ages is based on a mid 2000’s play directed by Kristin Hanggi and focuses on the glory that is 1980’s rock and roll.  The movie, based on the play, follows the same basic story.  A young and ambitious girl named Sherrie Christian (played by Julianne Hough) moves from the suburbs to Hollywood, to follow her dream of becoming a famous rock star.  She meets a young guy, Drew Boley (played by Diego Boneta), and they immediately fall in love.  He gets her a job at a rock concert hall called the Bourbon club, where the rich rocker Stacee Jaxx (played by Tom Cruise), is about to play his final concert before going solo.  This is the most basic level of the plot, but the movie also involves many other characters and sub-plots.

The major problem in this movie is the two main characters, and the plot that the follow.  The two leads are so bland and forgettable that you groan every time they appear on screen.  The plot they follow is EXTREMELY generic too.  They fall in love, the guy gets famous but the girl doesn’t, there is a stupid misunderstanding that causes them to split, they both lose track of who they truly were, and then they get back together just as they realize all they ever needed was each other.  This becomes a serious problem when these two characters are the focus of the movie, instead of the much more entertaining storylines, like the one between Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand, and the one between Tom Cruise and Paul Giamatti.  You spend a large portion of the movie wishing it was about these other characters, and it detracts from the movie’s fun feel and atmosphere.  The lip-syncing in the movie is really bad too, and it’s easy to tell most of these actors really can’t sing at all. 

Now, I said before that the movie would have been much more interesting had it followed either Tom Cruise or Alec Baldwin or Russell Brand.  The way three of them act there parts is phenomenal.  Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand play off of each other very well, and it causes for some pretty comedic moments.  However, the real star of the movie is Tom Cruise.  He is so crazy and mean, and yet so likeable at the same time that you can’t make up your mind about whether or not you like or hate the guy.  Cruise plays the part like a man who has seen the best, and the worst, that the music industry has to offer.  It’s truly a great part that Cruise just gets lost in.  To my surprise, he is actually a pretty good singer too, and could honestly look toward a career in music.  Which brings me to the music.  What can I say?  The music in this movie is outstanding, but I guess that’s probably personal opinion.  It’s cheesy 80’s rock at its best.  And that’s really the best way to describe this movie, cheesy 80’s fun.  The movie is big, and always has something going on on-screen.  It’s always bright, colorful and bombastic, and loves how cheesy it is.  And that’s all I was looking for.

When I was walking into this movie, I wasn’t expecting anything Shakespearean, I was simply expecting some great music and a fun atmosphere.  When I left, I was happy that I got exactly what I wanted, plus a great performance from Tom Cruise.  So lip-syncing was bad.  So the main characters were bland.  So the plot focused on the wrong people.  When it comes down to it, this is a fun film, and that’s all it ever wanted to be.  I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Written by Alexander Martin

Cast:  Julianne Hough- Sherrie Christian   Diego Boneta- Drew Boley  

Alec Baldwin- Dennis Dupree   Russell Brand- Lonny   Catherine Zeta-Jones- Patricia Whitmore

 Malin Akerman: Constance Sack   Tom Cruise: Stacee Jaxx

Directed by Adam Shankman

Runtime: 123 min