And at this leg of the expedition, we arrive at the year 1987. In the era of big dreams and bigger hair, director/choreographer Adam Shankman (of So You Think You Can Dance fame) introduces us to two young star-crossed lovers Drew (Diego Boneta) and Sherrie (Julianne Hough), struggling bartenders at The Bourbon Room from Anytown U.S.A. who hope to make it big on the Hollywood stage one day. But first, they’ve got a series of karaoke mash-ups to get through.
With carefully choreographed and meticulously lip synced song and dance numbers in the streets, at the bar, on a bus, and anywhere they can grab a hairbrush and pretend it’s a mic, the two declare their love for each other and rock and roll by performing monster ballads from the greatest hair bands, including Journey, White Snake and Night Ranger.
In the midst of Dennis’ woes, and after a few more musical mash-ups chronicling the story of our two lovers, Tom Cruise shakes things up when he enters the scene as rock god Stacee Jaxx in full-on rock star garb: guyliner, mullet, stank attitude, booze breath, and cradling a scantily-clad groupie. That’s around the time when things are kicked into high gear.
But, with the exception of Cruise and Akerman, the acting overall left much to be desired. Hough’s impossibly wide-eyed Sherrie is annoyingly charming, but annoying nonetheless. However, that’s soothed a bit when she shares scenes with Boneta, who is remarkably charismatic onscreen. He brings the right amount of chutzpah and balls to play a rock prince who could share a stage with the larger than life Jaxx.
Not like you picture someone like, say, Brand in a role as a coked out sidekick. You really never know where Lonny ends and where Brand begins … but his scenes with the almost unrecognizable Baldwin are certainly memorable, if anything.
Even though its finest moments all boil down to well-intentioned, high energy karaoke numbers, and its script (co-written by Justin Theroux) left more cheese in the recipe than what was called for, Rock of Ages is still great fun. Really, it’s like a longer, louder version of Glee or American Idol, but with actors who can’t sing rather than singers who can’t act. Plus, it rocks you like a hurricane.
I haven’t seen the film but I saw the stage version a few months ago in London. From the article it sounds like they differ, but I don’t know by how much.
I loved all that cheesy rock music as a teenager, and still have a soft spot for it now, even though my inner feminist found her way out since then and I can now see the sexism of rock culture.
So, I was excited to get tickets for Rock of Ages, but I was surprised and disappointed by how little irony there was in it. They did make fun of the excess and the absurdity of it, but they didn’t address the sexism in any meaningful way.
One particularly bad example in the stage version is when the hero is persuaded to forsake rock, join a boyband and wear a silly costume (sillier than a rock one, obviously), and this is equated in terms of humiliation with the heroine’s experience of being coerced into performing a lap dance on Stacee Jaxx after he slept with her, dumped her and then got her fired, which was what had led to her working in the lap dance club in the first place because she couldn’t get work anywhere else.
I really wanted to like the stage version but it left me with a very sour taste and I came away wishing I hadn’t handed over £60 of my hard earned cash.
I don’t have much right to comment on the film not having seen it but I really wouldn’t want to see it unless it is substantially different from the version I did see.
Just wanted to add to my previous comment, I know This is Spinal Tap isn’t strictly speaking a musical, but it’s a much better look at rock culture than Rock of Ages on pretty much every level, including pointing out the sexism, both through the songs themselves and the very funny party scene where they argue the difference between sexy and sexist with reference to who should be sniffing the glove on their album cover.
Rock of Ages really missed a trick there and was very old fashioned in comparison with that much older film.
In the scene I mentioned in my other comment the lap dance is played for comedy, but I felt really uncomfortable watching it, and that was very much the case throughout. A lot of it felt quite exploitative.
It had also been billed as a great show for the family, and there was a family with quite young kids sitting near us. I did not envy those parents as I imagine they had some pretty awkward conversations coming their way afterwards.