Rock Star | Review

Herek’s world of rock is a bore.

I think everyone of us has, at some point in time, had that dream of becoming a celebrity, at becoming a star. Hollywood has been exploiting this pipe dream since the early Chaplin-esqe days of cinema. The rise to stardom of the struggling man and the common rags to riches story has been repeated to death with very few able to make that connection. Stephen Herek’s Rock Star is another example of that familiar childhood dream, the one in which a lot of luck and talent will open doors for you. Unfortunately, for us the film takes a stab at it, and fails to make that dream come true and struggles to make an authentic portrayal of that special bond between artist and aspiring fan. Rock Star takes us to 80’s hard rock era where hair bands and leather outfits were the latest fad. Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg Boogie Nights) is the leader of a cover band who mimics the moves and sounds of his favourite group, Steel Dragon. He lives out the fantasy on a daily basis and is more serious than most, in fact, he stern convictions lead him to exit his group. Fortunately for him, he made himself get noticed at the actual concert, and has the good fortune of being at the right place at the right time…. have you figured out what will happen next? The all too predictable plot line is easy guessing from here on. Chris becomes the replaces his idol and becomes the new singer of the band, highly implausible, but heck this is the movies right?..where fantasy becomes reality. Unfortunately for the viewer, as soon as he adjusts to his new role, we become victims to a bunch of clichés, with no attempts on Herek’s part in making the film the least bit interesting. There is no discovering of the underworld of rock and roll and nothing to look forward to, with only minor references made about the lifestyle, and the perks of stardom, with a glossy overview of the lifestyle; money, fame and plenty of partying. Along for the ride is his girlfriend, Emily (Jennifer Aniston Picture Perfect) who ends up being meaningless in the scheme of things, obviously she gets dumped along the side, and are we surprised? Nope. Do we care? Nope. There is nothing more frustrating than a film that wants us to care about the characters and does nothing about it.

The predicable ending makes even less sense. This is the only dream that he has ever known why would he want to get out? What are his motivations for leaving? One of the problems is the believability factor. First the casting is pretty bad, Wahlberg is convincing as the fan and not convincing as the rock star, Aniston is good at playing the girl in romantic comedies, skip the dramas and Timothy Spall (Secrets & Lies) is hardly believable as the evil tour manager, what’s with the phoney rock and roll attitude? The bigger problem with this film, is that there is nothing interesting that is being said. The film seems to move along, from one useless sequence to the next without ever tackling any of the major accounts that we often associate with this type of music era. They seem content with providing the viewer with plenty of fake wigs and this ever-present annoying film soundtrack. It would have been very interesting to see some of the stuff that we see get in those VH1 Behind the Music, but they chose not to come close to it, thus giving us no valid reason to believe that our anti-hero would simply walk away from the life, and the suggestion that he does it all in the name for his old flame is just as pathetic as his transformation into a Vedder-look-a-like. This film comes up short from the start, I think the only part of the film that I enjoyed was during the end credits when Wahlberg is shown being caught off cue with some of his on Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch past. If you want to see a Rock and Roll movie with some edge, consider the audacious and creative Hedwig and the Angry Inch or the groupie and band world of Crowe’s Almost Famous, at least they make an effort at giving us an insider’s view to a world that very few have access to.

Rating 0.5 stars