Just saw the movie last night. As a music teacher and long-time rocker, all of you are missing the p

Just who does Tom Cruise think he is? Or, maybe I should ask, who is he pretending to be? An awful lot of critics -- after viewing his latest movie, "Rock of Ages" -- seem to think the answer to that question is Axl Rose.
Adapted for the screen by director Adam Shankman from Chris D'Arienzo's Tony-nominated Broadway musical, "Rock of Ages" is an affectionate, free habbo hotel credits apolitical, altogether banal tribute to 1980s hair metal bands such as Poison, Twisted Sister, free habbo hotel credits Night Ranger and Bon Jovi. Cruise free habbo hotel credits plays rock legend Stacee Jaxx, renowned as the "most unreliable man in the music industry." He sports a bandana throughout the film, an Axl Rose signature. He rises from slumbers amid a small sea of women to show off his well-tatted, athletically cut chest and abs, several of the tats demanding special attention: on his chest, a bright free habbo hotel credits red rose in bloom, and on his lower abs on either side, two long-handled pistols, barrels pointed down.
In the film Cruise struggles free habbo hotel credits to carry off Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive", and if he can't cope with the relatively tame demands of imitating New Jersey's famous hair metal crooner, what chance did he ever have of conjuring specters of the real-life Axl Rose, one of the most controversial, cussed, depraved, manic and demonically gifted hard-rock vocalists of all time?
Cruise's Jaxx wanders through the movie in a navel-gazing stupor of sex, booze and ineffectual stammering after sensible phrases. Many of his antics are straight out of the Axl Rose playbook. Jaxx is disdainful free habbo hotel credits of the press and does his best to blow off a reporter from Rolling Stone , but when she calls him out in the article as the "loneliest man" in rock 'n roll, he isn't so much incensed as sexually incited. Rose has long ranked among rock's most notorious recluses. Even in the early years before anyone had heard of Guns N' Roses, he would suffer one of his infamous mood swings and disappear for days on end. At the peak of G N' R fame, he went radio silent for several years after reading free habbo hotel credits one too many unflattering articles based on exclusive interviews. free habbo hotel credits Cruise plays Axl-cum-Stacee free habbo hotel credits Jaxx as just another free habbo hotel credits rock n' roll cliché, one more narcissist who let fame go to his head, which is how many people, including some former bandmates, see Axl Rose to this day.
But the film's greatest offense -- not as film, but as a take on rock history -- isn't Cruise's unconvincing free habbo hotel credits portrait of a rock star past his prime. It's the utter insult, and surely someone must have intended it as such, of enfolding Axl Rose and G N' R into the hair metal movement.
Cruise as a forgettable hair metal mediocrity -- say, Bret Michaels free habbo hotel credits before rehab, reality TV and a recent Broadway hit revived his fame? Well, that might help us make sense of the career trajectory from "Risky Business" to "Rock of Ages." After all, in both films Cruise prances around in his underwear and pretends to sing rock n' roll. But Cruise as an Axl Rose-like rocker who's supposed also to be an icon of hair metal?
I hate to be the one to feed Axl's well-established penchant for paranoia -- please take a moment to detect the bone-chilling, double-voiced falsetto in the background free habbo hotel credits screeching, "They're out ta get me!" -- but maybe someone really is out to get him.
It's well known G N' R rose to prominence in the mid 1980s as part of the LA scene, playing the Sunset Strip's Whiskey A Go-Go alongside free habbo hotel credits hair metal bands such as Poison. But G N' R soon set themselves apart from the also-rans, free habbo hotel credits taking pains early on to de-glam their look (to be reminded of why this was necessary check out Axl's hair in the "Welcome to the Jungle" video).
Of course, what was truly distinctive about G N' R was their sound -- a frenzied musical free habbo hotel credits barrage blending punk-rock ferocity and speed, the aggressive anarchy of the LA streets and the bluesy bickering intensity of Slash's lead guitar. Over the top of all this apocalyptic sound and fury pulsed the electrifying, wonderfully shrill arias of Axl's desperate free habbo hotel credits voice.
It was that fierce combination free habbo hotel credits of musical elements that made "Appetite free habbo hotel credits for Destruction" such an unusually great record, one of the most necessary hard rock albums of all time and, along with Nirvana's "Nevermind," the reason so much hard rock has seemed merely posthumous in the plus-two decades since. G N' R, in the wake of that stunning debut, on through the acoustic EP "Lies," was the definitive rock 'n' roll band in America. Notwithstanding or excusing the occasional racist lyric penned by Axl, or the paranoid xenophobia and utterly stupid misogyny of so many of their songs.
