“THE ROCKER” (2008)

Starring: Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Teddy Geiger, Josh Gad, Emma Stone, Jeff Garlin, Jane Lynch, Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Barrow, Will Arnett, Howard Hesseman & Pete Best
Written by Maya Forbes (screenplay), Wallace Wolodarsky (screenplay) & Ryan Jaffe (story)
Directed by Peter Cattaneo

Polly Staffle Rating: **

A hyperactive musician is kicked out the band he helped build, placing his dreams of becoming a huge rock star on hold. Some kids later come into his life. Reluctant to get too involved with them at first, the musician eventually shows the kids they are never too old or too young to use their God given right to rock. He inspires them. They inspire him. Confidence in themselves and each other grows. They all learn how to fight their inner demons. The musician’s new band ends up having a showdown of sorts with his old band. The new band blows the old band off the stage. The crowd screams and yells for the new band to return to the stage. They do. They bring down the house and all is set right in the musical universe.

Is this a review for Richard Linklater’s family rock-n-roll comedy “School of Rock” written by Michael White? No it isn’t. This is for Peter Cattaneo’s family rock-n-roll comedy “The Rocker.” Sure, it might sound a lot like “School of Rock,” but there is something missing – Jack Black. Instead of J.B., “The Rocker” gives us Rainn Wilson (“The Office,” “Six Feet Under,” “House of 1,000 Corpses”).

In the film’s lead role as Robert “Fish” Fishman, Wilson does his best Jack Black imitation; essentially speaking the language of “Beavis and Butthead,” while also performing physical and visual humor. Wilson does a great job and is quite funny. But he’s not bringing enough of himself into the role of the film. The script is so close to White’s “School of Rock” and Wilson’s performance is so much like Black’s that the film never really feels genuine.

The film opens with Fish as the drummer of the Cleveland band Vesuvius. It is the late 80’s during the heyday of what some call glamour rock, others call hair metal and I call bad music. Vesuvius is Poison meets AC/DC meets White Snake meets Guns N’Roses meets Def Leppard meets Motley Crüe. Fish has the look of early Ozzy Osborne during his solo career down pat, while the rest of Vesuvius look like rejects from KISS, Twisted Sister, Kix or Bon Jovi. When a record label agrees to sign Vesuvius as long as Fish is kicked out and replaced with somebody’s nephew, the little drummer boy is sent packing and the band blows up to U2 proportions.

Twenty years later, Vesuvius is still going strong. Fish on the other hand is a miserable office drone. When one of his coworkers cranks up the new Vesuvius CD, Fish loses it and goes home unemployed to then be kicked out on the street by his girlfriend. With nowhere to turn, Fish ends up staying with his sister, who has a teenage son Matt (Josh Gad) that is in a band called A.D.D.

The drummer for A.D.D. ends up being grounded before their first big gig, playing the high school prom. Matt, a shy, nerdy and chubby kid, turns to his uncle Fish for help. Soon A.D.D. is rocking the prom and later YouTube. Footage of Fish drumming naked becomes an over night internet sensation and the very record label that signed Vesuvius comes a knocking. Featuring Fish on drums, Matt on keyboard, a Lindsay Lohan/Avril Lavigne self-proclaimed punk chick Amelia (Emma Stone of “Super Bad”) on bass and a Jared Leto-looking emo boy Curtis (pop singer Teddy Geiger) on guitar and vocals, the pop-rock outfit records an album and goes on tour.

If you’ve seen “School of Rock” you know what happens next. The only difference is this one has been updated a bit with a funny stab at video director Spike Jonze and references to Myspace, “Guitar Hero,” Ashley Simpson’s lip syncing incident and the term M.I.L.F. Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy of “Married with Children”) plays the mother of Curtis, so that’s where the M.I.L.F. reference comes in. She in return uses the term P.I.L.S. – People I’d Like to Stab. There are also music-related jokes about entertainers acquiring fake British accents, bands that trash hotel rooms and throw televisions out windows and lots and lots of music.

The music from A.D.D. in the film is actually pretty good. It reminded me a lot of Silverchair’s latest album “Young Modern” and I definitely would like to get my hands on the soundtrack when it comes out. Chad Fischer was the man behind the A.D.D. songs. He’s a producer/composer/singer that has done work before on “Garden State,” “Scrubs,” “Sky High” and a slew of other films and television shows.

“The Rocker” also includes appearances by funny men Jason Sudeikis (cast member of “Second City: Las Vegas” and “Saturday Night Live”), Will Arnett (“Let’s Go to Prison”), Jeff Garlin (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and Demitri Martin (long time writer of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”). Howard Hesseman aka. Johnny Dr. Fever on “WKRP in Cincinnati” and the fifth member of The Beatles – Pete Best – show up in cameos.

So yeah, there is some fun stuff here. But is this the film that will help make Wilson a lead star or rebound the career of Applegate? No. Overall, I would say “The Rocker” has its moments, but that’s about it. As a whole, it has a lot of flaws. It’s funny at times. The soundtrack is quite good. But it isn’t very original and it is flimsily held together.

Ironically, at the film’s world premiere to open the 10th Annual CineVegas Film Festival, it was noted that Peter Cattaneo, who also directed “The Full Monty,” prepped the film in six weeks and then shot it in an additional six weeks. Cattaneo and a number of members of the film’s cast and crew were in attendance at the screening. Rainn Wilson was there decked out in rocker attire as his character Fish. “I’m so grateful,” Wilson said after he was introduced. He thanked the director, writers and producers and then joked, “The cast – they’re okay.” After CineVegas artistic director Trevor Groth finished introducing the film and the lights began to dim for “The Rocker” to start, Wilson yelled out, “And I die at the end,” to a roar of laughter. He was, of course, joking, but at the same time, a death and a bit more time prepping and shooting the film probably wouldn’t have hurt it.

- CCF, June 2008