Rock of Ages

There's a lot to love and enjoy about Rock of Ages. Like most musicals, it has a great buzz and electric feel to it. You can't help but finish this film with a big smile on your face and its a very feel good comfort experience.

The production value was also great, from the sets to the costumes, everything felt realistic and just looked cool.

Then there's the key part of any musical, the songs. You can't fault the selection, there were numerous classics which just kept on coming. Maybe a little too much.

I couldn't help but feel like there were just too many songs. There wasn't any time to take a breather and the story wasn't allowed to develop outside of the music. As a result I couldn't find myself connecting to any of the characters and I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunity to develop the plot and characters because of the amount of songs.

This wasn't the only problem with the plot... it was all over place. Was this film about Sherry, Drew, Stacee Jaxx, Patricia, Lonnie and Dennis? Who knows. There was too much sharing of the spotlight, and the constant changing of perspectives and protagonists started to give me whiplash. I think things would have benefitted from having a more obvious and clear protagonist to root for and follow, which would have given the film more drive and direction.

I also had mixed feeling about the characters. What Russell Brand was doing with his sporadic Brummie accent I'll never know. He's never been a great actor, and the accent just made everything so much worse. The two "main" characters of Sherrie and Drew were also pretty bland and I wasn't that fussed about them. Tom Cruise on the other hand, what a surprise. Easily the best thing about this film. He threw himself into this role and it massively paid off. It's worth watching for him alone.

Finally, as much as I liked the selection of songs, the singing wasn't always on point and was quite obviously auto tuned to a heavy extent for some of them. I think musical films need to start finding a better balance between casting big names to get bums on seats, but also casting actors who can sing.

Rock of Ages is definitely fun, and any musical lover will find lots to enjoy here. I did however find it to be quite messy and overcrowded with one dimensional characters and too many songs. Lots of fun, but not a great film.

There was a lot of talk about this movie when it was being released about how sensational the singing was and it would be like High School Musical for adults. Well let me just say that I am not a fan for musical movies, but I give credit where credit is due and I was glad I watched this movie. The song list they had chosen to sing in this movie went along with the storyline and flowed throughout the movie. As for the singing, well it was spot on and delightful to listen to. Had me singing a lot of the songs with them. Each character was playing such a big role with the almost ensemble cast it seemed. Tom Cruise crushed it as the Rock Legend Stacee Jaxx it was very intriguing to see what his character would do throughout the movie. Julianne Hough was stunningly beautiful in every scene and her singing was nice as well, but it seemed she could use some better acting. Mary J. Blige was good in her role and really brought good quality to her character in the film that it made her star for her sort of little camera time. Overall I would recommend musical lovers and non-musical lovers to watch this for good entertainment and great music.

I saw the Broadway play with the original cast and had a great time. The movie didn't disappoint me either. A cheesy love story tied together with great music from the hair band 80's was on purpose. Re-living that era, priceless. Go. Enjoy. This will definitely become a cult favorite in future years, bless 'em for preserving some amazing rock history. Ignore the professional critics, go have fun!

This is my first review attempt on IMDb, with hopes this helps those who are turned off by People, EW, local and national news professional (aka, paid) reviewers. I'm a pop culture junkie and a grandma, I don't always agree with the pros. I'm sorry Rock of Ages had a poor box office start out of the gate, but hopefully my little review piece will bring some fun to those clinging to their entertainment dollars. Great party experience!

Rock Of Ages is a great musical that's fun and gleefully ridiculous with an incredible cast who give good performances, especially Tom Cruise who is easily the standout. The great songs and solid pacing help make up for the predictable plot.

Yes it's true. People panned this movie. But I like a movie to entertain me. I'm totally entertained! The music is good and creative and as a child of the 80's, it's just fun!!! It's not going to be critically acclaimed but it's good fun!!