Rock of Ages (2012 film)

After the success of the original Off-Broadway production, the film rights were sold to Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema in early 2009.[3] Adam Shankman was hired to direct the film in October that year.[4][5] Chris D'Arienzo, creator of the stage musical, revealed he was originally attached to write and direct the film, wishing to have it visualised as similar to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) musicals such as Singin' in the Rain, however the studio elected to hire someone they felt they could trust with the budget they wanted to give the film, resulting in Shankman's hiring.[6]

Malin Åkerman was the last member of the cast to be added, in the role of Constance Sack.

Tom Cruise played Stacee Jaxx in the film.[7] Shankman knew Cruise was in when he heard him on the first go around of his voice lesson, confirming he "actually has a fantastic voice."[8] Cruise had been singing five hours a day to prepare for his work as musician Stacee Jaxx. "It's this brilliant mashup, it seems, of Axl Rose, Bret Michaels, Keith Richards and Jim Morrison," Shankman said of what to expect from Cruise.[9][10] All of the actors sing their own parts in the film.[11] Cruise said that he had always wanted to appear in a musical but he found the idea frightening because he was uncertain whether he could actually pull it off.[12][13]

On February 14, 2011, it was announced that Mary J. Blige had signed on to play Justice Charler in the film.[14] On March 3, 2011, it was confirmed that Julianne Hough would play the role of Sherrie, Drew's love interest.[15] On March 6, 2011, it was confirmed that Alec Baldwin would play the role of Dennis Dupree in the film.[16] Baldwin's agreement to star in the film prompted Warner Bros. to have the film fast-tracked.[17] On March 24, 2011, it was announced that Paul Giamatti would be in the film, playing the manager of Stacee Jaxx.[18]

Pretty Little Liars star Diego Boneta was confirmed to play the male protagonist, Drew Boley, on April 5, 2011.[8] Not wanting an older actor to act like he is 23, Shankman thought it better to go as authentic as possible, "and Diego is absolutely that. He is [a] kid who came to Los Angeles with a dream and who sings and has an amazing voice, and drive. And he's also as honest and sweet as you can possibly make him and he's authentically the age. It creates a piece of something on screen that I don't have to fabricate."[8] Of Boneta's audition, Shankman said, "It's that feeling you get when you realized you've discovered lightning in a bottle. It reminds me of when Zac Efron auditioned for Hairspray, Channing Tatum for Step Up, and Liam Hemsworth auditioned for The Last Song. When the guy walks in, the guy walks in!" Shankman also said he did not know that Boneta was a Latin music star until after he auditioned. "I have since seen him on stage and in his concerts, and he totally owns the room," Shankman said.[9]

Constantine Maroulis (Drew Boley from the musical) made a cameo appearance in the film like Ricki Lake did for Hairspray.[8] On April 13, Russell Brand was confirmed to portray Lonny.[19]

Catherine Zeta-Jones joined the cast on April 20, and portrayed an original character added to the story line. The unnamed character is described as "the Villainess of the movie" who "wants to shut down rock'n roll in the great city of Los Angeles."[20] On May 1 Bryan Cranston joined the cast as the Mayor of Los Angeles, who is the husband of Catherine Zeta-Jones's character,[21] and Malin Åkerman completed the cast when she was added as Constance Sack on May 3, 2011, a role Anne Hathaway and Amy Adams declined.[22][19]

Singer Porcelain Black made a cameo in the film, playing a 1980s hair metal singer. She performed one of the sole original tracks for the film, "Rock Angels".[23][24] "Rock Angels" was written and composed by Adam Anders and Desmond Child.[25] Professional wrestler Kevin Nash played Stacee's bodyguard.[26]

Principal photography began at Revolution Live, a small music venue in Fort Lauderdale.[27] Scenes were shot at a Hollywood, Florida beach on May 24.[28] The scenes at the iconic Hollywood Sign were filmed at the Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park in Pompano Beach.[27]

In June 2011, a full six-block section of N.W. 14th Street in Downtown Miami was decorated as a late 1980s version set of the Hollywood, California Sunset Strip complete with the Whisky a Go Go, Frederick's of Hollywood, Tower Records, Angelyne Billboard along with other landmarks.[29]

On July 18, filming took place at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, for a concert scene with "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Wanted Dead or Alive".[30]

On its opening weekend in theaters, the film grossed $14,447,269, ranking third place, behind the previous week's holdovers Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus. The film did, however, do slightly better business than the other newcomer, That's My Boy.[33]

