Rock of Ages (Adam Shankman, 2012)

"This man spews out three things: Sex, hateful music, and...sex!"

A rock musical, it sounds too good to be true. Normally I would never be thrilled to watch a film made by the director of Hairspray and Bringing Down the House, but when I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago I was excited to see this one and I am proud to say this movie is already my guilty pleasure of 2012.

The story is total crap. The small town girl Sherrie (Julianne Hough) comes to the big city to make a career as a singer. She runs into Drew (Diego Boneta, who looks like Matthew McConaughey’s little brother) who works in the Bourbon Room, a famous rock temple about to go bankrupt. Drew of course has his own aspirations as a musician and of course the two of them fall in love. And of course later on when Drew has success in the industry something goes wrong, and in the end...you can guess.

Secondly there are the two owners of the Bourbon Room (Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand) who have tax issues. The major’s wife (Catherina Zeta Jones) is determined to shut the rock temple down and especially has something against rock god Stacee Jaxx (a brilliant role by Tom Cruise).

This synopsis sound lame and cliché and has been done a thousand times before. The filmmakers obviously didn’t take it serious since they use minimal time to tell this story and focus on the strong and funny performances by the supporting actors and last but not least on the great rock music from the eighties. Music from bands like Def Leppard, Journey, Twisted Sister and Whitesnake are integrated into the storyline, or maybe not, I believe that the story was built around the songs, since the corny 80’s lyrics fit perfectly to the story.

And then Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx. When I saw the trailer I was afraid that he would only have a cameo appearance but fortunately he has a lot of screentime and clearly enjoys every minute of it. The sheer fun he and actors like Paul Giamatti (his manager) have can be felt perfectly and makes this film ‘Nothin’ but a good time’. The scene between him and the Rolling Stone journalist, going under the brilliant name Constance Sack (Malin Akerman), is priceless. Besides all the fun, Rock of Ages ridicules some of the developments in the music industry. There is a funny development regarding a shift in pop culture (if you like New Kids on the Block it’s likely you disagree) that must be loved by anyone who is into rock music. The film also dares to ridicule the rock culture in a way as well with some gay thematics, hairstyle and the extreme adoration of a rock idol (“When my hamster died, your music got me through it”).

If you plan to regard this movie as a serious one you will be disappointed. If you, just like me, love eighties rock you will find this picture a treat. Enjoy the pleasure the actors are having in their performances and the spoof-factor (which I think is present). Don’t compare it to classics like This is Spinal Tap or Almost Famous, but just sit back and relax.

7.5/10