The Rocker

Film Review by Laura Smith | 08 Aug 2008
Film title: The Rocker
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Teddy Geiger
Release date: 15 Aug 2008
Certificate: 12A

Original, inspired, staggeringly unpredictable – The Rocker is none of these things and less. Feeling like a Saturday Night Live skit stretched until it cries out in pain, the plot of a film about a slacker has-been who finds a new lease of life when he joins his teenage nephew’s emo band will be pretty familiar to anyone who has seen any film ever. Part School of Rock, part That Thing You Do!, with a soupcon of Almost Famous, and some inevitable Spinal Tap aspirations (which really go without saying), the rock ‘n’ roll fantasy movie is re-imagined for an audience of post-punk teeny boppers who get to sigh over puppyish Geiger (who apparently is, like, a dreamboat rock star in real life. Yegads.) as the angsty, dopey-eyed lead singer of the band. We also get to chuckle over the hee-larious antics of Rainn Wilson – previously known as ‘that weird, tall guy’ in everything else he’s done – as a one-time member of the shaggy-haired, spandex-wearing eighties band Vesuvius, kicked out before they hit they big-time and now restyled as ‘The Naked Drummer’, Youtube phenomenon and purveyor of tired slapstick. But it’s genial enough fare, with some fun concert scenes, a very funny Will Arnett stealing the few scenes he’s in and a canny turn from Jason Sudeikis, walking off with every single funny line in the movie as a brilliantly slimy A&R guy. [Laura Smith]

http://www.rockermovie.com