If you can believe in Tom Cruise as a sweaty heavy metal idol, whose addled ability to seduce any woman is legendary, you may enjoy Adam Shankman’s big, brash, noisy and vulgar screen adaptation of the Broadway hit. Tom certainly tries hard to convince.
Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta are the lovable ingénues seeking fame and fortune at the Bourbon Room (prop: a whiskery Alec Baldwin), on Sunset Strip, circa 1987. There is also Paul Giamatti as the rock star’s slimy agent, Russell Brand as some sort of ghastly comedy rocker in residence at the Bourbon Room, Catherine Zeta-Jones as the spoilsport wife of a Congressman who wants the place closed down and Mary J Blige in a cameo role that is never quite explained.
Otherwise, this is a film that does precisely what is expected of it. No rock cliché is omitted and Rock of Ages blasts you out of your seat with some of them, including a score that sums up the era all too well. It will satisfy fans of the still-running show (on a West End stage near you) and irritate the rest.
