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Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today.

Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films.

Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com/user/jsjkim, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReThinkReviews. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant.

Rock Of Ages

I have fond memories of the music of the 80s, including the era of hair bands like Poison, Bon Jovi, and Night Ranger, as well as the hits of 1987, the year that the 80s rock comedy musical ‘Rock of Ages’ takes place in the fading glory of LA’s Sunset Strip. Hair bands have been relegated to things of nostalgia, ridicule, and irony, but as ‘Rock of Ages’ is right to point out, when it comes to popular music, we have and did do a lot worse.

The film revolves around a fictional club called the Bourbon Room, a once-legendary venue owned by aging rocker Dennis (played by Alec Baldwin) with help from his British sidekick Lonny (played by Russell Brand). With the Bourbon about to close due to unpaid taxes, Dennis’ only hope is a big show by Stacee Jaxx, an overindulging, spaced-out rock god (played by Tom Cruise), whose band got their start at the Bourbon and is on the verge of breaking up at the urging of Stacee’s sleazy manager (played by Paul Giamatti).

Drew (played by Diego Boneta) is a bar back at the Bourbon with his own dreams of hair metal stardom, who finds his inspiration with Sherrie, a fresh-off-the-bus Oklahoma girl (played by Julianne Hough) with her own rock ‘n’ roll dreams who becomes a waitress at the Bourbon as well as Drew’s girlfriend. Meanwhile, a moralizing conservative mom’s group led by the mayor’s crusading wife (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) is trying to get the Bourbon shut down in an effort to clean up and commercialize the Strip, though destroying Stacie Jaxx is her real obsession.

Now there were some things in ‘Rock of Ages’ I really liked, but there were also things that were annoying or just plain weird. But what’s weirdest is that what I liked and what I didn’t like were often the same things.

First, with a few exceptions, I generally don’t like filmed musicals, especially when the music isn’t original. That’s because I’d much rather hear the original songs than an actor, even a talented one, doing their karaoke version. Plus, I can’t get over the fact that in filmed musicals, everything is lip-synced, and I have a really hard time with people earnestly and spontaneously bursting into song, which, let’s face it, would be a nightmare in real life, and nothing would ever get done. That said, when Mary J. Blige shows up as the owner of the strip club who hires Sherrie, the music gets a burst of energy, which makes me wish there was a whole album of Blige belting out 80s tunes.

Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx is, let’s face it, just plain odd, since Cruise, despite being in great shape, just isn’t sexy and is too old for the role. What’s more, Jaxx — who seems like a mix of Jim Morrison and Scott Stapp of the 90s Christian poser rock band Creed — is out of place compared with the loudmouth bad boys of hair metal like Motley Crue’s Vince Neil or Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach. But Cruise’s commitment to such a strange, uncharacteristic role is so absolute that he’s impossible not to watch, especially in one ridiculously sexed-up number with Malin Ackeman as a Rolling Stone reporter, which briefly makes the film feel daring. I found the Sherrie/Drew story to be mostly boring, and the fact that you never see Hough dance, which she did so masterfully on Dancing With the Stars and the remake of ‘Footloose’, is a real missed opportunity. However, Baldwin and Brand make such a hilarious odd couple that I wish the whole movie had been about them.

Hopefully conservatives will get in a tizzy about how they’re portrayed, especially as their own sexual hypocrisy is revealed, but it’s important to laugh at what conservatives in the 80s were screeching about, since very little has changed and, as with issues like gay marriage, we’ll soon be laughing at how backwards they are today. But while ‘Rock of Ages’ humorously identifies pop as the enemy of 80s rock, it was really bands like U2, R.E.M., and eventually grunge and alternative that slammed the door on hair bands, when the conspicuous indulgence of the 80s proved empty and unsustainable and we realized that there was more to life, and music, than just a good time.

‘Rock of Ages’ is rated PG-13 and opens today.