PCP on DVD - Rock of Ages

I'm a sucker for 80's hair metal, so a movie musical based on that era's music is something I wanted to see. Unfortunately, there are plenty of better jukebox musicals out there (both on screen and in live theater), and this movie was a disappointment. I have not seen the stage musical, so I don't know if it is better or worse than this film, but the film version was a disappointment.

Rock of Ages - 2012, rated PG-13.  My rating: 6 out of 10.


The movie is set in the 80's in Los Angeles' rock and roll club scene, and features a ton of great 80's music, including tracks made famous by Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Journey, Poison, & many more. The film's take on these rock hits is cheesy in some places, but highly entertaining in others, especially when Tom Cruise takes the mic as rock star Stacee Jaxx.

The plot has a couple overlapping storylines, but primarily revolves around the small town girl that comes to L.A. to follow her dreams, and how easy it is to lose yourself and lose your way in the music industry in the pursuit of fame and glory.

Rock of Ages has a great supporting cast, including Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, and Alec Baldwin. Too bad the leads, Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta, have poor chemistry and also lack the gravitas to carry this film. They're not bad singers at least, so there's not someone like Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia sucking the life out of every musical number with his terrible singing voice.

Despite how much fun 80's music can be, the film isn't as much fun as it should be. Honestly, you're probably better throwing on an 80's channel on Pandora and singing along with that channel than you would be watching this movie. You'd definitely have more fun. Really the only thing saving this film from catastrophe is Tom Cruise's performance. He's the best thing about this movie, and pretty much the only reason to watch this film.