Strong and Moving!

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A small town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip, while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Thanks to a talented Cast, amazing new, old and even original songs and a terrific perfomance from Tom Cruise, "Rock of Ages" is a blast from start to finish that makes even bad actors like Russell Brand being good in the hands of a good director and a good script. The film is not driven only by nostalgia but also from great overall music, perfomances and characters and even tho it does have some comedic parts which are lots of them it still manages to keep it real. (A+)

I wasn't expecting much from this movie but i actually ended up finding it a pretty fun ride. I thought almost all of the musical performances were brilliant, especially Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise and Malin Akerman, although i felt Julianne Hough was a tad nasally. The story line wasn't the best and rather cheesy at parts but it's a musical and in those performances it excelled. I also thought that it was a very good looking movie and that nearly everyone's hair, makeup and clothing looked brilliant. The girls looked gorgeous. I wasn't so keen on Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin in this movie, i can't fault their singing but i didn't find their performances believable. I was distracted by Russell's terrible Scouse accent, Alec's terrible hair piece and a very strange romantic sub plot which came out of no where... I recommend this movie if you enjoy musicals, loved 80s rock music or are just after a movie that is a bit of fun and nice to look at.

"Pop of Ages" had been a more appropriate title for this movie. The closest thing to a rock song you'll hear, is some 80's glam rock ballad, rewritten to appeal to the lowest musical denominator. The story, is a classical boy meets girl, with a splash of cultural clash story (not dissimilar to Grease), in the form of a musical, but where great musicals use the songs to advance the story, Rock of Ages uses them to gloss over the holes in the storyline.The casting is horrible. Take for instance Tom Cruise as the lead rock and roll protagonist. Maybe someone saw him in the end of Tropic Thunder, dancing and rapping and thought, he will make a great singer. Alec Baldwin, has been cast, as an ageing club owner and rock institution. Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin are both great actors, with many memorial movies to their name. Unfortunately the have as much rock and roll between them as a 90's boyband.So if you do let your children watch this movie, make sure you take them on a tour of youtube and show them some real rock and roll, lest they think that the music they have heard is rock and roll.

What happens when you get a bunch of actors, dress them in silly costumes or wigs and get them to sing some of the best rock tracks of the 70's and 80's? You get Rock of Ages. And with it all the cheesiness and over the top nature of a jukebox film.Its story follows just about every cliché that you can think of. Our out of town girl Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) comes to Hollywood looking to become a rock-star. She meets and falls in love with Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) who has the same aspirations of rock and roll. We watch them try to get into the rock and roll scene which is going through difficult times due to fighting off a politician doing a slander campaign to boost his support and the corporations that are trying to turn rock groups into boy rapping groups.For the most part the cast seem to be up for getting into the spirit of the film and embracing their over the top characters, all of whom have their funny moments. Catherine Zeta Jones does well as the campaign woman with a stick up her rear who believes that rock and roll spawns nothing but sex, hateful music and sex. Paul Giamatti is a manager who isn't in it for the music and only wants the money, willing to back-stab anyone for an easy dollar completely embracing his character as a douche-bag. The only actor who seems out of place is Alec Baldwin who gives the impression of a guy who's already signed a contract and can't pull out now. The only thing amusing with his character was his over the top wig. But the best cast member is Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx. He seemed to devote himself to Stacee as much as he would to any dramatic role playing an exaggerated Axl Rose style of rock-star. He has a big ego, but with good reason. Any time he enters a room all eyes turn to him and he seems to be able to get every woman he meets to swoon or fall under his spell at the mere sight of him. Then there's the songs themselves, which are very enjoyable. Unlike a film like Mama Mia (and its dreadful vocals from the likes of Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep), here the actors are great singers and do the songs justice. However once again Cruise is the standout demonstrating some real musical talent by not just acting like a rock-star, but singing like one too doing an amazing cover of Bon Jovi's 'Dead or Alive'. Whilst the songs are great, the film's weakness is the time between songs. Where we're left following what are really quite boring plot lines that we've seen before too many times like the main couple splitting because of a misunderstanding or a girl having to go to the life of a stripper because Hollywood is tough. Not only have we seen these too many times but they're done poorly here. Plus the film is too long and it would have probably helped if the film were cut by about 20 minutes since 2 hours is too long for a jukebox musical to keep audiences entertained. But as bad as the script is, the actors are entertaining and the songs are good. So long as you don't have any higher expectations then you shouldn't be let down.