2012: Week 22: Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages

Genre: Musical, Comedy, Drama

Main Players: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Akerman, Paul Giamatti

General Gist:  A musical set in the late 80's about a girl from a small Oklahoma town who moves to Hollywood to live her dream of becoming a singer. 

Tiff's Take:
Let's just state the facts here.  I'm a product of the 90's.  I'm not a huge fan of musicals.  (Remember my Joyful Noise review?)  So you can imagine what I might think of this movie.  Well, you can bet you're wrong.  What an interesting little turn of events.  

I was prepared to be slightly entertained but cringing at the style, music, etc. the whole time.  The first scene starts out with a cheesy little rendition on a bus.  Let the cringing begin.  But after I got through the initial shock of watching a musical it all went up hill from there.  First of all, I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed all the songs.  Even though I did most of my growing up years in the 90's I was familiar with 80's music.  So I obviously knew all the songs.  In the movie, let's just say they were so fun.  The way they were put into the scenes were great.  And I think because I am not a product of the 80's I dug the way they poked at the 80's just a little between the more serious stuff. 

As far as the actors, I thoroughly enjoyed Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand.  I love their sense of humor.  Catherin Zeta-Jones was great.  Malin Akerman was great.  Tom Cruise surprisingly worked for me.  His over exaggeration of a slightly washed out 80's rock idol was spot on.  Again, I think I liked the way they poked fun.  Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta were okay, nothing special, but didn't ruin it for me definitely. 

I thought this movie was a good mix of serious/humor/making fun of and overall a fun movie to watch.  Who would have thought?  Now what did my 80's loving sister think?  Ha!   

Tiff's Rate: Friday Night (I'm actually shocked I'm writing that!)

Deb's Take: 
I am a product of the 80's.  I love 80's music, I still listen to 80's music (to my children's demise) I work out to 80's music, I have so many memories when I hear those 80's tunes.  So, I loved loved loved the music in this movie.  It was sort of difficult hearing a different voice to these songs as the actors sang the music, but all in all they did well.  As far as the movie itself, I am a little on the fence. I know it was suppose to be a spoofy type movie, and it was, but they threw in a relationship that was a little too serious with Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta.  I just didn't like the blend of "Let's do overkill on the 80's" and "now lets add this somewhat serious yet cheesy relationship".  That wasn't the kicker though, I just did not like Tom Cruise in his role.  Man, he drove me crazy.  He is not Rock Star material.  I didn't even like him in his role if they were trying to make him look dumb and bad, it was distracting to me. 

On the flip side, I think Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand were hilarious.  Stupid funny of course.  Also, like I mentioned I liked the music.  I liked especially how they played on the music, pitting two songs against each other at times.  Now, remember this is the pop rock of the 80's, so don't expect some out of control 80's flashback of best music, just the stuff that always came on the radio. 

So do I sound committed one way or another?  Ha, that was just the kind of movie it was.

Deb's Rate: Ok, I will give it Friday night. And considering it probably opens on a Friday night, you might as well go.

Preview: There's a good chance we'll be seeing Snow White and the Huntsman.  Has anyone seen it yet?

Week 41: Footloose

Last week we went to another pre-screening.  Free movies are cool.  We saw the remake of Footloose.  I was a little younger than Deb when the original came out so I probably don't remember it to the extent that she does.  I wasn't in my teenage years yet so it didn't stick with me quite as much but of course it was a well known movie of my youth.  I mean who didn't see Footloose?  (Except maybe Russ.  I'm not sure he even saw all the Star Wars movies when they came out. *gasp*) 

Like Deb said, they pretty much stuck to the original concept in almost every way except just to give it an updated feel and maybe a little more ethnicity.  As a remake, I think it worked just fine.  All the actors they chose were good.  I totally agree that the dancing was on a much higher caliber this go around.  Although I do think random acts of dancing in a movie must have been more acceptable and less cheesy then they are now.  Taking out frustration and aggression against the man by dancing in a warehouse by yourself was uncomfortable and slightly embarrassing to me.  I don't remember feeling like that when I saw the original.  It all just seemed way cool back then.  I guess that's the difference from being 7 versus 33.    

Julianne Hough was cute and perfect for her role as was Kenny Wormald.  Ditto for Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell.  Overall the casting was good and the movie was fun and entertaining.  I don't think anything will compare to the original but do they ever? 

To Sum it up: Good cast, fun dancing and overall entertaining.

Week 41: "Footloose"

We jumped back about 26 years this week and went to the remake of "Footloose". The original movie came out in 1984, I was 14, the same age as my oldest daughter. I think this is the first movie I have seen remade, that I actually remember the first one exceptionally well. Who wouldn't as a 14 year old girl.

This remake was pretty impressive. I think the thing that I noticed was that this time around the actors appeared to be dancers, taught to act, vs Actors taught to dance. In fact I read a clip from the choreographer who said that he had to have the dancers tone it down because they were suppose to be portraying teenagers who didn't have a background in dancing.

The two main actors, played by Julianne Hough and Kenny Wormald, could dance...and are professional dancers. It definately was apparent that these two actors were dancers, I know I didn't know anyone who could dance like that in high school with no formal training. However, that wasn't the point of the movie, and the fact that these kids could all dance (even Willard, played by Miles Teller, picked it all up pretty fast.) was pretty cool when watching the movie. Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell(I swear that woman doesn't age) did great as the parents, but there is something to be said about having to fill the shoes of Jim Lithgow and Dianne Wiest.

I think the best way I can describe the movie is this...it's the same "Footloose" with less clothes, better dancing, sexier, and heavier language...pretty much just caught up to the times. The movie was good and I think my 14 year old daughter will remember it as an icon for her time as well...but give me the original with Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer, there is something to be said for the old sentimental.

See you next week.