Rock of Ages

So here's the big question.

What is Rock Of Ages?

Is it some heartfelt paean to the hair metal bands that exploded from the Sunset Strip and took over the world for a few years?

Is it the last gasp for 80's nostalgia?

Or is it just some excuse Tom Cruise found to get more greased up and shirtless than he did playing volleyball in Top Gun?

Yes it is all of that, but Rock Of Ages is a movie in search of a purpose, a meaning and a direction.

It's 1987 and The Bourbon Room is one of the hottest and most legendary clubs on LA's Sunset Strip, but the tides of change are swirling. The club is losing money, so owner Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) is hoping a big time show featuring the band Arsenal's final performance before their iconic lead singer, Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), embarks on a solo career will bring the buzz and cash needed to keep the place going.

As Dennis and his right hand man, Lonny (Russell Brand) plan the hottest concert of the year, a new girl just off the bus from Oklahoma, Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough), meets a fellow wannabe rock star, Drew (Diego Boneta), in a love story just like paradise, and a right wing crusader, Patricia Whitmore (Catherine Zeta-Jones) tries to get the place shut down to benefit some powerful friends.

Have Sherrie and Drew found true love?

Will Stacee find his soul and revive his career?

Are you allowed to sing along during the movie?

Ultimately, Rock of Ages just exists to roll out those 80's hits you love and feel the temptation to sing along with, but do you really want to sing along with Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin?

If director Adam Shankman wanted this to be a campy romp, that would work out fine, as we sit back and watch a bunch of actors try to sing at their tongue- in-cheek best and a few, especially Catherne Zeta-Jones, seem to be winking at the camera the entire time. But, Shankman is trying to inject some sort of soul and seriousness that isn't there, which confuses the tone.

In between a series of hits Casey Kasem should be spinning, there are lame and failed attempts to find redemption for the rock star living to excess (he don't need nothing but a good time?), a pure of heart love story as two crazy kids with stars in their eyes cross paths in the middle of the night (on the midnight train going anywhere?) and some call to keep the spirit of rock and roll alive (because I love Rock and Roll, put another dime in the jukebox, baby!). If it was a parody or campy, we would be laughing. Instead, it's sometimes funny, but other times very boring, obvious, overly familiar and repetitive.

You can't blame anyone on screen. Cruise, Boneta, and Hough are serviceable singers (with Hough showing some strong pipes from time to time), but you quickly realize they are not in the same league as Mary J. Blige (showing an intestinal fortitude every singer should strive for) and a gang of 80's icons who show up to prove who the real singers are and what they can do with this material. Just make sure you look hard for them, because they aren't always obvious (which was fun).

It's the lack of story spelling doom for Rock of Ages. For the first two acts, the movie pleases us with the songs we love, but the last act, as Shankman and the writing team (including Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend, Justin Theroux) struggle to find some sort of point to it all, when the audience needs something more, makes you realize they have run out of material. Then, the movie crashes and burns

Ultimately, Rock of Ages becomes exactly what the characters on screen are railing against as the creative team cynically and heartlessly use the songs you love to pull at your heartstrings and sell some tickets, when they don't have anything more to offer.

Rock of Ages is rated PG-13 for sexual content, suggestive dancing, some heavy drinking, and language.