Rated PG-13 for drug and sexual references, nudity and language.
102 Minutes

Directed By: Peter Cattaneo
Written By: Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes

Staring: Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Teddy Geiger, Josh Gad, Emma Stone, Jeff Garlin, and Jane Lynch

Loads of elevators play Celine Dion – that don’t make it right. -Robert ‘Fish’ Fishman

Review

From the get-go you know where this movie is going to end, it’s predictable and totally obvious, but the ride there isn’t horrible thanks to Rainn Wilson.  I love him as Dwight on The Office, and he was pretty damn hilarious as the aged and kinda funky rocker, who just missed that chance at making it big.  There were some ups and downs to the movie, particularly the beginning was good, but things started to taper off to the end, which kinda took things in a cheesy down note direction.  Fortunately I was entertained for the first forty minutes or so.

A local band gets a huge record deal, but at the cost of losing their drummer as the company wants utilize the option of nepotism by putting a big shots nephew in his slot.  Robert ‘Fish’ Fisherman spends the next twenty years retiring the rockin of the drums and working at mindless frightful jobs, becoming more bitter as each day passes.  After learning that the band that ditched him is being inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame he goes on a bender that winds him up in the attic of his sisters house.  There he discovers his nephews band who “by chance” is in need of a new drummer.

What I did like about this movie was the actors playing the roles.  They were likable, made real connections with each other, and didn’t have superficial crap as their backrounds.  There was real time taken to develop relationships, and the constant jokes that were actually rather poignant from Rainn Wilson to make points about the generation gap.  There was a lot of tongue in cheek and some pretty decent dialogue complimented by what seemed like authentic chemistry between the cast.

What did essentially suck was the obvious ending that was coming.  From the first scene you can tell how things are going to turn out and predict the exact road bumps that the characters are going to have to overcome, and honestly that just makes things more boring.  If not for Rainn Wilson, I’m not sure this film would have had a decent chance.  He just happened to be the right guy for the character and to carry the movie.  I liked the supporting cast, but they lacked anything special that would make a noteworthy conversation about their performances or their characters.

The Rocker had some redeemable qualities, but also fell victim to the forgone conclusions of a formulatic setup.  Thankfully “Fish” offered a lot of laughs and a genuine enough performance to make his co-stars seem better than they actually were and even made me forget the fact that the rock band sounded a lot more like a Mickey Mouse Club band than anything else.  At any moment I was certain they were going to burst into Kid-Bop.  Thankfully that nightmare never fully transpired, but I say the Rocker was worth a viewing.  You could lose the last twenty minutes or so, but up till then there are some good laughs to be had.

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