The Rocker: Not School of Rock Again, Honest
I liked School of Rock a lot. All my friends did. It’s funny, charming, and a great vehicle for Jack Black. The kids were all refreshingly realistic, the writing was witty, and the story was heart-warming.
But did they really need to make it again?
Subtract the kids, replace Jack Black with Rainn Wilson, and you have the upcoming comedy The Rocker. People aren’t thrilled with the concept so far, despite the amount of Office fans who worship the ground that Rainn Wilson walks on. It just sounds…well, have a look at the plot summary.
Musician Robert “Fish” Fishman (Rainn Wilson) is fired from Vesuvius, a fictional ’80s hair band, before they become famous. The movie follows him as he gets a second chance at fame when he joins the garage band of his nephew Matt (Josh Gad). His love interest (Christina Applegate) is the mother of the band’s guitarist, Curtis (Teddy Geiger). Pete Best, a former member of The Beatles who suffered a similar fate, has a cameo role in the film as himself.
The first paragaph is essentially a carbon copy of the setup for School of Rock. Yes, the kids are important to the film, but not so important the The Rocker sounds even slightly original.
Film Grenade has some stills from the film, which show stars Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, and musician Teddy Geiger (famous for his hit single “Confidence [For You I Will]”).
But despite many people’s misgivings, “practicalhope” on the IMDB boards claims to have attended an advance screening of the film and loved it.
I just saw The Rocker about a week ago. It was way funnier and a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I’m not sure the trailer does it justice. I know everyone is comparing it to School of Rock, but I don’t really think those comparisons are fair or accurate - once you see the film you’ll realize that as well. Our advance screening was completely full and people were laughing so loudly and so much that I actually missed some of the dialogue; always a good sign for a comedy. I’d recommend it!
So, what do you trust - your own instincts, or audience opinion? I’m reserving judgement for a while.
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What do you mean, “people aren’t thrilled with the concept so far”? Where did you get your information? Or did you do a non-biased poll? I saw it at a screening in Michigan a few weeks back. Sounded funny, saw it and it was better and way funnier and more charming than I expected. Are there similarities to School of Rock? A couple - but you forget any preconceived notions within the first two minutes. It has way similarities than say, Cars and Doc Hollyood.
So if you’re not gonna listen to people and reserve judgement until you see it, maybe you should also not speak for them either….
I don’t claim to speak for anyone but the people who said they didn’t like it, which, in my blog travels, is most. I didn’t cite my sources because this is not a scientific essay; I think you can find people’s opinions online if you are interested, just as well as I can. I did include a positive review to show the other side of things - if you feel that’s not enough, maybe you should write your own article about it.