Rock of Ages 3 out of 10 2012

Rock of Ages   3 out of 10   2012

Rock of Ages was a totally mess.   The movie is set in the late 80's and is basically just a nostalgic musical journey to the music of that time.  The movie itself is a plot less, pointless, cheesy excuse for a movie with the best performance coming from a baboon named Hey Man.   If I wanted to just listen to some 1980's music any hour of old school MTV  would have been more enjoyable.    I'd much rather hear the actual songs  than this cast doing covers of those songs in a story that seemed to be written as an after thought.   

Julianne Hough was the only bright spot in the cast as the sterotypical midwestern girl heading to LA for fame and fortune. Tom Cruise as the Axel Rose like singer was just an odd  casting choice.  Russell Brand confirmed the fact that he isn't an actor and instead just plays a version of himself on screen.   Paul Giamatti's talents are wasted in this movie in a role that may have well been straight out of an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.   There are a few okay jokes here and there amongst the paper thin plot---but basically this movie  (if it can be called a movie)  just hopes that you will be caught up in songs that you used to love that you will ignore the lack of any substance in the film.    The songs are good, but none of them are favorites of mine from that era that I lived in.   You are better off heading down to a local bar and catching an 80's cover band than sitting through this so called movie or popping in an old VHS tape of an hour of MTV  than sitting through this movie.   I would definitely not sit through this film a second time and I like some cheesy movies.