Rock of Ages (2012)

 “[playing “Donkey Kong” arcade game] No! Nobody puts Donkey in the corner!” – Lonny

Number of Times Seen – 1 (7 May 2014)

Brief Synopsis – Two people in search of fame and stardom in LA in the mid 1980’s meet and instantly fall in love.  But life in LA changes them both and they need to try and obtain what they really were seeking.

My Take on it – I had heard about this play years ago and was intrigued by the idea of creating a musical based on 80’s music. (I’m still waiting for the movie version of Billy Joel’s “Moving Out”)

For some reason, I missed that this movie was made and released and only stumbled across it a two weeks ago by accident.

Growing up as a child of the 80’s, I loved the music of the time and watching this movie brought back a rush of those memories.

The story isn’t really anything new.  It’s a typical story of young love and how life of fame can change people no matter who they are.

What elevates this movie IMHO is the music.  They chose the perfect songs from the 80’s for this musical.  I don’t know if they wrote the story first and then looked for songs to fit or if they first chose the songs and created the story around them.

It actually doesn’t matter much because either way, I found this movie to be fun to watch because of the melding of the storyline with those great songs from the 80’s.  (I found myself singing along many times and was surprised that I even remembered most of the lyrics.)

Tom Cruise is a standout here and gives a great performance as a famous rock star.

Bottom Line – Interesting “stock” storyline, but the music helps elevate this to be a very entertaining movie. Recommended!

Rating – Globe Worthy

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