Rock Of Ages great for the 80s folk

[George Bellefontaine]

If rock and roll from the eighties was your particular era, you will probably already have seen Rock Of Ages, so I won't bother with the story line. The 40s/50s was more my era, but I had three sons who were so into rock and roll ( and the 80s was their era ) that I sometimes ran from the house screaming. But music is a love of mine and I have embraced all the eras as well as all musical categories, and to be honest, there were some great tunes from those 80s rock groups. One song in particular by Foreigner, I Wanna Know What Love Is, has been a fave of mine for sometime, and though I have a hard time continuing to be a fan of Tom Cruise, he really does a killer job performing this piece. In fact he does a killer job period as the aging rock star,Stacee Jaxx.

If the 80s was your period in music, you should see this film. Pretty damn authentic. And the extras features a terrific docu on those now aged boys of 80s rock and roll. :T

[Hdale85]

Yeah Diana and I really enjoyed this one as well. It seemed to be rather well done and had a pretty decent story line to it, not a unique story line but a decent one at least.

[George Bellefontaine]

One of my sons, who's 52 now, played lead guitar in a rock band back in the 80s. We were discussing the film the other day and he reminded me the hair look he had at the time. Oh, yeah, it was pretty wild. He felt the film was true to the times but didn't like it when suddenly, in the middle of some dialogue, they would break out in song. I reminded him it was based on a Broadway musical. All in all, he really enjoyed the movie.

[Hdale85]

Yeah it's supposed to be a musical lol. Some people can't take musicals though and it's understandable. For a musical though it had some great music.

[aud19]

I'm more of a 90's guy but I certainly remember a lot of the 80's music. Might have to give it a look, thanks guys :T

[Ovation]

While I'm not a big fan of 80s music (at least, not to the degree of 70s music) my wife is a huge fan of the era and this will be among the rare films we can both enjoy. We just have to find the time to watch it.

[Chris D]

HUGE fan of 80's music here. But I haven't seen this movie yet, and don't even know much about it. It's on my Netflix list, but it's listed as an unknown release date.

[aud19]

Oh, is it not out yet?

[Hdale85]

Netflix doesn't get movies right away, it was released on DVD/Blu-ray October 9th.

[Chris D]

Rented it from Blockbuster.

Silly movie.

Great music.

Liked it.

:35: out of :5:

[George Bellefontaine]

Rented it from Blockbuster.

Silly movie.

Great music.

Liked it.

:35: out of :5:

Well that sums it up pretty well, Chris.

[aud19]

:lol: Now I can't wait to watch it! :rofl:

[madmac]

Honestly....Music can make or break a movie for me. I've seen movie's with great music and they manage to move me.......whether the movie was that great or not. Not sure if that's right or not but music moves me in general......

[Chris D]

Ok, a little more detail- Not too long after starting the movie, I was loving it. I am absolutely a child of the 80's, and LOVE the music. I was really enjoying the music woven in.

Started to drop off for me, as the story steadily got somewhat silly and routine. Oh well. Then Tom Cruise sang the opener to "Dead or Alive", and it took a big downturn. Ouch--he's not great, and Julianne Hough really showed him up. Some of the later stuff in the song he does much better, and he did play the role well, so I'll give him credit.

I had big smiles and giddy memory feelings in many of the songs. That was the soundtrack to my junior high dances. My personal highlight was when they blended "We Built This City" with "We're Not Going to Take It". LOVED the medley!

There was a black lady in the film that I didn't recognize, but she absolutely stole the scenes when she sang. Then at the end, I saw it was Mary J. Blige. That would explain it. She really did well, and when you put her right up against Paul Giamatti, Alec Baldwin, and Tom Cruise singing there's no comparison. A real singer compared to really fine actors that just strain at singing.

I would have liked to have seen better singers in the film. But it was silly and fun. Good rental for me; I won't be buying it or probably even a rewatch. Side note, I think it takes a different storyline than the play. I saw that in the play, Stacee Jaxxx gets charged with statutory rape and flees to Uruguay or something like that.

