Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to listen to music. I was born in 1985, so from a young age, my parents liked to listen to all the 80's rock. To this day, I still have Scorpion, Bon Jovi, Journey, Montley Crue, Def Leopard, Van Halen and AC/DC in my car among others. I don't know what it is about rock/heavy metal music, but it just gets in your blood and makes you want to party like no one ever has. I'm not the only one that feels this way obviously, this genre of music still has an extremely loyal fan base and you see all the time on VH1 a show dedicated to the rock music of the 80's. It seems like the past 10 years have been a "what a great time we had in the 80's" flashback, from the fashion to the music to the movies to the colors, we notice certain trends coming back. Of course the music that everyone still loves so much was eventually made into a musical called Rock of Ages. I've been dying to see it, but keep putting it off, so naturally when I heard that they were making the movie, I was already excited to see it. Well, I've found out why the musical hasn't hit Broadway just yet.
In 1987, Sherrie Christian travels to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a famous singer while barback Drew Boley prepares for another night of work at "The Bourbon Room," a popular nightclub on the Sunset Strip. As Sherrie approaches The Bourbon, her suitcase, containing her favorite records, is stolen. Seeing the incident, Drew comforts Sherrie and, upon learning of her situation, he gets her a job at the Bourbon Room as a waitress. The club's owner, Dennis Dupree, and his right-hand man, Lonny Barnett, are trying to find a way to deal with unpaid taxes that are threatening the club, wishing their love of rock 'n' roll could keep it alive. They finally decide to book Stacee Jaxx, a famous rock star who has recently announced that he will be resigning from his band, Arsenal, to perform at the Bourbon in hopes of raising enough money to clear up their debt. Upon hearing of Jaxx's upcoming concert, Patricia Whitmore, the religious conservative wife of Mayor Mike Whitmore, organizes her church to protest in front of the Bourbon Room, planning to shut them down in an attempt to rid L.A. of its "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" image.
The good in this film mainly comes from Tom Cruise's performance who looks like he just had the best time making this movie. Bringing in a mixture of Axl Rose and Keith Richards, constantly being late, making no sense, new girl every 10 minutes, but still somehow has this insanely great talent that could sell records no matter what reputation he has, Tom was just great and very funny. Alec Baldwin is always great to watch and I even like Russell Brand, but there's this strange "joke/revelation" between them that I won't give away that just didn't work very well. The two leads Diego Boneta and Julianne Hough were cute, but a little too after school Disney show romance for me. But they did perform very well. Catherine Zeta Jones and Paul Giamatti play the one note bad guys with no real motivation other than reputation and money, that's it. It's just been done to death a million times with this story that I wish they would've done something a little more creative with these songs. I do over all like the movie and it's energy, but it could have been so much more, otherwise it just sounds like I've gone to the bar with a bunch of drunks singing karaoke butchering Don't Stop Believin'.
6/10
In 1987, Sherrie Christian travels to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a famous singer while barback Drew Boley prepares for another night of work at "The Bourbon Room," a popular nightclub on the Sunset Strip. As Sherrie approaches The Bourbon, her suitcase, containing her favorite records, is stolen. Seeing the incident, Drew comforts Sherrie and, upon learning of her situation, he gets her a job at the Bourbon Room as a waitress. The club's owner, Dennis Dupree, and his right-hand man, Lonny Barnett, are trying to find a way to deal with unpaid taxes that are threatening the club, wishing their love of rock 'n' roll could keep it alive. They finally decide to book Stacee Jaxx, a famous rock star who has recently announced that he will be resigning from his band, Arsenal, to perform at the Bourbon in hopes of raising enough money to clear up their debt. Upon hearing of Jaxx's upcoming concert, Patricia Whitmore, the religious conservative wife of Mayor Mike Whitmore, organizes her church to protest in front of the Bourbon Room, planning to shut them down in an attempt to rid L.A. of its "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" image.
The good in this film mainly comes from Tom Cruise's performance who looks like he just had the best time making this movie. Bringing in a mixture of Axl Rose and Keith Richards, constantly being late, making no sense, new girl every 10 minutes, but still somehow has this insanely great talent that could sell records no matter what reputation he has, Tom was just great and very funny. Alec Baldwin is always great to watch and I even like Russell Brand, but there's this strange "joke/revelation" between them that I won't give away that just didn't work very well. The two leads Diego Boneta and Julianne Hough were cute, but a little too after school Disney show romance for me. But they did perform very well. Catherine Zeta Jones and Paul Giamatti play the one note bad guys with no real motivation other than reputation and money, that's it. It's just been done to death a million times with this story that I wish they would've done something a little more creative with these songs. I do over all like the movie and it's energy, but it could have been so much more, otherwise it just sounds like I've gone to the bar with a bunch of drunks singing karaoke butchering Don't Stop Believin'.
6/10