ROCK OF AGES

The 1980s are back -- sort of -- in the new movie musical Rock of Ages. This film, adapted from the Broadway play, is a series of stories based on the most popular hits of the 1980s -- all revolving around the fictional Bourbon Room club and concert venue in Hollywood, in 1987.

The first story is about young lovers. Sherrie (Julianne Hough) is an aspiring singer off the bus from Okahoma who's in love with the music and clubs of Hollywood. When her suitcase is stolen, she's "rescued" by Drew (Diego Boneta), a wannabe singer and bartender at the Bourbon Room. He gets her a job there, they start dating, and he gets his big musical break. But can young love survive the pressures of fame and fortune?

Next are the Bourbon Club's owners, Dennis (Alec Baldwin) and Lonny (Russell Brand). This pair are old-school rockers, true believers and colossal music fans. Their club is also almost bankrupt, and they're banking on a big concert (of course) to save the day. Their hopes rest on Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), the most popular rock star in America. But he's also notoriously unreliable -- and managed by the greedy, unscrupulous Paul Gill (Paul Giamatti).

And finally, there's politics. Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones), wife of newly elected mayor Mike Whitmore (Bryan Cranston), has decided that rock and roll is a danger to the youth of America, so she leads a moral crusade against Stacee Jaxx and the Bournob Club. (She also misses or ignores her husband's affair with his secretary every chance he gets.)

There are also some other supporting characters: Constance Sack (Malin Akerman) as the Rolling Stone reporter who breaks through Stacee's haze of fame; Justice Charlier (Mary J. Blige) as the owner of a strip club; and several cameos, from Eli Roth as a member of a boy band to Debbie Gibson as a rocker.

All of the acting, and the pretty cliches storylines, are all secondary to the music. While I think back on the 1980s as a golden time for alternative music, Rock of Ages goes for the more popular/nostalgic hits, from concert rock like Def Leppard, the Scorpions, and Whitesnake to to pop from Pat Benetar, Jefferson Starship, REO Speedwagon and Journey.

Rock of Ages is clearly aimed at the folks who think of the '80s as big hair and guys with eyeliner. To that end, the movie does capture the feel of that scene. That said, the movie does feel a little forced. Instead of a musical where the songs seem to spring naturally from the characters, Rock of Ages feels like it's just waiting for an excuse for characters to start singing. Some of the mash-ups are good (notably "Any Way You Want It" and "Harden My Heart" at a strip club), and the performers are all terrific singers, but the sudden bursts of music feel a little forced at times. (It also doesn't help that Glee beat this movie to the song for the uplifting big finale.)

The acting in Rock of Ages is as good as the story is chiched. The highlight is Tom Cruise, who captures both the decline from being a star and the passion that brought him to that level. Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta are decent as the young lovers (though I'm amazed as talented a dancer as Hough had few opportunities to dance), but Baldwin and Brand are more amusing as the true believers whose bromance may be a little more. The stories are exactly what we've seen before: the self-righteous crusader with her personal agenda, the wannabe star corrupted by business, and the young couple who connect, misunderstand, split, and find each other again. And the humor of Rock of Ages is mixed: sometimes very funny (notably a boy band, complete with ridiculous name), sometimes pretty painful (such as double entendres about a band whose name includes the word "balls").

Rock of Ages is aimed directly at the folks who are nostalgic for the most popular hits of the 1980s. It has a terrific cast and a good (if idealized) version of the rock scene back then -- but it also has some painful humor and obvious directions for its storylines. It's enjoyable -- to a point.

Overall grade: B-

Reviewed by James Lynch

Tropic Thunder

War is hell, and actors are idiots. These two ideas form the basis of Tropic Thunder, a spoof of both action movies and certain types of actors.

The movie Tropic Thunder revolves around the misadventures of making the the in-film war movie Tropic Thunder in Vietnam -- and things are a wreck. Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is an action star who did six sequels to his hit movie Scorcher and wants this movie to resurrect his career. Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) is an Oscar Award-winning Australian method actor who gets what is essentially advanced blackface to play an African-American. Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is a comic actor famous for playing far farters -- and who's heavily addicted to drugs. Alpha Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) is a young African-American rapper whose main concern is promoting the energy drink Booty Sweat. And Kevin (Jay Baruchel) is the fairly unknown actor who's the most stable of the cast.

The movie is going horribly. Tugg is insecure, Kirk is condescending, and the director Damien (Steve Coogan, star of the upcoming Hamlet 2) gets no respect from anyone. The writer of the real-life story behind Tropic Thunder, Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), has a plan: Drop the stars in the middle of the jungle, away from their cell phones and personal assistants, and make them work for the movie. Of course, the actors are barely in the jungle when they wind up isolated and targeted by Asian drug lords as DEA agents -- and the actors think it's all part of their movie.

