Considering that my youngest was a dedicated and superb guitarist at the exact time period the film was set in, and we're in California, I had more than a few expectations for this film going in. By the time the closing credits rolled by I found I was of a divided opinion; some good, some bad. The easiest first, the good:
Good thing number one is Julianne Hough. The only drawback with her is that hard-core rockers will find her too bland, even later in the film when she falls off of her GTS's.
Overall, I thought someone like Emmy Rossum or Anne Hathaway may have been better picks for the part, with their much fuller voices and more candid, adult sexuality.
Hough's leading man is the forgettable, unknown-in-the-mainstream Diego Boneta (born Diego Andrés González Boneta in 1990 in Mexico City, Mexico). I felt inclined to dismiss him as just another pretty-boy used as Latin eye-candy to attract the younger teenaged- girl ticket buyers; ala Ricky Martin.
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alex Baldwin and Russell Brand all did yeoman service but nothing to write home about.
Without doubt, the biggest surprise of the film was Tom Cruise. He managed to look younger thanks to what appeared to be maniacal workouts. But the big fat sprinkle- covered-cookie was his singing. He is credited with the vocals in the sound track credits so I have to believe it was really him singing. Thats right, he was so good I had to check. I'm already annoyed with him for getting to slowly grope both Hough and Akerman. No mortal man should ever be allowed to be that lucky.
Another surprise for me was the talent of the beautiful, Swedish-born Malin Akerman, who is very watchable in this. In one sort-of love scene with Tom Cruise she is startlingly sexy set to music.
Now for some of the downside. It's supposed to be a comic satire - I think. There really wasn't enough good comedy to tell, even with Cruise hamming it up all over the set. The plot, and therefore the film, revolves around a central character, a pretty, young, small town girl from middle America (played by Julianne Hough; a pretty, young, small town girl from middle America) who comes to LA to make her fortune in the music industry; again like Hough. The plot is something right out of the 30's, pulled from the shelf - dusted off - and the names and places changed to protect the innocent. I think the filmmakers didn't notice the too-old-fashioned, paper-thin story. The release info describes the film as a Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance. They should have picked one, or at most two, and done a better job. As it was, it seemed they were going more for a comedic setting, but missed huge chances to make it a great deal funnier.
The biggest down-side, for me, was the completely ill-advised decision to throttle back what could have been great by going for the kiddie ticket-buyer with a PG-13 rating! To me, the rivers of alcohol present was more off-putting than things that may have made it an R rating. One of the things Heavy Metal was about was a blatant sexuality. That's largely missing here; although Akerman came closer to it than any of the rest in her table top scene with Cruise. I'd have given my left big toe for that to have evolved into a more grown-up scene. Had Akerman peeled a bit further she'd have become a legend. As it is, it'll likely be forgotten. Come to think of it; that's a perk Cruise didn't need. The filmmakers just couldn't drop the hammer.
I know, I know ... it was extracted from a Broadway musical of the same name. So ... that doesn't mean it couldn't have been greatly improved. It was like going to a highly touted action film to find the climactic scene turned out to be a pillow fight between Batman and Spiderman.
As alluring as they were, due to the production decisions eliminating most of what could have been a blast, Hough and Akerman just failed to exemplify the hard-edged, blatant sexuality of the era. After all, boys grew up dreaming of being rock stars, not to play music, but to have access to bundles of not-quite-clad sexy girls. A juicier, more adult, far better script was hiding in there trying to get out, but perhaps a Rossum-like star might have been needed to bring it out in Hough's part and I'd have loved to see Hathaway in Akerman's part; not because they're inherently so much better singers or actresses but because both of those ladies know how to kick down barriers with aplomb.
I tend to think either woman Hough or Akerman, may have been up to the challenge given the chance. As it was both were very chaste in the film, the costuming perhaps a shade more modest than 2010's Burlesque in which Hough also appeared with Christina Aguilera and which also missed the mark.
Both this film and Burlesque suffer a crisis of credibility by completely ignoring what originally made their representative genres so popular: s-e-x and the maximum amount of s-k-i-n. There's nothing in either film that couldn't be seen on any given weekend in a Southern California mall bar the singing.
