Rock of Ages
Rating: 3/5
Starring:
Julianne Hough, Diego Bonana, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Paul
Giamatti and Mary J Blige
Director: Adam Shankman
Year: 2012
Rock of Ages is
a musical that I had seen advertised in various magazines and on television
etc and to be honest I wasn’t really desperate to go and see it. One rainy
night while reading my Total Film magazine, I noticed that they were releasing
a film of the musical and Tom Cruise was starring in it. While looking for
something to go and see in the cinema, I decided to give Rock of Ages a chance,
liking rock music and looking to see something a bit different and surprisingly
enough I was very impressed and came out with a huge smile on my face.
The film takes place
in 1987 Los Angeles, California. A young woman named Sherry Christian follows her
dreams and leaves her small town of Tulsa, Oklaholma to embark upon a career of
becoming a singer. While there, she meets Drew Boley and there they end up in a
relationship and he gets her a job in The Bourbon Club, a bar which caters for
rock music fans with regular live bands playing. In order to try and boost the
clubs profile, manager Dennis calls a favour from Stacey Jaxx’s manager
who agrees that the singer will play at the club. Sherry meets the singer and
while doing him a favour, Drew ends up thinking that she slept with him and so
they decide to part ways for a while. In
the end, he wins her back by guying back her records which were stolen from her
at the beginning of the film.
Throughout the
film of course there are various musical numbers including: I Wanna Rock, Dead
or Alive, More Than Words, I Wanna Know What Love Is, etc. The songs used
throughout related well to the storyline and you really couldn’t help but sing
along with almost every song! Credit must be due to Tom Cruise who was
excellent in his role as Stacey Jaxx. ‘I Wanna Know What Love Is’ is one of my
favourite scenes and moments. I didn’t actually think that it was him singing
but alas it was. This film shouldn’t be taken seriously, yes its cheesy and it
isn’t the best film ever made but it has a ‘feel good’ vibe to it and it really
works. I would consider going to see the musical and have recommended the film to many friends,
who like me were quite sceptical at the beginning. I have also downloaded the
soundtrack and have that playing in my car on the way to work!
It is a
fantastic film and one which the whole family will enjoy.
Good points: The soundtrack is absolutely outstanding, again the choice of songs
couldn’t have been better. Tom Cruise. ‘Feel good factor’ Good
use of humour.
Bad points: A little long, a chunk could have been cut where there was no singing
