Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral assessment: 2.5
CINEMA
rating: R14 (for viewers aged 14 and up)
Prodded by her
grandmother to leave small town Oklahoma and follow her dream to be a rock star
in Hollywood in the 80s, Sherrie (Julianne Hough) becomes a bag-snatching
victim in the big city. Drew (Diego
Boneta) witnesses the robbery and suggests she apply for a job where he works
as a bar boy, the Bourbon Room on Sunset Strip, owned by Dennis (Alec Baldwin). Sherrie is convinced because besides being
penniless and homeless, she will get to meet her rock-star idol Stacee Jaxx
(Tom Cruise) who’s slated to give his farewell performance at the Bourbon Room over
the weekend. Dennis hires her as
waitress, without knowing that she sings and that Drew, in fact, sings with his
own band. Sherrie and Drew get to become
close friends, sharing each other’s dreams of hitting it big someday as
singers.
To enjoy Rock of Ages, don’t take the plot more
seriously than its director Adam Shankman does. From the first tune, blurted out on a bus and
which defies all sense of logic (can you
really find so many bus riders singing that professionally on a ride?) to the
last toingggg of an electric guitar,
Shankman has his tongue cheekily planted in his cheek. And that’s what makes Rock of Ages entertaining. It
has a stunt casting but its biggest stars do roles against their types with
earnestness and intensity—which only shows how versatile these stars can
be. Picture a gun toting Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible and see how many worlds
away that is from Tom Cruise as a spoofily dramatic rock star. Recall what the lovely and lovable Catherine
Zeta Jones is in any of her movies and watch her here as a domineering, moralizing
politician’s wife with a past to live down, whoa! Compare Paul Giamatti as a maintenance man in Lady in the Water with the venal star
manager in Rock of Ages. And what of Alec Baldwin as bar owner Dennis
in Rock of Ages and Alec Baldwin as Atty.
Campbell Alexander in My Sister’s Keeper—goodness,
they’re oil and water!
Rock of Ages being a musical has a right to a
predictable plot and some mash—aside from the “oldies” sung, the script
possesses no originality; besides, Hough and Boneta are bland leads, but what
the heck, the song and dance performances are high-spirited and the actors are
obviously having a lot of fun, so, just sing and sway along! Despite the infectious sense of fun Rock of Ages conveys, it may not be
passed on as totally wholesome entertainment for the whole family. Precocious 14-year-olds may be able to handle
it, as long as they are advised by parents, teachers and other concerned elders
about extra-marital sex and adult entertainment the movie contains.
