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Rock of Ages

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US, 2012 Julianne Hough, Diego Boneto, Tom Cruise, Adam Baldwin, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Directed by Adam Shankman.

Do you remember the 80s? Perhaps the wrong question for potential audiences of Rock of Ages. They may have not been born then or were very young. This reviewer remembers the 80s but not the 80s on display here. We live in our own worlds and, of course, we have our own music tastes - though I do remember a couple of songs heard (and seen) here.

The scene is Los Angeles. The particular scene is a club on Sunset Boulevard. Inside, it has lots of rooms for yelling and rocking devotees - and some backstage rooms which lend themselves to the kind of activity that anti-rock campaigners complain about. Across the street is an area for gathering and, here, for protests, led by some devout women who want to clean up the strip. Speaking of strip, there is also a ‘gentlemen’s club’ venue for some of the action, plenty of poles and plenty of ‘dancers’.

But, I do remember that in 1984, Footloose was released, a story of a strong-minded pastor (John Lithgow) who wanted to ban rock and roll from his town - but Kevin Bacon arrived to convert people to the music and the dance. Rock of Ages has its eye on Footloose and its issues (and has a reference in the credits - and the star of Rock of Ages, Julianne Hough, starred in the 2011 Footloose remake). Of course, the protesters tend to be Christian narrow minded citizens (and some of them live double standards, the more the protest, the more the hypocrisy).

Rock of Ages tends to be loud, sweaty and gyrating - which makes the experience, for audiences who have not been transported back to the 80s, something of an endurance. Otherwise, you might want to get up and dance in the aisles because the songs come fairly frequently and are imaginatively sung by many of the cast with intercutting editing. And all the cast, a number of whom you have not heard sing before, belt out the numbers. This is particularly true of Tom Cruise, all tattooed, long-haired, shirt off (and sweaty), as the ageing rock star, Jacey Staxx. But, at 49, Cruise (who showed his athleticism in his previous Mission Impossible movie) is certainly vigorous and rocks the songs out himself. Even Alec Baldwin as the manager of the club and Russell Brand as his assistant, and more than friend, get into the action. And even Paul Giamatti as a cynical promoter. Catherine Zeta Jones has sung to Oscar effect in Chicago. Here she is the leader of the protestors (with, of course, a guilty secret).

However, this is one of those old (very old) tales of the ingénue who leaves Oklahoma to be a singer in LA and falls in love with the barman in the club who also wants to sing. Actually, both Julianne Hough and Diego Beneto, do quite a lot of singing, but their love, misunderstandings, reconciliation, run along the expected lines. Despite poking fun at Boy Bands who did become popular in the 90s, music taste has meant that what has lasted is the Rock and Roll of Ages.

Peter Malone