A tribute to big hair, big dreams and the 1980s Broadway show this “is-this-even-necessary?” film follows Sherrie (Julianne Hough) a blonde school girl from Oklahoma with big dreams and big hair. She gets off a Greyhound bus and meets her soulmate, bar-back Drew (Diego Boneta) the two creating an uninspiring GLEE-type twosome who work, sing and romance at the Bourbon Room bar run by grumpy, Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) having a bad hair day. Baldwin’s very cool business assistant is played by Russell Brand (with more shaggy-do hair)though compared to the rest, he actually relaxes into his role (he’s a twisted British rocker at heart, afterall.) The hair days are repetitively so bad (to match the really over-the-top bad film) that perhaps director Adam “Hairspray” Shankman should have stuck to that.
Tom Cruise regroups with screenwriter Justin Thereoux from Tropic Thunder this time playing Stacee Jaxx (a rock star channeling Bon Jovi and Axl Rose.) Cruise’s supposed fame in the film is almost the rock and roll version of himself as a movie star as you can feel the depths of his pain, failures and fame, because let’s face it… he’s come a long way from livingroom-sock- sliding with microphone in Risky Business.
To add to the messy and annoying storyline is Catherine Zeta Jones as the tight-wound Mayor’s wife whose husband is channeling “Fifty Shades of Grey” with his campaign secretary while she’s off saving the planet from rock & roll.
Paul Giamatti portrays a really skanky but smart business manager who is one of the better roles in the storyline. In the words of legendary rockers Starship: “We Built This City on Rock and Roll” I just wish they built a better movie though the soundtrack is kick ass. One and a half tiaras