Rock Of Ages

I went to see Rock of Ages last night, the movie where Tom Cruise portrays a drunk and drug fuelled rock star.

It’s a kind of Grease meets Fame meets Glee movie i.e. a boy meets girl musical with a whole lot of other interesting characters along the side.

Must admit I didn’t know it was a musical.  Although I was anticipating some singing with the rock scenes.  So you can imagine my surprise when the lead female “Sheree” burst into song as she sat demurely on a greyhound bus transporting her to LA.  And yes she was the typical naive country girl with a suitcase of dreams and floral dresses.  Of course she needed some backup, I mean let’s be honest here, who wouldn’t on a bus, and very quickly her fellow passengers joined in, and before long the whole bus was crooning, including the bus driver.

After the first couple of cheesy scenes I was at the oh-no-I’ve-made-a-mistake moment, but you know what as it continued I really started to enjoy it.  The movie was set in 1987, and the soundtrack was good old rock and roll, along with a couple of well known ballads.  All the actors sang, and unlike Mamma-Mia where it was slightly cringe-worthy, they all did a pretty good job.

Tom Cruise, I have to say was excellent, as was Alec Baldwin.  Catherine Zeta-Jones played the bible bashing Mayor’s wife, and man did she belt out a couple of numbers.  The scene in the church with  Catherine and her bible-wives singing and strutting  their stuff up the aisle and between pews dressed in typical head to toe floral and respectable clothing was classic.

I’m not sure if the movie was supposed to be funny, but the movie audience were rolling and roaring at times.  And at the end a few people clapped and a crowd behind us shouted out “long live Rock n Roll”.

It’s probably not  going to appeal to the masses, and it will not be remembered as a classic, but it was fun and we had a good laugh.

Slight tangent shift here though.  I said Tom Cruise was excellent, and he really was.  He looked good and he can sing reasonably well.  But what surprised me most was why would he play the part of a drunk, drug-fuelled, sex mad rocker when his beliefs are so against this?  I don’t think there is a single moment in the movie where his character isn’t high or drunk.  Am I being daft here, but is it not comparable to a sports person refusing to play on a Sunday due to religious beliefs?  I know some will say it’s all down to money, but he has plenty, and could have turned the part down.   Or what am I missing here?

Anybody seen a good movie lately?