Everybody Wants A Thrill

'Rock of Ages"

Directed by Adam Shankman

Starring: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise and Malin Akerman

Rated: PG-13

125 Minutes



"Rock of Ages" arrives at a time when audiences are perhaps burnt out on the jukebox musical genre.  With "Glee" on television, and every couple of years puncuated with a "Mama Mia" or a "Hairspray," they seem to have worn out their welcome.  That's too bad, because "Rock of Ages" happens to be a particularly excellent offering of the jukebox musical platform that does justice to the songs that it honors.  Part of the success here, I think, is pitch-perfect casting and enough energy for both the movie and the stage production that it's based on.   While the actors may not all have equal vocal abilities, everyone brings a level of exuberance that is completely disarming in its sincerity.

While watching "Rock of Ages," I wasn't really thinking about "Glee" or similar contemporary takes on modern classics.  Instead, think more like "Moulin Rouge" almost a century later.  "Rock of Ages" assembles probably 95% of all the best glam rock of the 80s.  It's quite a feat; but the pleasure comes from observing how each tune is inserted cleverly into the story, which by itself would be throwaway material.  Of course, if each one of the roughly 22 songs were played full length, you'd have one helluva long movie, so the compromise is a few genre-bending medleys that accentuate all the best parts of all of your favorites.  I don't know how this works on the broadway stage, but for a film of over two hours, it does remarkable things to the pacing of the action in a pretty unoriginal narrative.

The cookie-cutter plot involves Julianne Hough playing a small-town girl living in her lonely world, who takes a greyhound out west to make it big in Hollywood.  This is Sherrie Christian (seriously, you'll be forgiven if you want to break out with "Sister Christian"), who can sing sweetly, but finds herself overwhelmed at the neon glow and seedy sneer of the Sunset strip.  Luckily, she runs into Drew (Diego Boneta, the film's stand-out performer), who works at the Bourbon Room, an infamous rock n' roll venue that is at risk of closing due to some failed bookings and back taxes.  The owner, Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin, surprisingly vivacious) is reluctant to offer yet another dream chaser a job, but after a good first impression, he gives her a shot.  Dupree and his house manager Lonny (Russell Brand) are banking on securing the rock n' roll burn out Stacee Jaxx for a final show with his band before he goes solo.  Tom Cruise in his aging years is consistently full of surprises and as Stacee Jaxx, he has performed his own vocals and does a very competant job with the difficult tunes.  This will be a relief to anyone who saw Pierce Brosnan tone-bomb his way through "Mama Mia."

Jaxx is managed by the low life Paul Gill (Paul Giamatti), who operates like a used car salesman in a prostitution casino.  I don't know if those exist, but this guy could sure corner the market on that endeavor.  Pretty soon, things are getting complicated romanticly, financially and musically.  Stacee Jax finds himself with renewed purpose after an interview with a curt journalist played by Malin Akerman.  Cruise's performance in this scene has shades of his Frank Mackey character during a similar scene from "Magnolia."  He conveys a lot by saying very little and people see right through his facade.  There is also an oddly shoehorned subplot with a Mayor (Brian Cranston) who is underhanded by his wife, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is on a war path to close the den of filth that is the Bourbon Room.  This development is obviously injected for conflict, but disappears for large sections of the film.  That's okay because there are so many wall-to-wall rock n' roll hits that are performed so well that the movie doesn't necessarily need conflict.

"Rock of Ages" is generating mostly negative reviews.  Given the over-exposure of jukebox musicals, I suppose that is to be expected to some degree.  But I will go to my grave defending the level of effort put on screen here.  Adam Shankman, who directed the most recent re-make of "Hairspray," certainly knows his way around staging.  He may be more hit or miss with his mainstream fare, but he succeeds here by providing the audience with an onslaught irresistable foot-tapping rock anthems and ballads.  Each performer puts in the effort to do the music justice and by the end, everyone has energy to spare.  I am a sucker for 80's rock n' roll and while it would be easy to complain that "Rock of Ages" has a karaoke feel, I argue that those same people doing the  complaining are out at the bars on Friday night singing all the same songs.  And not nearly as well as the singing in this film.