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Rock Star
Warner Bros. // R // January 22, 2002
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
If you look up "average" in the dictionary of cinema, there should be a picture of director Stephen Herek's "Rock Star". A film that remains basically entertaining enough during its running time, it's also a completely forgettable bit of fluff, with little personality - it's about as generic as its title. "Rock Star" revolves around the real-life tale behind metal band Judas Priest, who replaced lead singer Rob Halford and brought up a relative unknown to take his place. In "Rock Star", Mark Whalberg ("Planet of the Apes") plays Chris Cole, an aspiring rock star who fixes copy machines by day and leads a Steel Dragon tribute (not cover!) band at night. He's such an enormous fan of the band that when his fellow bandmates aren't perfectly nailing the band's music, he throws a temper tantrum. Starting a particularly nasty fight during a live performance gets him tossed out of the band, who want to write their own music.
I suppose I can understand the character's being a hard-core fan of the music, but the scene at the live performance simply made him unlikable. Anyone who's been to a live rock show knows the fun of going is to see the band try things and maybe take the music further than it was on the recording. Anyways, Chris is tossed out along with manager and girlfriend Emily (Jennifer Aniston).
Soon after, Chris gets a call from Steel Dragon themselves, who fly him (he takes Emily along) out and promptly hire him. The only thing that he needs to do is change his name to Izzy for PR purposes. Thus begins a a spiral upwards into fame and downwards into partying to hard and having Emily fly off to Seattle. Where the film seemed like it was going someplace interesting and showing us a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be on-tour, the film starts to show these moments as part of a montage instead. The focus tends to fall back on the romance between Whalberg and Aniston's characters, which is unfortunate because the two do not have a particularly strong chemistry with one another, even though both at least attempt to bring some energy to one-dimensional characters. Aniston certainly gets the worst role in the picture, a barely-there character who really doesn't have much purpose. As the best of the "Friends" actors, she deserves far better.
Although the film starts off entertaining, it becomes less and less fun and more repetitive as it goes along. Obviously, the film will be compared to Cameron Crowe's far better "Almost Famous" and, in fact, that picture had far more life and energy to it. I was also kind of suprised that the movie got an R, when it seemed to paint a rather bland, PG-13-ish picture of the scene.
Overall, "Rock Star" passed through quickly enough and had a few moments, but it certainly could have offered a more interesting behind-the-scenes look at metal music and big-stadium tours than it does. Wait until the end credits for the outtakes, where the crew play a joke on Whalberg during a take, playing one of his "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch" songs in the background. He doesn't seem amused.
The DVD
VIDEO: The film is presented by Warner Brothers in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. While not the studio's finest recent effort, the picture quality is certainly above-average and up to the studio's standards for their new releases. Sharpness and detail are not a problem; while the picture doesn't present outstanding detail or great depth to the image, the picture looked well-defined and quite crisp, nonetheless.
Flaws were quite minor throughout the presentation. I noticed a little speck or two on the print used, but the film was otherwise clean and clear throughout. Only a slight amount of edge enhancement popped up once or twice, but no pixelation or other problems were seen.
The film's color palette was generally shown off well. The concert sequences presented the lighting in decent fashion - colors looked fine, but there were a few moments during these scenes where colors looked a bit heavier than I remembered them in the theater. Outside of the concert scenes, colors are more subdued, but still remained accurate to how I remember the film appearing in the theater.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. I have spent a fairly sizable amount of time listening to 5.1 concert/music presentations on DVD. While some are incredible, there are others that are difficult to listen to and some that are in-between. "Rock Star"'s concert sequences are "in-between" - the instrumentals are fairly powerful, but the music could use a bit more clarity and detail. The concert sequences did use the surrounds a fair amount though, and while I didn't get the "you-are-there" feeling that some concert discs provide, the film's concert moments were fine.
Unfortunately, when the film leaves the concert hall, the film's sound generally folds up to the front, with only occasional reinforcement by the rear speakers. Audio quality is satisfactory, as the music sounded fairly fierce, but not quite as crisp as I'd expected. Dialogue and sound effects, on the other hand, sounded perfectly fine. This is a good, if not stunning, sound presentation.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that have music from the film in the background.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Stephen Herek. Although the track was originally supposed to also include writer (and "crazy/beautiful" director) John Stockwell, Stockwell is nowhere to be found. The commentary is fairly enjoyable, as the director is able to carry at least the first half of the track fairly well. He spends most of the time pointing out specific details of scenes, whether it be stories about what happened on the set, locations or other elements. There's not much at all said about the "history" that "inspired" the film - Herek points this out briefly. As the track goes on, the commentary starts to get more and more quiet, but I still found this an okay track.
Also: Cast and crew bios, a short featurette that doesn't have much to offer and the film's trailer.
Final Thoughts: "Rock Star" isn't bad, but it's a bit of a mess. It focuses on the almost non-existent romance between the Aniston and Whalberg characters, but doesn't really say anything that much about the music. Warner Brothers presents a fine DVD edition at their occasional lower $19.99 retail price - audio/video is fine, while supplements are decent, but not particularly noteworthy. It's more of a rental.
