Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages, just like Mamma Mia in 2008, has its actors sing some old-time favorites. Unlike the earlier film, this film casts its net wider and pulls in a collection of 80's top favorites.

Wanna get rocked like a hurricane, Amadeus? You might wanna look elsewhere.

Why's that? Read on.

Those 80's favorites are built around the tale of country girl Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and city boy Drew (Diego Boneta). Sherrie moves from Oklahoma to Los Angeles, where she meets Drew and both dream of making it big in Rock'n'Roll. But for now, they work at a Nightclub, The Bourbon Room, which has seen better days. Its very life depends on the revenue from its upcoming performance of Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), the loopiest Rock Star in town.

Not helping at all is the Ultra-Conservative Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who wants to shut down the club for its “decadence.” Meanwhile, Stacee's manager Paul Gill (Paul Giamatti) is out to get in on the profits big time. Our heroes will have to get over them in order to rebuild this city with Rock'N'Roll.

There were quite a few laughs in the film. Most of them came from Stacee and his baboon, the manic Hey Man. Yes, his name is Hey Man. A scene where a reporter scrambles to cover both sides of a Bourbon Room/Whitmore rock duel was also kind of funny. As well as Drew's disastrous first public performance as a boy band star (which makes sense in context).

But at times, I felt that the best part of the film were the Rock'n'Roll numbers. They were even better than the characters who had to sing them. At most, those characters were average; at worse, they were a bit bland. For a film built around a love story, usually an appealing genre, this is a problem.

This is nothing but an average time. But still, this hasn't dampened my anticipation for this year's next musical, Les Miserables. So, I guess it leans toward the positive after all.