[George Bellefontaine]

Yeah, as Chris said, the story is kinda silly. But I disagree a little on his assessment of Cruise's singing ability. As I said earlier, I have a hard time continuing to be a Cruise fan, but his musical vocals in this movie really surprised me, and as I said earlier, I thought he did a killer job on I Wanna Know What Love Is, and I felt he nailed the Stacee Jaxxx character. IMHO, of course, Chris .

[Hdale85]

I felt he played the character quite well, He's sort of the precursor to Johnny Dep as he has done a lot of strange roles as well as some serious ones that other actors would not do, or would certainly not do anywhere near as well.

[aud19]

Yeah, as Chris said, the story is kinda silly. But I disagree a little on his assessment of Cruise's singing ability. As I said earlier, I have a hard time continuing to be a Cruise fan, but his musical vocals in this movie really surprised me, and as I said earlier, I thought he did a killer job on I Wanna Know What Love Is, and I felt he nailed the Stacee Jaxxx character. IMHO, of course, Chris .

Cruise is an oddity for me. I can't STAND the guy on a personal level (from what I know of him anyway)...but I have to hand it to him, he is an exceedingly accomplished actor and has done a TON of fantastic movies, most of which I thoroughly enjoy even on repeated viewings. Vanilla Sky is in fact one of my favourite movies.

[Chris D]

Actually, I agree with all you guys about Tom Cruise. Personal and professional. He has grown to be a VERY good and accomplished actor, whether it's Jerry Maguire (one of my favorites) or still doing action very well at his age, like the latest Mission Impossible.

George, I very much agree that he did the Stacee Jaxxx character very well. And I actually liked most of his singing. But you know how certain songs, and specific difficult/vulnerable parts, can really show the extent of a singer's prowess? (this is one reason why show judges like "American Idol" preach about the importance of song selection) Most of the song "Dead or Alive" actually does NOT definitely show the limit of a singer, other than a few high or really powerful portions. (which Cruise actually did very well) But the way they did the intro, with the lead singer going soft and almost acapella, really required a LOT of voice control and diaphragm support. Tom didn't do too terribly bad, but it was evident to me immediately that he was not a professional singer, especially since you can't help but compare that moment to Jon Bon Jovi's original, and THAT guy does have a highly professional voice. As soon as they got past the first stanza or two, and Tom could put some volume into it, he sounded fine.

Just my opinion, of course!

[George Bellefontaine]

Understood, Chris. What probably impressed me with what he accomplished throughout the film, though, was the fact that he wasn't a professional singer.

[aud19]

Yeah you could definitely hear the small parts in a few of the songs that said "not a professional singer" but I thought he did an overall commendable job and even thought he did a great job on "Pour some sugar on me". That could have passed as a "real thing" for me.

[Ovation]

Finally found some time to watch this last night. I have a hard time finding movies that both my wife and I enjoy and I thought I'd scored a definite home run with this one.

Nope. She hated it. She enjoyed the songs well enough, but she hated almost every aspect of the story (and, as it turns out, she was not fond of it being a musical). I would have bet 1000$ she would love this movie (good thing I found no takers). Oddly enough, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Not my favourite musical era (or sub-genre from the 80s), I'm not a big fan of musicals on film as a rule and I had low expectations of Tom Cruise in a singing role.

Ultimately, I agree with Chris D above--silly movie, great music (performances--still not a huge fan of the music itself), liked the film.

[George Bellefontaine]

I have a hard time finding movies that both my wife and I enjoy and I thought I'd scored a definite home run with this one. I would have bet 1000$ she would love this movie

I've been down that road many times, Paul. After 56 years of married bliss, what I did learn was that the story could be a stinker, but if it starred her favorite actor/actress, she always loved it.

[Ovation]

I do try to keep that in mind (and, in fact, she's a fan of Tom Cruise--go figure). We had a rather lengthy talk afterwards and the conclusion we came to is she has a very narrow taste in films (her own words). Chick-flics, suspense/mystery thrillers (not too much violence and no more gore than broadcast TV would allow) and some comedies (mostly "family-safe" comedies). I, on the other hand, can go from Ahnald to Bergman in the same day, with some Tarantino and early Hitchcock thrown into the mix. In fact, apart from horror as a rule (I do make the occasional exception if well-reviewed by someone I trust) and TV-movie of the week grade chick flics, I'm open to most anything on film from the late 19th century silent era to big-budget superhero movies.