Rock Star
As teenagers we all dream of being famous. Movie stars, rock stars or sports stars, basically being idolised by millions and having more money than we can ever spend is what we all daydream about.
As teenagers we all dream of being famous. Movie stars, rock stars or sports stars, basically being idolised by millions and having more money than we can ever spend is what we all daydream about.
But for most of us that day doesn’t come, and we slot in to mundane office jobs, earning enough money to keep us in DVDs, CDs and a new stereo every once in a while, only really complaining when the pub puts the price of John Smiths up every April. We forget the dreams of fame and fortune because if you are anything like me, you don’t have any talents that are priceless to the masses. I always knew my ability to down a pint of Guinness through my nostrils would never have more than a niche appeal.
Still for the privileged few, the trappings of fame and fortune are there for the taking, and in Rock Star, lowly Chris Cole (Wahlberg), photocopier repair man, dreams of the rock and roll lifestyle of the lead singer of 80’s metallists Steel Dragon, rocking out in his tribute band. When Steel Dragon dump their lead, Cole gets his chance to live the dream, singing his favourite songs to Steel Dragon fans and throwing TVs out of windows, all to the chagrin of his long suffering girlfriend Emily (Aniston).
The movie is set in the 80s and excellently captures the spirit of the music – the glam rocking the power ballads and the fanatical fan base that would go to the nth degree to look like their idols, it also has in Mark Wahlberg a guy who can pull off the presence of a Rock Star and the young pretender. So quite why the film is so dull I’m not sure. It starts off well, introducing the characters and getting Chris to fame, but after that it’s not sure what to do. Aniston, who brightens the movie whenever she’s on screen is tragically under-used, meaning the movie meanders around wondering whether to be a rock biopic or a good old fashioned movie about the important things in life. Unfortunately I got fed up waiting for it to make its mind up, so that by the time we reached the finale I didn’t really care. Ultimately the movie does make a point about fame and dreams and being yourself, but I doubt many people’s attention will be held long enough to get it across, and this fault must be attributed to lacklustre direction and screenwriting. It’s a pity because with a great cast like this the movie could have been really good. Ultimately this film will be remembered by me for a rather fine 80s soundtrack mixed with some excellent Steel Dragon tracks, particularly “We all die young” which is a marvellous rock tune (if you like that sort of thing, which I do).
The DVD presents a decent, colourful picture and an active Dolby Digital surround track which sounds best during the concert segments. The Commentary track with director Stephen Herek examines the point of the movie and what he was trying to do, with plenty of trivia and references of where he got the ideas from. The Making of featurette is little more than an extended trailer with some brief interview clips with key cast members. Add to that a music video and cast profiles it’s a fairly light package which is worth a look at if you’re a rock fan but don’t expect too much from it. Like most of us it aspires to greatness and legendary status but in reality I’m more likely to win international acclaim for Guinness-through-nostril consumption than this film is to end up on more than a handful of DVD shelves.
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