Rock of Ages was a box office bomb, grossing $38,518,613 in North America and $20,900,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $59,418,613, failing to bring back its $75 million budget. However, the film still has the seventh-highest opening ever for a musical.[34]

In a 2019 interview, Adam Shankman said "I think it would have been huge if it had been something that was made for streaming. Here are the problems with what Rock of Ages was. I think it was released on a very complicated date. We were in the early summer days, there were marketing challenges to do with the cast, but that wasn't their fault," he explained. "The cast all loved it, and Tom Cruise really wanted to feel like an ensemble member and Warner Brothers wanted to put the whole thing on him. He wasn't a problem at all; he just had a real point of view. Then there was the other piece of it which was there was a misguided belief that you could market musicals to men as opposed to going the whole hog and making the movie more of a romantic fantasy. It's a weird cult movie. I kept calling one of those guys and saying, 'I think I'm making like a really expensive cult movie over here,' and they were like, 'No, no, it's great! You made Hairspray!' and my reaction was, 'I don't know. This isn't really about ending racism. Rock of Ages is something else entirely.' It has a lot of joy in it, but the story isn't really solid, so it's just a lot of fun, right?"[35]

Tom Cruise saw positive reviews for his performance as Stacee Jaxx, with critics making parallels to his previous work in the films Interview with the Vampire and Magnolia.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, and has a critical score of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 228 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus states: "Its exuberant silliness is almost enough to make up for its utter inconsequentiality, but Rock of Ages is ultimately too bland and overlong to justify its trip to the big screen."[36] Metacritic reports a 47 out of 100 rating, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[38]

Several critics gave praise to the performances, particularly that of Cruise as Stacee Jaxx. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Rock of Ages is pretty fun despite a terrible script, bland leads and awful wigs, mainly thanks to a performance by Tom Cruise as fictional hair metal rocker Stacee Jaxx."[39] Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Amy Biancolli called his performance "a revelation", calling it a "reminder that he's always at his best in wildly transformative character parts".[40] Steve Persall of the Tampa Bay Times praised Cruise's singing, and compared his performance to his earlier work as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire.[41] In her review, Dana Stevens of Slate found Cruise's performance the "boldest use of the actor since Paul Thomas Anderson made him a rage-fueled motivational speaker in Magnolia".[42]

As for the negative reviews, Rex Reed of The New York Observer was heavily critical of every aspect of the film, giving the film no stars out of his ranking of four and compared the film to Battlefield Earth and Howard the Duck.[43] Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw derided the film, and the stage musical, as "bland and tiring". Bradshaw also criticized Russell Brand's accent, and gave slight praise to Cruise's performance.[44] Claudia Puig, of USA Today, criticised the main leads of the film as "deadly dull dreamers" and the story as "tame and tone deaf".[45] Richard Corliss for Time found the cast as being wasted in the film, highlighting Baldwin, Zeta-Jones, Cranston, and Cruise, to whose performance Corliss provided positive reception.[46]

Rock of Ages creator Chris D'Arienzo, though having not seen the film adaptation, spoke negatively on the final product. "When the trailer came out, I saw there was a monkey in it, and then I knew what kind of movie it was. And I think America knew what sort of movie it was". D'Arienzo voiced disappointment in how the film depicted itself, stating,

Instead of coming from the point of view of "I'm going to validate this and elevate it," they embraced the kitsch and just made it more kitschy. They made it more silly and goofy. Not that our show isn't silly or goofy, but it's always from the point of view of "This is really good. And if you don't like Warrant's 'Cherry Pie,' then you're a fucking dick. Because it's good! And we're gonna show you why it's good!"[6]

Alec Baldwin, who played Dennis Dupree in the film, was also critical, calling it "a horrible movie" and "a complete disaster".[47] Baldwin had asked New Line Cinema studio head Toby Emmerich to replace him in his role shortly before the beginning of production.[48]

Rock of Ages was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9, 2012. An extended cut is available on the Blu-ray,[53] which includes the deleted "Rock You Like a Hurricane" lap dance scene between Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) and Sherrie (Julianne Hough), which is also played in the theatrical version's end credits, as well as an extended version of "Waiting for a Girl Like You", between Drew (Diego Boneta) and Sherrie (Hough) (both scenes can also be found on YouTube). The extended cut runs 136 minutes, 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and is rated R for sexual content, as opposed to the PG-13 theatrical version.