Well, a guy can dream, right?
Good thing number one is Julianne Hough. The only drawback with her is that hard-core rockers will find her too bland, even later in the film when she falls off of her GTS's.
Overall, I thought someone like Emmy Rossum or Anne Hathaway may have been better picks for the part, with their much fuller voices and more candid, adult sexuality.
Hough's leading man is the forgettable, unknown-in-the-mainstream Diego Boneta (born Diego Andrés González Boneta in 1990 in Mexico City, Mexico). I felt inclined to dismiss him as just another pretty-boy used as Latin eye-candy to attract the younger teenaged- girl ticket buyers; ala Ricky Martin.
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alex Baldwin and Russell Brand all did yeoman service but nothing to write home about.
Without doubt, the biggest surprise of the film was Tom Cruise. He managed to look younger thanks to what appeared to be maniacal workouts. But the big fat sprinkle- covered-cookie was his singing. He is credited with the vocals in the sound track credits so I have to believe it was really him singing. Thats right, he was so good I had to check. I'm already annoyed with him for getting to slowly grope both Hough and Akerman. No mortal man should ever be allowed to be that lucky.
Another surprise for me was the talent of the beautiful, Swedish-born Malin Akerman, who is very watchable in this. In one sort-of love scene with Tom Cruise she is startlingly sexy set to music.
Now for some of the downside. It's supposed to be a comic satire - I think. There really wasn't enough good comedy to tell, even with Cruise hamming it up all over the set. The plot, and therefore the film, revolves around a central character, a pretty, young, small town girl from middle America (played by Julianne Hough; a pretty, young, small town girl from middle America) who comes to LA to make her fortune in the music industry; again like Hough. The plot is something right out of the 30's, pulled from the shelf - dusted off - and the names and places changed to protect the innocent. I think the filmmakers didn't notice the too-old-fashioned, paper-thin story. The release info describes the film as a Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance. They should have picked one, or at most two, and done a better job. As it was, it seemed they were going more for a comedic setting, but missed huge chances to make it a great deal funnier.
The biggest down-side, for me, was the completely ill-advised decision to throttle back what could have been great by going for the kiddie ticket-buyer with a PG-13 rating! To me, the rivers of alcohol present was more off-putting than things that may have made it an R rating. One of the things Heavy Metal was about was a blatant sexuality. That's largely missing here; although Akerman came closer to it than any of the rest in her table top scene with Cruise. I'd have given my left big toe for that to have evolved into a more grown-up scene. Had Akerman peeled a bit further she'd have become a legend. As it is, it'll likely be forgotten. Come to think of it; that's a perk Cruise didn't need. The filmmakers just couldn't drop the hammer.
I know, I know ... it was extracted from a Broadway musical of the same name. So ... that doesn't mean it couldn't have been greatly improved. It was like going to a highly touted action film to find the climactic scene turned out to be a pillow fight between Batman and Spiderman.
As alluring as they were, due to the production decisions eliminating most of what could have been a blast, Hough and Akerman just failed to exemplify the hard-edged, blatant sexuality of the era. After all, boys grew up dreaming of being rock stars, not to play music, but to have access to bundles of not-quite-clad sexy girls. A juicier, more adult, far better script was hiding in there trying to get out, but perhaps a Rossum-like star might have been needed to bring it out in Hough's part and I'd have loved to see Hathaway in Akerman's part; not because they're inherently so much better singers or actresses but because both of those ladies know how to kick down barriers with aplomb.
I tend to think either woman Hough or Akerman, may have been up to the challenge given the chance. As it was both were very chaste in the film, the costuming perhaps a shade more modest than 2010's Burlesque in which Hough also appeared with Christina Aguilera and which also missed the mark.
Both this film and Burlesque suffer a crisis of credibility by completely ignoring what originally made their representative genres so popular: s-e-x and the maximum amount of s-k-i-n. There's nothing in either film that couldn't be seen on any given weekend in a Southern California mall bar the singing.
Well, a guy can dream, right?