On a Scale of One to Ten, Does THE ROCKER Rate an Eleven?

Beaks here... I've been thinking of the late summer comedies in terms of the big three (STEP BROTHERS, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and TROPIC THUNDER), but Fox has been very confident with their roll-out of THE ROCKER (it premiered at CineVegas last month). I know the trailer is thoroughly underwhelming, but keep this in mind: the last time a Peter Cattaneo-directed comedy debuted in mid-August, it grossed $257 million worldwide and got nominated for Oscars. I'm not saying this is the next FULL MONTY, but Cattaneo does know his way around underdog material. At least, he did eleven years ago. Is Rainn Wilson Cattaneo's new Robert Carlyle? Let's see what Jubba gots to say...

Jubba here from the talkbacks - just got back from my Toronto advanced screening of "The Rocker" and wanted to share my review. AICN has been kind enough to use several of my past reviews (Tropic Thunder, The Strangers, etc...) and figured I'd give it another go since Dwight Schrute won't be rocking theatres until later next month. I'll have a few minor plot spoilers in this post, so if you're not keen on those, here's my review summed up: "The Rocker" is kind of like "School of Rock" on Ritalin: whenever things start getting out of control or overly creative (funny), they are reeled back in and made to focus on a fairly standard storyline (not as funny). Despite some big laughs at times, "The Rocker" sets up more jokes than it can deliver. The characters aren't quite as engaging as the kids in "School of Rock" and Rainn Wilson doesn't always cash in on the laughs, despite his over-the-top behavior at times. It's not terrible, but it's not outstanding either. Potential spoilers will start now, but they won't be huge. "The Rocker" follows Robert 'Fish' Fishman (Rainn Wilson, aka Dwight Schrute from "The Office") as he goes from 80's metal band Vesuvius' drummer to working at a call centre 20 years later, only to be recruited into his nephew's high school rock quartet named "A.D.D.". It sounds cheesy, but the way things are set up in the first act isn't too hokey and is one of the high points of the movie. The scene where Wilson's character parts ways with Vesuvius had the most laughs-per-scene ratio of the whole movie and there is a pretty great homage to Terminator 2 in there. If only the rest of the movie had been able to keep up this kind of pace. From here, we watch the band as they gain fame through accidental YouTube exposure, get signed to make an album, and go on tour. It loses steam on occasion, but there are enough laughs spread out over its running time to be fairly entertaining. Some people laughed a lot more than I did, others not as much…take that to mean whatever you like. Fishman's nephew's band, consisted of three members. His nephew, played by Josh Gadman (he was in 21), is the typical overweight kid with low self-esteem that needs someone to tell him to believe in himself and he'll be fine. He plays the keyboards. The lead singer and guitarist, played by relative newcomer (and actual musician) Teddy Geiger, is the dark and brooding poet with abandonment issues who just needs someone to tell him to believe in himself and he'll be fine. He actually sings the songs for much of the film's soundtrack. Finally the bassist, played by Emma Stone (Superbad), is the neo-goth-punk-hipster type who is unable to smile and just needs someone to tell her to find her own style and she'll be fine. She's kinda hot. These three aren't too bad. Gadman has some really funny moments and could give Jonah Hill a run for his money if they ever played brothers. Stone gets more to do here than she did in Superbad, which is a good thing, even if her mouth does some kind of weird lispy thing when she speaks. Geiger can't act as well as the other two, but he's clearly comfortable singing and playing the guitar for whatever that's worth. I do partly blame the writing for not giving any of these actors enough depth to work with. Rainn Wilson does his best to avoid making this movie seem like "Dwight on Drums". He is rowdy, he has a temper, and he likes to drum naked. He has some extremely funny scenes and his unwavering loyalty to his band is admirable. His pre-gig ritual is the only real gross-out joke of the movie, but it's pretty great…I won't spoil it any further. He takes on a fatherly role with the band members at times, lecturing/inspiring them to be comfortable with themselves in order to overcome their problems. His character, living in the past and wondering "what if?", also has to learn to grow up and live for the present. Life lessons all around and it does get a little repetitive. Overall, Wilson does a pretty good job as a comic lead, though I will again blame the writing for not giving him enough to do at times. He makes funny faces while playing the drums, but that can get old after seeing a few times. I won't go into details of the quality of the other actors here, but I'll say that everyone is adequate and everyone gets at least one quality laugh. The band's agent is crass and delivers some of the best one-liners I've heard in a while…some of his lines are better than this movie deserves at times since there's often nothing to follow them up with. One thing I never really enjoy is watching an on-screen "live" performance where you can tell that the music is clearly from a studio recording. I know why it's done, but I like it to at least be done well. To me, it's the audio equivalent of Tom Hanks' CG eyes in "The Polar Express" in that the music and vocals sound great, but there's a connection to real-life that's missing and can't quite bring me in. The songs themselves are okay, but nothing that you'll be humming your head after leaving the theatre, unless you pick up the soundtrack. It's a kind of bubblegum pop-punk rock that is pretty generic these days. Not terrible, but not great. Maybe just not my cup of tea. Overall, I'd say "The Rocker" is entertaining enough to sit through and has some great lines and some genuinely funny scenes that you won't forget. It didn't keep me laughing consistently the way "Tropic Thunder" did, and I wasn't able to relate to or empathize with the characters, for which I again blame the writing. This has a fairly predictable plot without any real surprises. I think responses will vary from people thinking it was a waste of their time to loving every second of it. If you have to see a movie with music in it this year, I'd suggest choosing this over "Mama Mia!" but if you have to see only one comedy, I'd go with "Tropic Thunder". "The Rocker" doesn't quite rock, but it holds its head above water long enough to deliver some memorable scenes, jokes, and male nudity. Not full frontal, thankfully. I'll be in the talkbacks to clarify anything, answer any questions, or take your abuse and "plant" accusations. -Jubba

Not enthusiastic, but not bad. The lack of Emma Stone love is disconcerting, but this almost sounds tolerable.