Review of Rock Star (2001) by Gabriel Arthur P — 03 Apr 2016

This is fast, fun, funny and campy. For good-enough films I normally rate down from a perfect for various flaws but there's no reason to rate this film down. It does what it comes to do, which is obviously to "rock".

If I tried to rate it from the bottom up for its virtues like a not-good-enough film, it wouldn't get that great of a score but that's because I'm not a metal head and this isn't something I'd normally watch.

I got lucky, I guess, and got it as a gift from a neighbor who was moving back to Detroit. The costumers, makeup artists, and sound technicians definitely had a field day with this one. The movie has a fun premise: a rock and roll tribute band (basically a cover band that goes all the way, with dress-up and voice stylings) has its troubles until the lead singer gets the real gig as the lead singer of the band he loves so much.

Jennifer Aniston and Mark Wahlberg don't over-draw or over-exert themselves, and put in a pretty genuine performance. The self-deprecating humour millennials expect is delivered subtly by everyone involved and doesn't screw up the beat.

And we find out that the original lead singer is being pushed out of the band because he's lazy -- but there's a direct insinuation that it's because he's gay. Well, the casting of Mark Wahlberg for the part of the rags-to-riches dream boy was well placed, because Wahlberg is a proven natural vocal talent.

Well, the movie moves on to dealing with issues of flagrant sexuality which is an everlasting hallmark of rock music, and wanton lust is a hit or miss subject for any writer. Lucky for the viewer, there are few proposed complications and the sheer megalomania is allowed to continue unabated.

The movie doesn't do anything to give itself hiccoughs and that's the important part. It does lag a little, though. Around the time any kind of dramatic dilemma is introduced, I felt like the film should have about an hour left to it but there was only half an hour left to go.

And it's really endearing how the climax touches the heart with the simple conundrum of honesty. Well, it's obvious that everyone involved with every aspect of the production did everything they could to send across a completely hollow feeling whenever it was needed, which is really, really important to rock music.

And in the end, the film lends a note to what really makes rock music important to its fans to begin with. I think there's an ending to this film that was set up in an earlier scene and for some reason it got wrote out, but, I'm actually glad I watched it and since I feel like it should have gone on longer, I give it 5/5.

The only bad thing I can say about it is that if it were a film about a Yes tribute band, I would have watched it the day it showed.