Rock Star (2002, DVD)

From the director of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and written by the guy who played Cougar in Top Gun, comes Rock Star, a movie about a guy whose dreams come true, then come undone. Mark Wahlberg stars as a guy who is lead singer of a tribute band, and later is offered a chance to be the new singer for the real band that his tribute band is based upon. Of course, relationships and lifestyle choices suffer when he's thrown into the rock and roll lifestyle, and this film explores that part of his life.

In the previews, I remember seeing a caption that said "Based on a true story" but I saw something like that in the actual movie, and I stayed and watched the entire credits. You do need to stay through some of the credits because there are some really funny outtakes, especially when they start making Marky Mark references.

Mark Wahlberg is so great in this movie, because he's good at these sort of roles. He sort of plays the same kind of character he did in Boogie Nights, except he keeps his clothes on and never talks to his manhood. Jennifer Anniston (Pitt) is looking wonderful and does a great job as his girlfriend. She looks so good in closeup. Mmmmmm mmmmm. Where does Brad buy his clothes?

If you grew up in the 80's, then you will surely remember the time when being a rock star meant something. The hair metal bands were in full force and the closest thing you could get to out modern day boy bands. The difference is that the old metal band guys had talent and style, and their stage shows were not musical fashion shows. The music throughout the movie is awesome and hard-rocking, and most anybody over the age of 21 will dig it unless they are into wuss music, and then they should go see Summer Catch or something.

Rock Star is very funny and has some great one-liners and scenes. It is rated R though, but only for a few parts. I got the feeling that they started out making a PG-13 movie, then added in some R-rated parts later during production. This movie isn't doing to well at the box office right now, and I think the R rating has a lot to do with it.

If you want to see a movie about a time when the music was good and not as overly commercial as it seems now, then check out Rock Star. It is easy to get into and like the band portrayed in the movie, it rocks.