Rock of Ages: (Note, Ive never seen the stage musical the film is based on) Like any musical, it basically comes down to the music. If the music works for you, the musical probably will too. If it doesnt, it wont. Simple, really. In this case (and others like Moulin Rouge or scenes in A Knights Tale), its a little weird to have established songs repurposed as such, but after you adjust to it it works- and hard to argue with the soundtrack here. The actual storyline is pretty basic and familiar but is executed fun enough- mostly held up by the absolutely strange performance of Tom Cruise that grabs your attention the way the character does to the other characters. You really gotta appreciate how all-in he goes for roles like these. It doesnt go deep enough into the personification/culture/power of rock of that era- but its obviously not trying to either. It wants to stay light and fluffy, so i cant fault it for not falling short of its goals even if I wish they had expanded its enduring meaningfulness. Theres a subplot of the Alec Baldwin/Russell Brand subplot that feels out of place but its fleeting, easily looked past and amounts to one short song/sequence. Cranston feels a bit wasted and the one stripper played by Mary J Blige really had no reason to randomly become a featured POV. Everyone else does a serviceable job or better. So, overall its enjoyable but if you werent interested in it already, theres probably not enough here to recommend it outside of curiosity over yet another fascinating Cruise character. Had they interjected more humor like the late night Rolling Stones phone call, it might have been a classic, though, Although, really, anything that equates being in a boy band as worse than being a stripper cant be all that bad, can it?
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 03:03:32 +0000
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