Review: "Rock of Ages"

Based on the broadway smash hit, Rock of Ages is that all-too familiar story about a small town girl with dreams of making it in the big city. Sherrie (Julianne Hough) leaves Oklahoma for Hollywood where she meets Drew (Diego Boneta), an aspiring singer working at the biggest club on the Sunset Strip, where the legendary rock group, Arsenal, is ready to light up the stage for one final show.

It's hard to believe that in 1987, the year the story takes place, moral crusaders would still be trying to put an end to the "evil of rock 'n roll" -- especially since gangster rap was getting big at this time -- but the mayor's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) wants to clean up the streets and shut down the club. Her protesting seems much more appropriate for a 1950's era story, rather than this nostalgic look at the late 1980's hair band era, but she is also driven by a personal vendetta against Arsenal's front-man, Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).

The club's owner (Alec Baldwin) and manager (Russell Brand) are depending on the big show to help rescue their business from looming debt, but Jaxx's manager (Paul Giamatti) is hard at work screwing them out of the take. If Zeta-Jones' character represents the puritanical opposition towards the rock 'n roll lifestyle, Giamatti's character is definitely the opportunistic devil inside. He's pulling triple duty by screwing the club, leeching off of Stacee, and trying to lure Drew into selling his soul for a chance at fame.

The musical numbers are supposed to be the highlight of a movie like this, but while numerous, the retooled versions of classic eighties hits from Poison, Def Leppard, Journey, Foreigner, and Twisted Sister among others, have lost their original punch. Also, the Glee-style mash-ups -- where two songs are sung together -- only work well once, as Zeta-Jones belts out "We're Not Gonna Take It" against Russell Brand's rendition of "We Built This City."

Lackluster musical numbers aside, the film's real failing is not developing the romance between Sherrie and Drew enough. Hough and Boneta are fine performers, but their story is thin, and stretched out "like butter over too much bread." You may be rooting against Giamatti's or Zeta-Jones' characters, but you're never pulling for the young couple to be together, the way you do for Danny and Sandy in Grease, for example.

The best scenes in the film belong to Cruise, who is electric as Stacee Jaxx. Looking back at that famous scene in Risky Business, where he dances in his underwear, it may have only been a matter of time before Cruise ended up in a musical. His version of a burnt-out rocker past his prime, finally having some truth thrown in his face by a young Rolling Stone reporter (Malin Ackerman), is the reason to see the film (if you see it at all). It's a character type that Cruise has never played, and he seems to have a lot of fun in these smaller roles (remember Magnolia and Tropic Thunder?). There's an intensity to his scenes with Ackerman that the rest of the film never manages to duplicate.

Musicals are few and far between these days, so it would be easy to get swept up in the nostalgia of Rock of Ages, but the film favors jamming in a few too many songs, and taking a less-is-more approach to the story. The experience is comparable to watching a well-meaning cover band . . . the notes are in the right place and the words are in the right order, but it just feels a bit lacking.

"Setting the Frame" Film Grade = C -