Hello Everyone :-)
Reader, my dear, lovely reader. I’d like to think we know each other well enough by now to be able to say how we feel without fear of recrimination or judgement. So I’m entirely comfortable with admitting to you that I, Nerdy Rachel May, am a fully fledged fan of Musicals…
I love them. I think it’s a natural progression from a childhood (and adulthood) obsession with Disney but there is something about musicals that puts a smile on my face. Hollywood and Broadway have enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the genre for years and have developed a relationship where successful Films become Stage shows (think ‘The Lion King’, ‘Hairspray’, ‘Mary Poppins’) and vice versa (films like ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ all started life on stage).
Musicals have suffered a bit at the Box Office in recent years, but the current popularity of TV shows like ‘Glee’ has gained the genre some new devotees. So it was with great interest that I went to see the most recent Musical to hit the big screen ‘Rock of Ages’.
‘Rock of Ages’ follows the fortunes of notorious Rock Music venue ‘The Bourbon Room’ on the L.A Strip as well as the people that work and perform there. In 1987 Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) arrives in L.A from Oklahoma with a view to making the big time and almost immediately meets Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) who works at ‘The Bourbon Room’ but dreams of being a rock star. The two fall in love to a soundtrack of 80’s power ballads whilst the Bourbon sets about hosting the final gig of ‘Arsenal’ as lead singer Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) launches his solo career.
To give this some context, I went to see 'Rock of Ages' with my Mum. I'd spoken to her about it because she'd seen the adverts and she said she liked the look of it so we decided to go and take advantage of Citrus Wednesdays. At no point in our decision making did I mention that it was a Musical, I just assumed she knew. In hindsight this was a mistake because half way through the film she leaned over to me and whispered, "I had NO idea this was what it was going to be like".
I don't think she was alone in that opinion. The feeling I got in the screening we attended was mixed which surprised me because I thought the Trailer was pretty clear in it's mission statement.
If you go and see this on the basis that you enjoyed the stage production, be prepared for a shock. The storyline has been changed dramatically. I’m not going to go through all the changes here because there are LOADS but it seems to me that they’ve changed the plot to better suit a 12A 'Glee-friendly' audience. I'm all for taking works on their own merit but when an adaptation veers so wide of the source material I’m not so sure.
The plot has been changed to such an extent that the core message has been altered; in the stage show the moral seems to be that being famous isn’t what it’s about, it’s finding someone you love and who loves you back that makes you happy whereas the film seems to be preaching that the right kind of famous can make you happy (e.g. being in a rock band as opposed to being in a boy band). I don’t really have an issue with the latter (admittedly vacuous) message but I think the former would have made for a more interesting movie.
It’s 123 minutes and for the last half an hour you feel every second... Its over-long, the fist-pumping power ballad soundtrack does re-invigorate you when the story starts to drag, but only to a certain extent. Alas, a rendition of 'Any way you Want It" (no matter how barn-storming and pole-dancer including it is) does not a movie make.
Speaking of renditions, the musical numbers are great. I’m fairly impressed by the vocals of all the cast, they handle the musical numbers really well but are slightly hit and miss when it comes to some actual acting…
Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta are quite sweet lead characters. He’s beautiful, she’s beautiful but it’s all been done before.
I liked Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand’s double act as Dennis and Lonny, they amused me greatly but as a midlander I’d like to say that Russell Brand’s Brummie/Black Country accent was so bad it was borderline offensive. I’m not entirely sure where he was aiming but somewhere between Junctions 4 and 10 of the M6 it all goes horribly wrong and he winds up back in his native Essex. I expect a formal apology from Mr Brand to the entire midlands any day now...
Weirdly the most excited I got about a member of the cast is when Wrestler-turned-Actor Kevin Nash appeared on screen as one of Stacee Jaxx’s bodyguards. Back in the day I used to be a BIG WCW fan and loved ‘The Big Sexy’! Seeing him was slightly surreal!
The performance people are talking about, however, is that of Tom Cruise. Cruise carries the film for every moment he is on screen. Sporting leather lace-up trousers, a bad wig and some serious guy-liner Cruise looks like he's having a hoot and as a result gets the film's biggest laughs.
Considering my expectations were through the floor, I kind of enjoyed 'Rock of Ages'. It's over long and the story is ridiculous but the two earnest leads are likable, the songs are well chosen, well performed and Tom Cruise is fantastic and hilarious in equal measure. In the grand scheme of things this isn’t anything more than a bit of super-cheesy pop/rock escapism but I found it's over the top silliness quite fun. It's a definite guilty pleasure :-)
Now let's have some...
Reasons to be cheerful :-)
1. You may have noticed in the past 18 months or so of this blog (I know… I can scarcely believe I’ve kept it up for this long either) that I rarely, if ever, talk about anything other than film or TV. This makes it seem like that’s all I do and you’d be right in that assumption, I do spend a ridiculous amount of time in front of the box or silver screen, but I also read. I read a hell of a lot. Not so long ago I read a book that you’ve probably heard of called ‘50 Shades of Grey’. This book, and it’s sequels, have shifted a ri-donk-ulous number of units in recent months mainly because of word of mouth recommendations that snowballed into saucy hype.
Like I said, I’ve read it but I don’t like it. It’s badly written, repetitive, poorly researched, contrived and unrealistic. I considered writing my own blog-post about it but then I found this and it sums up my feelings towards those pages of trash masquerading as a book far better than I could and in a rather amusing way :-)
This is the first post, all of the other ‘50 shades’ related posts begin with the post title ’50…’
2. New pictures for the Hobbit :-) I'm so excited about this; I cannot begin to tell you! It looks lovely and Martin Freeman seems to have been born for this role.
3. The Beeb is currently having a 'Shakespeare Unlocked' Season and it's really rather good. There's been all sorts of lovely bits and bobs on in the past few months but my personal highlight is the series 'The Hollow Crown'. It's 4 episodes of adaptations of Shakespeare's historical plays, 'Richard II', Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V. 'Richard II' is the first episode in the series and that aired on 30th June (all subsequent episodes will air on the following Saturdays) and you can catch up with it between now and 28th July on the IPlayer. They’re full 2 and a half hour jobs but if you keep yourself in tea and biscuits it flies by. The actors are superb. I’m already hooked :-)
4. I am very sad about The Wimbledon Final. I’m a Murray fan and I was gutted for him, however, one good thing to come from his losing is that a bet, put on by a man 9 years ago has come good and may end up benefiting Oxfam. I love news stories like this, give the article a read, it really gave me a happy boost on a grey and rainy Monday afternoon :-)
That’s everything for today!
Goodbye till next time
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