If you look up "average" in the dictionary of cinema, there should be a picture of director Stephen Herek's "Rock Star". A film that remains basically entertaining enough during its running time, it's also a completely forgettable bit of fluff, with little personality - it's about as generic as its title. "Rock Star" revolves around the real-life tale behind metal band Judas Priest, who replaced lead singer Rob Halford and brought up a relative unknown to take his place. In "Rock Star", Mark Whalberg ("Planet of the Apes") plays Chris Cole, an aspiring rock star who fixes copy machines by day and leads a Steel Dragon tribute (not cover!) band at night. He's such an enormous fan of the band that when his fellow bandmates aren't perfectly nailing the band's music, he throws a temper tantrum. Starting a particularly nasty fight during a live performance gets him tossed out of the band, who want to write their own music.
I suppose I can understand the character's being a hard-core fan of the music, but the scene at the live performance simply made him unlikable. Anyone who's been to a live rock show knows the fun of going is to see the band try things and maybe take the music further than it was on the recording. Anyways, Chris is tossed out along with manager and girlfriend Emily (Jennifer Aniston).
Soon after, Chris gets a call from Steel Dragon themselves, who fly him (he takes Emily along) out and promptly hire him. The only thing that he needs to do is change his name to Izzy for PR purposes. Thus begins a a spiral upwards into fame and downwards into partying to hard and having Emily fly off to Seattle. Where the film seemed like it was going someplace interesting and showing us a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be on-tour, the film starts to show these moments as part of a montage instead. The focus tends to fall back on the romance between Whalberg and Aniston's characters, which is unfortunate because the two do not have a particularly strong chemistry with one another, even though both at least attempt to bring some energy to one-dimensional characters. Aniston certainly gets the worst role in the picture, a barely-there character who really doesn't have much purpose. As the best of the "Friends" actors, she deserves far better.
Although the film starts off entertaining, it becomes less and less fun and more repetitive as it goes along. Obviously, the film will be compared to Cameron Crowe's far better "Almost Famous" and, in fact, that picture had far more life and energy to it. I was also kind of suprised that the movie got an R, when it seemed to paint a rather bland, PG-13-ish picture of the scene.
Overall, "Rock Star" passed through quickly enough and had a few moments, but it certainly could have offered a more interesting behind-the-scenes look at metal music and big-stadium tours than it does. Wait until the end credits for the outtakes, where the crew play a joke on Whalberg during a take, playing one of his "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch" songs in the background. He doesn't seem amused.
The DVD
VIDEO: The film is presented by Warner Brothers in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. While not the studio's finest recent effort, the picture quality is certainly above-average and up to the studio's standards for their new releases. Sharpness and detail are not a problem; while the picture doesn't present outstanding detail or great depth to the image, the picture looked well-defined and quite crisp, nonetheless.
Flaws were quite minor throughout the presentation. I noticed a little speck or two on the print used, but the film was otherwise clean and clear throughout. Only a slight amount of edge enhancement popped up once or twice, but no pixelation or other problems were seen.
The film's color palette was generally shown off well. The concert sequences presented the lighting in decent fashion - colors looked fine, but there were a few moments during these scenes where colors looked a bit heavier than I remembered them in the theater. Outside of the concert scenes, colors are more subdued, but still remained accurate to how I remember the film appearing in the theater.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. I have spent a fairly sizable amount of time listening to 5.1 concert/music presentations on DVD. While some are incredible, there are others that are difficult to listen to and some that are in-between. "Rock Star"'s concert sequences are "in-between" - the instrumentals are fairly powerful, but the music could use a bit more clarity and detail. The concert sequences did use the surrounds a fair amount though, and while I didn't get the "you-are-there" feeling that some concert discs provide, the film's concert moments were fine.
Unfortunately, when the film leaves the concert hall, the film's sound generally folds up to the front, with only occasional reinforcement by the rear speakers. Audio quality is satisfactory, as the music sounded fairly fierce, but not quite as crisp as I'd expected. Dialogue and sound effects, on the other hand, sounded perfectly fine. This is a good, if not stunning, sound presentation.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that have music from the film in the background.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Stephen Herek. Although the track was originally supposed to also include writer (and "crazy/beautiful" director) John Stockwell, Stockwell is nowhere to be found. The commentary is fairly enjoyable, as the director is able to carry at least the first half of the track fairly well. He spends most of the time pointing out specific details of scenes, whether it be stories about what happened on the set, locations or other elements. There's not much at all said about the "history" that "inspired" the film - Herek points this out briefly. As the track goes on, the commentary starts to get more and more quiet, but I still found this an okay track.
Also: Cast and crew bios, a short featurette that doesn't have much to offer and the film's trailer.
Final Thoughts: "Rock Star" isn't bad, but it's a bit of a mess. It focuses on the almost non-existent romance between the Aniston and Whalberg characters, but doesn't really say anything that much about the music. Warner Brothers presents a fine DVD edition at their occasional lower $19.99 retail price - audio/video is fine, while supplements are decent, but not particularly noteworthy. It's more of a rental.
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