Review of Rock of Ages (2012) by Halcombe N — 21 Oct 2013

It has to been said and clarified that I was very keen on watching Rock of Ages, it seemed to me as an interesting movie, a musical with rock songs from the 80s that tells of a story of a girl and a boy who want to be successful within Hollywood. Nightlife, live music, stylish youngsters, groupies, rock and roll and most importantly, great actors such as Catherine Zeta Jones Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin or an appearance of the brilliant Mary J. Blige. Tom Cruise owns the look, attitude and posture of Axl Rose from Axel Rose and the tattoo of Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Even the accent of the mostly times unbearable Russell Brand sounds fresh on this occasion.

It is only a mirage as Rock of Ages is full of nonsenses, minor jokes and boring occurrences that do not obtain what they do pretend; the movie is no funny at all. The songs (unbelievable!) do not sound good, music performances are not well carried out and the underlying dramatic story is only an anecdote.

Tom Cruise is the only thing that can be remembered from Rock of Ages, the roles of Russell Brand and Catherine Zeta Jones for instance are laughable and ludicrous, Alec Baldwin must not have many job opportunities and the rest of the cast (secondary actress Malin Akerman aside) will not be on better movies.

Rock of Ages is an absolute failure that only can be praised because of the performance and above all the characterization that (equal to Magnolia movie) confronts us with a superb Tom Cruise acting in a secondary role. Why is he always doing blockbusters where he is all the time onscreen overshadowing everything else?

To sum up, Rock of Ages is a pity, mainly because it has actors, songs and a great idea (Rock of Ages was a successful musical once) but the result is excruciating as a result.