Happy Father's Day to all. Also with my infrequent blog posts of late I would like to thank all those who displayed their American flags proudly on Flag Day.
Here is the classic Def Leppard song that inspired the movie's title:
I went to see "Rock of Ages" this past Friday morning. Although it was opening day, I was only one of about 10 people in the theatre. I saw one woman with her three teenage kids and I said to her, your kids aren't going to understand this movie. However she said she had raised them right. I wonder what her kids thought after the movie.
I'm not going to lie to you, most of the reason I went to see "Rock of Ages" is nostalgia. I was excited to hear the songs that formed such a big part of my adolescence rocking out again. By my count Def Leppard had three songs in the movie. I do wonder why two of the biggest Sunset Strip bands, Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue, weren't better represented. I only remember "Paradise City" from GN'R and no songs from Motley Crue. Although "Girls Girls Girls" would have been great for the stripper scenes.
The movie, set in 1987, does a good job of clearly showing the seamy underside of late 80's Sunset Strip scene. While this is an era I feel deeply nostalgic for, there's no doubt it was full of the dark side of the human condition. This movie captures that seaminess accurately, especially in Tom Cruise's Axl Rosian character Stacee Jaxx. (Axl Rose if you want to see how many people view you, you should see this movie.) From Cruise's boob grabbing and french kissing ways, he perfectly represents Freud's Id theory with frightening skill. He portrays the self-absorbed, disconnected rock star so well.
Above in the clip we first see Malin Akerman in all her 80's glory playing the very sexy Rolling Stone reporter. I love the name of his first CD was "Stick Meat".
I also have to give Cruise props for his inspired take on "Wanted Dead or Alive". That song sounds fantastic here and captures the essence of his character. Watching this scene you can clearly see that this character had lived this song.
Although the clear star of this movie is all these great rock classics, the camera loves the gorgeous Julianne Hough. She looks fantastic and sounds great. When she's on the screen it was hard for me to take my eyes off of her. Although she was raised LDS, she has clearly stepped away from those values to get her big break. I hope it's worth it for her. In this scene see how much the camera loves Julianne:
Obviously the movie was headed to Hough would be stripping for money. Again we got it and it's not something we needed to see.
Overall this movie was okay, I would have to give it a C grade. I'm not sure if I would recommend this movie or not. The critics have absolutely savaged it while many of my peeps have loved it. Take that how you want. It could have been so much better. The Alec Baldwin-Russell Brand kiss, was that really necessary? One thing that wasn't necessary was the whole Catherine Zeta-Jones/ Brian Cranston scenes. That whole storyline was boring and slowed the movie down every time we had to suffer through those scenes. I understand those scenes are designed to show the hypocrisy behind the late 80's movements that were trying to shut down rock music for teenagers. Obviously they are mocking Tipper Gore's ridiculous PRMC movement. They had their moment, but thankfully faded away to obscurity, where the movement belonged.
In the above scene shows some of the the liberties were taken with these great songs. Where is that excellent solo from "We Built This City"? Why did they take that out? Also some of the songs were edited, I found that disappointing. Although I find it funny that the man, represented by Catherine Zeta-Jones, turns "We're Not Going To Take It" on it's ear. The anthem of disaffected youth everywhere is turned into a call to arms for their elders.
There were so many story lines that felt unnecessary in this movie. Again most of the Malin Akerman scenes felt irrelevant. Other than the fact that's how Stacee Jaxx found out that his manager was ripping him off. That being said I'm glad that Ackerman was cast in this movie. She had that 80's look down cold highlighted by her amazing 80's hair. I loved 80's hair. Akerman simply looks gorgeous here and she rocks those glasses too:
Here's a video, part trailer/ part behind the scenes peak, for "Rock of Ages":
This is Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me". I love the tweaks that were done to this song for "Rock of Ages":
This is the original:
I would so go back to the 80's if I could. I would still want to have the full access to the internet, the ability to see my kids. I would find my own 80's hawt rock chick though.
themusicaddict
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