Rock of Ages (2012) Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Malin Akerman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Kevin Nash, Mary J. Blige Movie Review

Rock of Ages (2012)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Rock of Ages (2012)

It's Nothin' Like a Good Time

Sherrie (Julianne Hough - Burlesque) arrives in Hollywood on the Greyhound having tavelled from Oklahoma with the hope of becoming a singer. Quickly she discovers that Hollywood is not such a great place but is helped by Drew (Diego Boneta - Mean Girls 2), a singer in a band who works as a barman in the Bourbon Club, run by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin). But whilst Sherrie and Drew end up becoming close with Sherrie helping Drew deal with his stage fright there is trouble looming for the Bourbon Club as Mayor Whitmore (Bryan Cranston) and his wife, Patricia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), want to save the town by closing it down. The Club's only hope rest on the permanently drunk and as such completely unreliable Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise - Oblivion), the lead singer of Arsenal who is meant to be performing the band's farewell concert at the club before he goes solo.

"Rock of Ages" is set in 1987 and if I think back to 87 when I was 14 turning 15 I was into Whitesnake, Van Halen, Bon Jovi and REO Speedwagon which later led me on to Skid Row, Motley Crue and so on. As such there is a side to "Rock of Ages" which was like being transported back to my youth as I heard the various intros to many rock anthems and not only could I remember what I was doing back then but the lyrics came flooding back to me. In fairness some of the songs made me cringe now as the lyrics suddenly revealed themselves to me but in some ways musically it was like being transported back to my youth.

But I did say in some ways because whilst "Rock of Ages" features many classic rock anthems a lot of them sounded like they were being sung and performed by the cast of Glee who had no idea what 80s rock was all about. And so I have to be honest and say that some cherished rock anthems were ruined as I heard them remixed and sung in a way which made them really cheesy. But of course that is part of what "Rock of Ages" is about, it is a comedy which kind of spoofs rock music from the 80s and in an almost bad movie sort of way some of "Rock of Ages" ends up a little entertaining.

Now let me get to what one of the biggest issues with "Rock of Ages" is..... Tom Cruise as he should never, no way never, never in a month of Sundays have been cast in this movie. Cruise seems to be channeling Jim Morrison whilst trying to look like Axl Rose and Brett Michaels' love child. It is horrible in so many ways and I am going to say, Cruise spoils the movie. You see whilst Russell Brand is annoying and Alex Baldwin seems confused as to what he is doing the rest of the cast are entertaining to watch with Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta looking like they would have fitted in perfectly in to an 80s movie.

What this all boils down to is that "Rock of Ages" has some good things going on and just as much if not more bad things going on with the end result being a cheesy rock musical which kind of wins you around by being bad.


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