So I wrote a review of Rock of Ages.
Spoiler: I liked it.
I know, I know, I should burn my cinephile card and turn in my movie reviewer badge, but honestly there’s something about the gee whiz camp that turns beloved rock anthems into safe, candy-colored harbingers of the kind of fluff that movie musicals used to churn through gleefully before Srs Bsnss cinema mostly stomped it out.
The movie is unabashedly fake, relentlessly cheesy, and openly mocking the rock culture it purportedly celebrates. I dig that, the fine line between derision and homage, and how razor thin it gets in this movie.
Probably not going to convince anyone, though, as the movie you see in the trailer is basically what you’re going to get. If you don’t like cornball stories about how rock and roll will deliver naive young folks into tru wuv, or Tom Cruise trying his best to be to channel his inner sex god (a bizarro world version of his character in Magnolia), then steer VERY clear. For everyone else, it’s essentially Rock Band: The Movie, and that’s pretty hilarious.
