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Jeff Garlin
Emma Stone
Christina Applegate
Peter Cattaneo
Rainn Wilson
The Rocker
(2008)
In the new comedy The Rocker, a 42-year-old man stares at a 19-year-old and says with disdain, "Don't be so mature." It's the kind of irony we've been programmed to expect these days, as umpteen mainstream comedies ask the question "What if Peter Pan were a loser?" Rainn Wilson (The Office) gets his first starring vehicle in The Rocker, which is utterly predictable, formulaic, but not entirely unamusing.
Wilson plays Cleveland drummer Robert “Fish” Fishman, the Pete Best of heavy metal. After being dumped by his bandmates (Will Arnett, Fred Armisen, and Bradley Cooper), who go on to mega-fame as hair-band "Vesuvius," Fish is consigned to years of drone-like office work. When even that dries up, he tucks his tail between his legs and moves in with his sister’s family. Fish's nephew (Josh Gad) recruits him into the garage band A.D.D., comprised of Curtis (actual recording artist Teddy Geiger) and Amelia (Emma Stone of Superbad). Thanks to YouTube, A.D.D. takes off, leading to an inevitable confrontation with Vesuvius.
This respectable but uninspired star vehicle for Wilson makes good use of his over-intense comic demeanor, and he's decent at the slapstick regularly thrown his way (though the running gag about his body falling apart is a non-starter).Wilson is supported by familiar faces (Jane Lynch and Jeff Garlin, as his sister and brother-in-law, Jason Sudeikis as a sleazy agent, and Jane Krakowski, in one scene, as his ex-girlfriend). For rock cred, there's the Cleveland setting (from the Agora to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Q Arena), a cameo by Best, and one-time "Johnny Fever" Howard Hesseman, though the funniest five minutes belong to stand-up Dimitri Martin as a crackpot music-video director in the vein of Spike Jonze.
Sad-sack-makes-good specialist Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) makes it clear from the first scenes that reality is not a priority (Fish, on foot, chases down a speeding van, then walks away from an accident). Romance is on the table, with Curtis' mother; Christina Applegate brings welcome presence to the nothing part. By severing ties with reality and embracing a hackneyed story structure, Cattaneo puts a greater pressure on the movie to be just plain funny, which it is only in fits and starts. The Rocker gets by on its comic talent and surprisingly pleasant music (written by Chad Fischer and performed by up-and-comer Geiger), but it’s the sort of movie destined to be remembered only because it never goes away, cycling on cable TV for eternity.
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