Rock Star

[Morpheus2000]

In Rock Star Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Cole, who is the lead singer of Blood Pollution, a Steel Dragon (fictional for the film) tribute band.

Chris is completely obsessive about Steel Dragon and has no ambition for himself except to sing Steel Dragon's songs the exact way they do. The band end up firing him because of this. He is then hired by the real Steel Dragon since they want to replace their lead singer Bobby Beers and he takes the stage name Izzy.

Unlike Almost Famous which was told objectively by a young reporter this film is told subjectively from Chris' point of view and this has a negative effect from his obsessions on Steel Dragon.

The film has a very thin story and while entertaining in parts doesn’t really sustain the atmosphere of a real band like in Almost Famous which is a superior film. While Chris has changed by the end of the film this doesn’t do much justice to it. An average film so wait for it to appear on the rental window.

[mjb1975]

watched this tonight (thank you *********).

I thought it was enjoyable, if a little flat. The comparisons to Almost Famous are obvious, but I think that movie did it much better. I thought this was a little short to fully illustrate the changes that Chris went through ...and back again!... - it all seemed a little rushed.

Still, pretty good, worth checking out, although I dunno how many more times I'd be watching - I feel a sale/trade coming on.

[tj_director]

also watched this tonight, (also thanks to MT) and thought it was pretty alright.. if i'm going to do the Almost Famous (one of my fav films) comparison, i'd say it's like Diet Almost Famous. It has the great concert scenes, some pretty decent original rock songs, accompanied by an equally decent soundtrack. So like me, fans of Rock/Metal should at least find that part satisfying. But it doesn't really have the lasting, genuinly heart warming feel of AF.

Overall a nice film, storyline thin and nothing new, but still watching Walbherg and Aniston (looking especially gorgeous) go through it makes it watchable. You get the good ol' Sex, Drugs and Rock'N'Roll, although don't expect anything particularaly explicit. I think if the film had a bit more of a darker, realisitic feel, it could have taken this film up a level. At the end of the day, it's a good pizza and beer film.

Not really a keeper, but the kind of film i wouldn't mind watching again :)

PS -- more enjoyable on DVD i'd say, as you can do your air guitar and crappy karoake ;) Excellent WB transfer and rocking 5.1!! :clap:

[richkev]

I enjoyed Rockstar, not up to Almost Famous but you have to remember they were also set in different era's, Rockstar mid 80's and Almost famous in the 70's. As a forty odd year old who used to have the long hair and wear the leathers to go with it, I can associate with these films very easily. I remember going to see the bands perform, getting more than a bit drunk and all the rest that goes on in both movies.

I recently bought Josie and the Pussycats because of the good reviews and found it to be one of the biggest piles of junk I have ever seen, (personal opinion) so perhaps age is a factor here. I used to run a rock disco and we had many bands play live, Diamond Head, Def Leppard, Quartz and many others, alot of the things that went on in Rockstar were a bit exagerated but I can tell you from experience that the wild parties did happen.

I agree that Almost Famous is a much better film, (one of my all time favorites) but I still enjoyed Rockstar.

[Joe Pasquale]

I thought it was awful, already a very good contender for worst film of the year. Average performances all round (I agree no-one was 'bad') and you didn't 'feel' for the characters at all. Other than the round the table thing where the brother takes the mick, is there anywhere where you're supposed to start feeling sorry for the guy? Even in the ropey Planet Of The Apes Wahlberg was given much more to work with. I do enjoy a good comedy (I thought Rat Race was okay), and loved 'Almost Famous', but this was bad, extremely bad.

And, had to hark back to 'Airheads' during this film, 'Marky Mark, man that guy sucks', in a bizarre role reversal, I agree wholeheartedly. :D

[camaj]

It certainly was bad. The whole film was padded out with lame concert scenes. You could edit the film down to 10 minutes and not loose anything.

[jonathan.e]

Here’s a handy way of finding out ahead of time if a chosen film will be poor: Check the credits and if the words "Wahlberg" and "Mark" are in there (doesn’t matter which way round they are) then you’re guaranteed a stinker.

Just thought I’d share :D