The Rocker.

"With a half-decent climax, the go-for-it parody The Rocker would have been pretty good bordering on good instead of just okay," writes David Edelstein in New York.

"Despite his performance's (and the story's) derivativeness, [Rainn] Wilson's idiot enthusiasm is so aggressive that it eventually wears down one's defenses, and a host of NBC (and, specifically, 30 Rock) comedians sturdily contribute to the shenanigans, none more amusingly than Jason Sudeikis as a one-liner-spouting record label stooge," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "A wealth of creative talent, though, can't alter the fact that Rocker is merely a passable goof-off, and one less challenging or fun than a night spent playing Rock Band."

Updated through 8/22.

"[I]f The Rocker, directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), has its witty moments, the movie is encrusted in rock lore and stale attitudinizing borrowed from This Is Spinal Tap and School of Rock, each of which it shamelessly cannibalizes," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "Most disappointingly, the music is tepid, mediocre pop pastiche... In its portrayal of a rock culture that was once synonymous with liberating self-expression, everything is secondhand and done by rote. Hip has become rigidly, thuddingly square."

"Central to the film is the fallacy that yesterday's headbangers had a crazier (and therefore cooler) lifestyle than today's young musicians, and that the music was, if not better, more extroverted and vital," writes James Hannaham in Salon. "This concept facilely bumbles through the movie in a way that seems somewhat condescending to young audiences. Sure, collegiate twinks like Vampire Weekend have yet to crash their cars and OD on smack, but Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty's bad behavior, though of a different stripe, has kept the dream alive."

"The Rocker, like Gilmore Girls, takes place in an alternate universe where MTV and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are relevant, and where a generalist, genre-free "rock" spirit covers all musical tastes, ambitions, and song styles," writes Bruce Bennett in the New York Sun. "This sort of lame non-take on an area of human endeavor that in real life is an inherently partisan subject to both its practitioners and its fans would be considerably easier to stomach if The Rocker were more than mildly funny."

"To those moviegoers who may have said they're sick of seeing Will Ferrell and Jack Black just keep doing what they do, well, OK then, here's somebody else doing it," notes Jonathan Kiefer.

"Like its protagonist, the movie is sweet but slow and a little out of date. Given that their collective résumé includes The Simpsons and The Larry Sanders Show, it's hard to believe writers Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes couldn't come up with more pungent pop-cultural targets than Titanic and U2," writes Sam Adams in the Los Angeles Times, where Christy Gros talks with Teddy Geiger.

"A juvenile fairy tale that plays like the pilot for a Jonas Brothers sitcom on the Disney Channel, The Rocker comes off as something penned by an old dude who hasn't bought music since it was sold 'on records,' or ever met a music executive who wasn't a character in This Is Spinal Tap," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice. "This is sugary-sweet stuff—pop instead of rock."

Eric Kohn in the New York Press: "Slapstick should be the redeeming quality that sustains The Rocker through its weaker moments, but Wilson’s stunts never build to greatness; they suggest a good idea or two and then move right along."

"Sadly, nearly everyone's talents are wasted, or else used only in a couple of scenes," writes Eric D Snider at Cinematical. "The exception is Sudeikis, who gets the film's best one-liners.... His delivery is impeccable, of course, but for some reason his character was written to be funnier than everyone else, too. He basically steals the show."

Interviews with Wilson: Sam Adams (Philadelphia City Paper), Eric Kohn (Cinematical), Nathan Rabin (AV Club) and Aly Semigran (Philadelphia Weekly).

Updates, 8/22: "It's a slave to formula, and it hits its marks satisfyingly enough to make for a pleasant time-passer, but Wilson and a loaded supporting cast are never as funny as they should be," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

"The Rocker does not totally suck," Lindy West assures us in the Stranger. "Like most films devoted to the absurd kickassedness of rock, it's hopelessly derivative, but I've sat through worse moviegoing experiences than a secondhand Spinal Tap."

Posted by dwhudson at August 21, 2008 3:49 AM