Writer-director Ben Stiller said he got the idea for Tropic Thunder from actors who had to spend a week or two in boot camp before doing war films and complaining how incredibly hard it was. Unfortunately, this idea doesn't translate to consistent laughs through this movie. There are a couple of laughs -- notably as Kirk Lazarus tries to sound profound and makes no sense -- but there are as many jokes that flop as those that work. There is a shameless, open attempt at being politically incorrect -- some groups are protesting a discussion on how best to play a retard -- but it's not over the top enough to be truly awful and hysterical.

What impressed me in Tropic Thunder is the supporting cast. The highlight of the movie is easily Tom Cruise, who plays studio exec Les Grossman as a greedy opportunist who curses constantly and often busts a move. Matthew McConaughey has fun as Tugg's agent Rick "Pecker" Peck, whose biggest concern in life seem to be making sure his client has TiVo. Steve Coogan isn't in the movie for too long, but he adds a manic touch as the hapless director.

I'm tempted to recommend Tropic Thunder just so people see Tom Cruise's most hysterical role in years, but the movie is just too uneven. There are plenty of chuckles, and even a few big laughs, but this movie is more sporadically amusing that consistently funny.

Overall grade: B-

Reviewed by James Lynch

Top Gun (1986)

I hadn't looked back at a 1980's film in a while, but as I recall Top Gun was one of those films that everyone saw back when we were in high school. It was the film that jump started so many careers with an A list that includes Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kelly McGillis, all coproduced by blockbuster creator Jerry Bruckheimer.

The story behind the making of Top Gun has to be kept in mind to understand the film. Reportedly, the script was done, and it called for numerous shots of naval aircraft on an aircraft carrier. These days, you'd just do it in CGI, and no one would be the wiser. However, Top Gun is perhaps the last great blockbuster action film that didn't use any CGI, and everything is real. Instead, they got in touch with the Navy, who agreed to provide an aircraft carrier and whatever else they needed for the project. The Navy was being so helpful because in the early 80's the military, still with the memories of Vietnam fresh in most Americans minds, had a serious PR problem. So, the Navy would cooperate, but they wanted to be able to rewrite the script to cast themselves in a more favorable light. Given that background, we can see how we ended up with a two hour recruiting session for a film.

Tom Cruise is the prototypical Navy flier, whose code name is Maverick. He pushes the plane to the limits, and is the guy you want on your side, but his commanding officer thinks he's a bit of a screwup. His Radar Intercept Officer (the guy in the back seat who does the electronics in the F-14), played by Anthony Edwards, goes by the call sign Goose. Together, after they chase off some Russian Migs they become the team to get sent to Top Gun, the popular name for the Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar Naval Air Station where the Navy's best 1% of fliers hone their skills in air to air combat, and compete for the crown of being the best of the best (of note, the school is now in Nevada; sounds funny to have a Naval Air Station so far from water, but that's budget cuts). Along the way Maverick has a romantic interest with one of the professors, Charlie (McGillis) a lay consultant to the military with a doctorate in astrophysics (probably would have made more sense for her to be an aviation engineer).

The real stars of the show, besides the actors, are the military hardware. The aircraft carrier featured is the USS Enterprise. The jets featured include the F-14 which was the Navy's fighter jet until it got replaced by the F/A-18 in the late 80's, although the last ones were only decommissioned two years ago. The "enemy" at the school is the F-5, which is a light fighter that was sold by the US and saw service in other countries, but was limited to being a trainer for the US military. Interestingly, the enemy they fight, a MiG-28, which seems to me to be presumed to be Soviet (although it may have originally been North Korean in the script but in the rewrite it became some generic communist country) is not really any real plane at all, and was played by more F-5 fighters that were painted black to look like the bad guys.

Overall, despite the film being so pro military, it still works. The acting is well done, and the action is top notch summer blockbuster fare. It gets a little dated for some segments, but all in all, Top Gun has fared well during the last two decades. Even if you saw it in theaters, it's still worth a second watching of this classic on DVD.

Overall Grade: A-

Reviewed by Jonas

M:I:3

I guess with a baby on the way Tom Cruise needed some money, and he decided to make another Mission Impossible film. M:I:3 is the third part of this high grossing franchise. This time it gets directed by the man who did ABC's now defunct Alias show. (As an aside, I was a big fan of that show which dropped a notch every season until the very end.) While they wanted to give us the feel of "trust no one, they're about to double cross you," it's harder to do that in a two hour film than in a full season's worth of episodes. What results is two hours of special effects with a plot that provides barely enough structure to hold up under the weight of the explosions. Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, the semi-retired agent (that now lives in the 'burbs and drives a Volvo station wagon), that goes back in action to rescue one of his students. The opening helicopter chase, and the shootout on the Chesapeke Bay Bridge are both first class special effects, and can almost make the film. Unfortunately, they can't completely remedy the thinly veneered characters and minimalistic plot. Fans of the Mission Impossible series should take a look; the rest of us will do better elsewhere.

Overall Grade: B-

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