MOVIE REVIEW: THE ROCKER

This is my review that runs today in the Advisor and Source newspapers...
THE ROCKER

For those about to rock...look elsewhere.

Casting Rainn Wilson (TV's "The Office") as a heavy metal drummer who joins a teenage garage band is a stroke of inspiration, but director Peter Cattaneo ("The Full Monty") can't figure out what to do with the rest of the film.

Wilson plays Robert "Fish" Fishman, drummer for 80s hair metal band Vesuvius, who is kicked out before the band makes it big. Twenty years later, he's working in customer service until getting the chance to join his cousin's band, which makes it big after an infamous Youtube video in which Fish drums in the altogether. When the band hits the road, Fish is determined to show them how to party like rock stars.

Instead of the raucous and ribald comedy that is lurking inside, Cattaneo settles for a formulaic and safe movie that ignores the opportunities for jokes about metal culture and a 40-something party animal and instead settles for lame pratfalls and groan-worthy mugging. After an inspired opening sequence, in which Fish engages in a "Terminator"-like pursuit after his band members, the film is quickly defanged and we never really know whether or not Fish is an aging party animal or someone trying to shed his rocker image. A scene set at Fish's office is blatantly throwing a bone to fans of Wilson's much better work as Dwight in "The Office," only minus the comedy.

A film like this needs a genuine love and admiration for the music that it's celebrating, much like "School of Rock" had. Instead, Cattaneo and his crew don't even seem to notice that the band Wilson's character joins is nowhere near being rock stars; its simply standard "American Idol"-style pop, led by real-life brooding crooner Teddy Geiger. The climax, when the band opens for Vesuvius, comes across as utterly false, as if The Partridge Family was opening for Metallica.

Wilson tries hard to make his character a livewire of energy, but he's not given anything to push against, something such an off-the-wall character needs in order to be funny and likeable. The cast of teenage musicians he plays with is bland and uninteresting. What's worse is that Cattaneo fills the screen with genuinely funny people-including Jeff Garlin, Jane Lynch, Christina Applegate, Dmetri Martin, Will Arnett and Fred Armisen-but gives them absolutely nothing to do. It's equivalent to handing Eddie Van Halen a guitar and telling him to sit quietly on stage. The only cast member given a chance to shine is Jason Sudeikis as the band's sleazy manager; his inappropriate quips make the film gain energy any time he's on screen.

The film stumbles and weaves its way through the obligatory tour, break-up and reunion before finally wheezing to a close at a finish that is predictable and shockingly unfunny, leaving a strand of unresolved character arcs and wimping out on several chances for some good old-fashioned rock and roll rebellion. We can only hope that there is no encore. Grade: D