| 'Better stick to his day job...' The Rocker's Rainn Wilson is funnier in The Office
B
| The Rocker
Now showing
The Office's Rainn Wilson futilely attempts some of Jack Black's already tired, belligerent gross-out schtick with The Rocker - a watered-down, if earnest fable about a spurned hard-rock drummer who is given a rare second shot at fame with musicians half his age. Thankfully, some of the supporting players, unanimously plucked from other NBC comedy series, pick up the beat.
Robert 'Fish' Fishman (Wilson) was on the precipice of superstardom and groupie adulation as part of rock unit Vesuvius back in 1988 (think Def Leppard topped off with Brian Johnson). Ousted from his group as part of a sleazy corporate decision, his bandmates - the wasted triumvirate of Will Arnett, Fred Armisen and Bradley Cooper - go on to sell oodles of records whilst being adored by fans the world over for the next 20 years.
Fishman, on the other hand, spends the majority of that time lost in a daze, working soulless jobs - and any utterance of his former band sends him over the edge into violent hysterics. Forced to crash in his sister's cluttered attic, Fishman is content to start another sure-to-be dispiriting chapter when his chubby nephew, played by Josh Gad, corners him into playing a prom-night gig alongside his garage-rock buds, Emma Stone (Superbad) and Teddy Geiger.
While their high-school debut is far from a smash, a viral video featuring Fishman practicing naked becomes an online phenom, and a Hollywood agent (Jason Sudeikis) soon comes a-knockin'. Their exploits during a Midwestern tour, as drunken with debauchery as a PG-13 film can get, take up the majority of the running time, as the three teens and the middle-aged pro are faced with temptations while dealing with protests from their parents. (You'd guess correctly if you figured out Christina Applegate was in the cast to play the age-appropriate love interest for Wilson.)
Still, despite its dubiously unoriginal premise, borrowing liberally from past successes School of Rock and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Rocker still offers plenty of manufactured, heart-in-the-right-place appeal, with enough small character parts to overcome any monotony in the central plot. Saturday Night Live's Sudeikis, as the ultra-greaseball Hollywood agent, entertainingly trots out his supreme sleazebag bit from that show to great comic effect. Stand-up Demetri Martin also has a clever bit as an uncommunicative, experimental director hired to shoot the band's first music video.
Director Peter Cattaneo, whose previous credits include another male-in-the-buff comedy, The Full Monty, navigates his way around what could be simply a saccharine exercise, finessing the requisite romances (between Wilson and Applegate, Stone and Geiger) and having them understood through a few silent glances and exchanges.
In the end, The Rocker further proves the rule that The 40-Year Old Virgin was a fluke, and that none of the other Office cast members can sustain interest up on the big screen.
— Aaron Graham |
Uptown
Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News
