Rock of Ages

Can you ring my plan to watch every Tom Cruise movie in order, I come to Rock Of Ages (2012)

Plot In A Paragraph: A small town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip, while pursuing their Hollywood dreams.q

Tom Cruise steals this movie, like with Tropic Thunder, he is not the lead, but he has the best part and he seems to be having a blast.

I love rock music, especially the rock music played here, and I love musicals, some of my favourite movies are musicals, but I don't love this one. My problem with the movie cosmos down to the two leads, Diego Boneta and Julianne Hough!! They're both gorgeous, OK singers and very, so very bland.

Catherine Zeta Jones, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand and Bryan Cranston are all fun, but the movie is also plagued by predictability. Of course the 2 leads fall in love. Of course they have heartfelt conversations while standing behind the "Hollywood" sign. Of course they break up because of a misunderstanding. Of course they're back together at the end. Some parts are fun, but overall it's a miss for me!!

Rock Of Ages grossed $38 million at the domestic box office, to end the year the 84th highest grossing movie of 2012.

I saw the Broadway play with the original cast and had a great time. The movie didn't disappoint me either. A cheesy love story tied together with great music from the hair band 80's was on purpose. Re-living that era, priceless. Go. Enjoy. This will definitely become a cult favorite in future years, bless 'em for preserving some amazing rock history. Ignore the professional critics, go have fun!

This is my first review attempt on IMDb, with hopes this helps those who are turned off by People, EW, local and national news professional (aka, paid) reviewers. I'm a pop culture junkie and a grandma, I don't always agree with the pros. I'm sorry Rock of Ages had a poor box office start out of the gate, but hopefully my little review piece will bring some fun to those clinging to their entertainment dollars. Great party experience!

There's a lot to love and enjoy about Rock of Ages. Like most musicals, it has a great buzz and electric feel to it. You can't help but finish this film with a big smile on your face and its a very feel good comfort experience.

The production value was also great, from the sets to the costumes, everything felt realistic and just looked cool.

Then there's the key part of any musical, the songs. You can't fault the selection, there were numerous classics which just kept on coming. Maybe a little too much.

I couldn't help but feel like there were just too many songs. There wasn't any time to take a breather and the story wasn't allowed to develop outside of the music. As a result I couldn't find myself connecting to any of the characters and I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunity to develop the plot and characters because of the amount of songs.

This wasn't the only problem with the plot... it was all over place. Was this film about Sherry, Drew, Stacee Jaxx, Patricia, Lonnie and Dennis? Who knows. There was too much sharing of the spotlight, and the constant changing of perspectives and protagonists started to give me whiplash. I think things would have benefitted from having a more obvious and clear protagonist to root for and follow, which would have given the film more drive and direction.

I also had mixed feeling about the characters. What Russell Brand was doing with his sporadic Brummie accent I'll never know. He's never been a great actor, and the accent just made everything so much worse. The two "main" characters of Sherrie and Drew were also pretty bland and I wasn't that fussed about them. Tom Cruise on the other hand, what a surprise. Easily the best thing about this film. He threw himself into this role and it massively paid off. It's worth watching for him alone.

Finally, as much as I liked the selection of songs, the singing wasn't always on point and was quite obviously auto tuned to a heavy extent for some of them. I think musical films need to start finding a better balance between casting big names to get bums on seats, but also casting actors who can sing.

Rock of Ages is definitely fun, and any musical lover will find lots to enjoy here. I did however find it to be quite messy and overcrowded with one dimensional characters and too many songs. Lots of fun, but not a great film.

This movie is not flawless, but it is very energetic and fun. If you hate 80s music, then you might as well stop reading this now, cus from beginning to end it's 80s rock music. The sound of the songs in the musical numbers are incredible!! Very sharp and well sung by all the actors, some that I had no idea could sing! Catherine zeta jones was probably my favorite part of the whole movie! She was loads of laughs and fun. It did drag for just a bit in the middle, but it quickly picked itself back up, because the ending is one of my favorite endings in a move ever!! This flick is definitely not for the whole family, but I think the teens and adults will like it. Especially people who grew up in the 80s.

Rock Of Ages is a great musical that's fun and gleefully ridiculous with an incredible cast who give good performances, especially Tom Cruise who is easily the standout. The great songs and solid pacing help make up for the predictable plot.