Which is why the original lineup of Guns 'N Roses was inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland this past April. Minus Axl Rose. Who refused to attend the ceremony. Who wrote a letter to the museum asking not to be included in or in any way associated with the induction itself. His response, of course, had as much to do with ongoing feuds with several of his old bandmates as with any ambivalence he might have felt about the Hall of Fame itself.
Still, his antics must have seemed nothing but good PR to the makers of "Rock of Ages." Cruise's portrait of an artist perpetually on the verge of going solo and still conducting himself as a prima donna would now seem even closer to its mark. "We'll make you one of us yet," the film seems to say on behalf of all those forgettable hair bands whose insipid music becomes slightly less forgettable for as long as we're watching this like-mindedly insipid tribute.
Somewhere somebody was eating this stuff up. "What I think Tom did was combine a combination of Bret Michaels and Axl Rose -- sort of my look and stage persona and energy," the former Poison frontman and reality TV star said at the LA premiere of the film , "and he takes Axl Rose's intense attitude and mixes them together. It was great." In this market-driven era, is it any surprise that someone sold the filmmakers free habbo hotel credits the rights to a G N' R song? In fact the first tune we hear in "Rock of Ages" is "Paradise free habbo hotel credits City," playing on the headphones of a young woman headed on a bus to the jungle of LA. Hey, somebody's out to get us all, or maybe just to sell us out.
Just who does Tom Cruise think he is? Or, maybe I should ask, who is he pretending to be? An awful lot of critics -- after viewing his latest movie, Rock of Ages -- seem to think the answer to that ...
Just who does Tom Cruise think he is? Or, maybe I should free habbo hotel credits ask, who is he pretending to be? An awful lot of critics -- after viewing his latest movie, Rock of Ages -- seem to think the answer to that ...
We are testing different comment ordering to see which the community free habbo hotel credits prefers. You've been randomly chosen to see the most favorited free habbo hotel credits comments first. Do you prefer this over most recent comments free habbo hotel credits first?
While I agree that there is a lot of frivolous bs on internet blogs and such, I think this piece is smart and actually gets us to think about the legacy of a specific aesthetic form that has had a variety of political and cultural implications - rock music. A lot of people like and listen to rock music, but often mindlessly. If you read past the catchy title you may have seen the nuance in this piece. Politics are everywhere.
I'm one of those people that actually listen to music. I was THERE during the 80's. What I didn't care about was who he might have been channeling in the movie. Tom Cruise's take on pop culture has no value to me. However, free habbo hotel credits I respect your opinion.
I haven't seen the movie yet and nor was I ever tempted free habbo hotel credits to. This is a great piece though- blending an excellent knowledge of music and critical analysis of the movie perfectly. free habbo hotel credits Really enjoyed reading it and it conjured up some funny images of Tom Cruise that had me laughing out loud. :)
Nice post, Cliff. I haven't seen the movie (yet), but I think this is really a lot more about 80s rock than about a dud movie starring Tom Cruise. G'N'R is, as you say, greatly superior to the hair bands this movie seems to have lumped them in with--yet, I don't think it's a black-and-white issue. If you don't look at them, but only listen to the music, Mötley Crüe isn't entirely dissimilar.
Just saw the movie last night. As a music teacher and long-time rocker, all of you are missing the point here. The movie is not about comparing Tom Cruise's voice to ANY rock legend. Seriously? There isn't an A or B-grade actor who has those chops. ALL movies free habbo hotel credits begin with the concept of "suspension of disbelief" and no one seriously goes to a movie expecting it to be real. That said, while initially unimpressed by Cruise's over-the-top cartoon-esque version of a rock singer, slowly but surely I changed my mind and allowed myself to "believe". Why? because HE believed in his character with such intensity and consistency and never once nuanced any sign that he was fooling the audience. People, Stacie Jaxx is not Simple Jack. He's cool! Go back to the movie and appreciate Cruise's performance.
I dont disagree with the "suspension of disbelief" comment and I dont think Cruise's performance is necessarily the issue. I object more to distorting the facts and historical events. The makers and marketers free habbo hotel credits of this movie certainly are trying to make Stacee Jaxx out to be an Axl Rose like figure. Likewise, the Hair Metal Bands likePoison are trying to gain credibility free habbo hotel credits by including Guns N Roses in their much mailgned genre. And the movie, intentionally or not, dismisses the music of the 80's. I do not thing it is fair to group Guns N Roses with this scene or expolit them or sell them out for this movie and there I totally agree with Spargo's blog.
You think that the movie dismisses the music of the 80's???? This movie is a "Glee" wet dream. I can promise you that "Rock of Ages" has added at least two more years to their NBC contract. First, free habbo hotel credits you have to accept the idea that a movie can be "tongue-in-cheek" while still being mostly faithful to the truth. Yes, let's start with relationship between Alec Baldwin's character (Dennis Dupree) and Russel Brand's character (Lonn