Rock of Ages (2012)

Did I enjoy this film? Yes I did. Am I nostalgic for the music in the movie? Not particularly. I knew (almost) all the words to all the songs, but that doesn't mean that I liked the songs. It's kind of a thing with people my age to admit their love for the classic 80s hair bands, well, all I have to say is... fuck off. I ain't ever gonna do it. I feel like I might as well come clean - dear facebook, I never liked Def Leppard, still don't. I know all the words to all their songs because my brother, the same brother who loved Richard Marx and Billy Joel at other points in the 80s, loved DL and played them over and over and over and over. To this day, when I hear "Pour Some Sugar On Me" or "We Didn't Start The Fire" I get really pissed off. And it didn't stop with Def Leppard. I did not/do not like Poison, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Quiet Riot or Motley Crue. There are probably some others. That's not to say that I don't have my share of hair band memories - Whitesnake, though they were more metal, Great White and Aerosmith and of course Guns 'N' Roses got my fandom. But, really I was more into other stuff, like this little band from L.A. called Red Hot Chili Peppers, and another little band, this one from Boston, called the Pixies, and then there were a whole bunch of British and East Coast New Wave bands like the Talking Heads and Blondie and a bunch of California punk bands that I heard on AM radio. Oh, and as long as I'm coming clean, I did love me some Go-Go's and some Bangles. But this was just the contemporary music. I was busy discovering the Doors and Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull and the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel and Neil Young and Bob Dylan at the same time.
I was so disappointed when for my 15th or 16th birthday, a friend of mine gave me Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet" and whatever the concurrent Poison album was and then I was expected to listen to them while he was still there and profess my gratitude. This was like when my dad gave me that Crystal Gayle album for Christmas, but at least that was mitigated by also giving me a Laura Branigan album.
While my little backwater town was in love with hair bands and also Metallica and Billy Idol, I was exploring rock and pop and folk and classic rock and classic pop and punk and New Wave and the new funk scene in L.A. and rap out of New York and loving it. I never listened to the loud, in-your-face dj on the popular radio station all the other kids were listening to, but instead to the classic rock station until midnight when through some trick of the atmosphere and AM stations around it cutting back their power, I could get the alternative rock station out of Portland. If it was before midnight and I didn't think I could take listening to another Rolling Stones or Rush song, I would tune in the Portland community run station - the one that is non-profit but not affiliated with NPR (KBOO) - and listen to crazy jazz bhikus and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
There were like two people in my school who got the music, understood the need to listen to good music whatever the genre, and interestingly, while I don't think they even knew each other, they both had the same name. I think a lot of people knew I was a little different, but not how - I was on the Debate team and in band, so I was just dismissed as a nerd, but they had no idea. Oddly enough, even though we had really different tastes in music, I think my brother got it. He knew that I had a really broad, yet discerning taste in music. I think he, if anyone, probably knew that there was this point where I just decided it was easier to grin and nod and stop arguing about music because I had figured out a secret - I was going to graduate from high school and move away and go to college and meet people that I could talk about music with and explore music with and never go back to that shitty little town except to visit.
Yeah, so I liked the Journey and Foreigner songs just fine. Even though the big duet had already been used for almost the identical purpose on Glee. But that's not all bad. Even the songs that I didn't like, I liked hearing sung by these stars. There were a couple of points, where after 25 years or so I finally knew what the lyrics were.
Speaking of the cast, I'm not familiar with the two kids in the lead roles of Drew and Sherrie, but everyone else I knew and thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to. If I don't watch myself, I'm going to end up a fan of Tom Cruise, who I thought played the role of Stacey Jaxx perfectly. Alec Baldwin singing...in long hair...that was pretty cool. Russel Brand playing himself (again), ya, okay. And Mary J. Blige, wow. Catherine Zeta-Jones, wower.
The music of this film wasn't as good as All Across the Universe, because to be quite frank none of these bands were even remotely as talented as the Beatles. But, the story and acting were better. I guess they balance and I recommend to anybody who likes pop musicals to watch them both.

Rock of Ages at IMDb