Rock of Ages is based on the hit musical and is brought to screen from the director of Hairspray, Adam Shankman and features on a country singer, Sherrie Christian [Julianne Hough-“Footloose”] and city boy Drew Boley [Diego Boneta] who both meet on the Sunset Strip while in search of pursuing their Hollywood dreams of making it in the music industry.
Rock of Ages is an adaptation and based on the 2006 Chris D’ Arienzo rock/jukebox Broadway musical which was planned to entre production in summer 2010 for a 2011 release but ended up starting production in May 2011.
The Good:
Just like with “Hairspray”, “Rock of Ages” features an all star cast that varies from Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatii, Bryan Cranston, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin and Tom Cruise as Rock God, Stacy Jaxx. It is great fun to see all this talent all in one movie and have their moment to shine [and god forbid, sing]. The cast give it their all and their also had to take singing classes to get into their roles.
The main surprise is Tom Cruise who is great as Stacy Jaxx and who can surprisingly, sing too and features a great sidekick a assistant/butler baboon who he takes to all his gigs. After his reboot in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol it’s great to see him playing different roles and not just his typical action hero role, but this isn’t the Tom Cruise show and his Stacy Jaxx isn’t the centre of the story as much as it is about the romance between the two leads Drew and Sherrie.
Although there is some great comedy moments from Alec Baldwin’s club manager Dennis Dupree and Russell Brand’s Lonny Barnett.
The main highlight of the film is allowing audience’s to be transported back to the 1980’s as it features some great tracks from music legends such as of Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Foreigner an you will feel yourself with the tunes stuck in your head after the film is over.
The bad:
“Rock of Ages” certainly isn’t for everyone as this isn’t Tom Cruise in action hero mode and also the performance are really tongue-in cheek.
Conclusion:
Overall, “Rock of Ages” acts as fun escapism while it lasts but the singing and dancing won’t be for everyone and it certainlty won’t go down in history as a one of the greatet musicals such as “Chicago”. It is however, great fun to see a star-studded cast just let loose and have fun.
