Review of Thunderstruck (2004) by Bronwyn V — 16 Sep 2010

After nearly dying after an AC/DC concert, five fans decide that the first of them to die would be buried next to their idol, Bon Scott. And so, twelve years later four of the gang regroup to take a road trip and bury their pal Ronnie who was -you guessed- thunderstruck.

As always, I start with the positives. The acting in this film wasn't too bad, especially for an independent. The unfortunate fact is that these five friends are never really characterized very well as such, and have only a few brief moments that prove their connection to each other. Ronnie's character was hardly developed at all, and thus it doesn't carry enough weight to warrant the plot of the film. Even though the script has plenty of wit & clever plot twists, it fails to be anything more than a simple road trip flick.

But there's another crucial element to the film that drags it down further than it should have. These four guys are supposed to be hardcore rock fans. And they just don't pull it off. The fact that the plot is based around this fan-dom sinks the ship like loose lips. It's so generalized, a few changes could really make this about any band. I see what the film is trying to accomplish, but it just doesn't do it very well. It doesn't deliver any sense of "hardcore" about it. And the heart that's meant to carry between the comedy is hardly there at all.

Over all the clever script and half-decent acting can't keep this bland, overly-formulaic road trip comedy from living up to American cinema, much less Aussie, as the charm slowly deteriorates from beginning to end. And it paints a pale portrait of its fan-dom that it seems to have so much love for. In a word, I was underwhelmed. "Thunderstruck" gets 3.5 red hats out of 10.