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Film Review: Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages is for two kinds of people, people who don’t like Glee and people who do like Glee. If you like Glee then you’re going to love Rock of Ages and if you don’t you’re not going to like it very much.
The story follows two aspiring young rock stars that land a job waiting tables in Hollywood’s most rocking club The Bourbon Room which is in financial difficulty. The leads are played by relative nobody’s Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and Drew (Diego Boneta). The club is going to go under unless the performance by the rock and roll rebel Stacee Jaxx who recently got kicked out of his band can go on without a hitch. The majority of the film follows the two young aspiring singers as they try and chase their dream interwoven with many musical numbers from the 80s (Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Journey, Poison, Twisted Sister,Whitesnake). It also follows the owner of the club (Alec Baldwin) and his friend (Russell Brand) battling Jaxx’s manager (Paul Giamatti) for the money to save the struggling club.
Life gets in the way of Sherrie and Drew’s dreams as Drew, who set out to be a rock and roll star, is suddenly forced to change his persona to that of a boy band after a performance on stage with Jaxx, and Sherrie is forced to wait tables in a strip club. Can they fulfil their dreams and save the club in the process? Can Jaxx get his struggling career back on track?
If you like 80s rock music, the film gives plenty of it with non-stop musical numbers throughout the film… though people who were looking for some serious rock and roll will be disappointed as the rock songs have been Glee’d and are portrayed as quite glam and campy. With a running time of two hours it does go on for a bit. The film has its moments but is slightly bland overall. Cruise’s performance does embody a rock god and he can, surprisingly, sing but when he’s not on screen you wish he was.
If you love Glee it’s definitely the film for you if not I wouldn’t go see it other than for Cruise’s performance. If you want a great musical, go watch director Adam Shankman’s previous film Hairspray.
Paul Saunders
Posted by Kelly O'Brien on at 12:28 am.
This article was posted in: Film & Media, with tags: alec baldwin, bon jovi, def leppard, diego boneta, drew, film, journey, movies, paul giamatti, Reviews, rock god, rock of ages, russell brand, sherrie, tom cruise.
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