Rock of Ages Movie Blurb by Shale June 15, 2012 I don't go to plays. I think it was work related that I went to "P.S. Your Cat is Dead" decades ago. Otherwise the only time I see plays is when they are made into movies, like this one. It is a musical if you didn't know, set in 1987 with the popular music we've all heard over the years, starting with Night Rangers' Sister Christian, as Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) a blond Okie girl heads off to LA for her fame & fortune as a singer. In LA she meets an aspiring singer, Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) who is working tables at The Bourbon Room on Sunset Strip and gets her a job there. They have common interests, such as music and wanting to get noticed and ... oh, being a young boy and girl. Sherrie & Drew Check LP's Together The Bourbon Room is run by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) and his partner Lonny Barnett (Russell Brand). Dennis & Lonny Not only is the club struggling but Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones) the Mayor's wife is on a crusade with the churches to shut it and all of the strip down. Crusaders Goin' After Sin Things come to a head when the club gets a big booking from famous, ageing rock star Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to do his band's last gig there before going solo. Stacee Jaxx - At The Bourbon Room Of course all characters are portrayed over the top here. Catherine Zeta-Jones just looks evil with her purity. And Cruise has a scene where he and Rolling Stone writer Constance Sack (Malin Akerman) do a duet to Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is that is so sexually charged it barely stays PG-13, even tho she still has on undies and he still has on his jeans, tho unbuttoned. There are also some of the most close-up shots of tongue kissing I have ever seen in a movie; things that you would miss in a stage play. (I like movies). Well, the movie progresses like any rom-com. The kids have a misunderstanding, break up in a huff, but you know they'll be back for makeup sex before the movie ends. The Bourbon Room has to stay open and the Mayor's wife has to get her comeuppance. Those ain't spoilers - just part of the formula. This movie didn't get good reviews from the aggregate critics on Rottentomatoes (43%), but about two-thirds of audiences liked it. It was entertaining and light, not to be taken seriously. BTW, the scenery may have looked like LA, but this movie was shot in Miami last year. Ain't CGI backgrounds great? The inside scenes were shot at Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale.
