Nate’s Review: The Rocker

Nate’s Score:  4/10

Walking into the screening theatre for The Rocker was exciting, just as exciting I suppose as waiting for a fish to bite. Sadly, this fish just wasn’t as big as it seemed to be while I was reeling it in. Getting away from this horrible analogy, it was quite the anticipated wait to get into the theatre and see Rainn Wilson as well as his brand new film, but the hype seemed to build expectations higher than they ever should have been.

The film begins with “Vesuvius”, the equivalent of Motley Crue. This group of rockers have what it takes to make it big, but when approached with a contract, it becomes known that they need to replace their drummer due to contractual obligations. This is where we meet Fish. Fish (Wilson) becomes depressed and winds up living with his sister and her family. In a bizarre turn of events Fish becomes the drummer for his nephews band A.D.D. made up of Emma Stone, Josh Gad, and Teddy Geiger. The band grows fast and quickly becomes signed and is thrown on tour with one of the band-mates parents (Christina Applegate). The film captures the bands good and bad times on their road to stardom.

It seemed to me that as much as I tried to let myself become captivated in the film, the further I felt from the characters and the entire plot itself. But it was with the script alone that I felt detached from the movie. Most of the film tried to appeal to the younger generations, but a few of the jokes seemed to be a little too mature for them, and with this I was immediately confused as to whom the director was trying to connect with. There were a few funny jokes, and a couple touching moments, but they were easily forgotten as the story went on.

Outside of the story though, I did seem to think that there was a lot of potential in the actors in the film. I have always thought Rainn Wilson was a very funny actor, and this movie proved that he has the chops to carry a lead role in a film. In addition to Wilson, both Emma Stone and Josh Gad showed their ability to make something out of nothing. Nonetheless, I do have high hopes for the cast in their futures.

I really wanted to like this movie, and it is too bad that I had seen School of Rock, because had I not, I believe I would have found something in this film to attach to. I hope you don’t think I’m being to critical, it’s just really hard to find originality in movies these days. All of this aside, I do hope this movie finds it’s audience and does well.