|
ROCK STAR Send This Review to a Friend
The story is as old as show business. An aspiring entertainer yearns for fame but achieving it brings more angst than happiness. "Rock Star" adds nothing new, but merely transfers the standby cliches to the mid-1980s rock scene. Director Stephen Herek and screenwriter John Stockwell struggle to stir excitement, mostly provided by the gaudy performance spectacles and scenes of spaced out groupies and musicians having what is supposed to be a good time with an over-consumption of freewheeling sex.
The best thing going for the enterprise is Mark Wahlberg as the burgeoning star Chris Cole, who is tapped by the Steel Dragon band to become its lead singer. Wahlberg is personable, but that's not enough to juice up the story. Jennifer Aniston plays his girlfriend and manager Emily, who goes along for the ride but can't stand being reduced to just another groupie while knowing that Chris is reaping the bedroom benefits that go with being a rock idol. Off she goes. Will they ever get together again? Little happens to make you care. Aniston is boring in the role, a cliché to begin with, and one doesn't feel any sparks between the lovers at their closest.
One bright spot is the supporting performance by Timothy Spall as Mats, the band's world-weary manager. It's a role very different from the part of Richard Temple that he played so wonderfully in "Topsy-Turvy," and it is a pleasure to watch the versatile Spall at work.
A sturdy group of musicians make up the film's band, and the picture does pound away with its hard rock. But "Rock Star" seems only a re-hash that doesn't catch fire emotionally, or even musically. A Warner Brothers release.
|