"Rock of Ages"

Our Father's Day tradition has always been to see a movie.  Sometimes, it's been "guys only," and other times the whole family joins the crowd.  I doubt that I can remember all of them, but here are a few of the Father's Day Flicks from the past:

Alien
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Jurassic Park
Pearl Harbor
Another 48 Hours
Nacho Libre
Alien3
X-Men: First Class

I'm sure I'll think of more later - there have been a lot more than that, that's for sure.

This year, the selection was "Rock of Ages" - which I'd say is definitely worth seeing, even if it isn't the greatest movie to come down the pike.  The two leads, the young kids that we undoubtedly are supposed to bond with from the first scene, are barely tolerable, in terms of both acting and singing ability.  They both have their moments, but those are primarily when they're part of a big production number.

For those unaware, the movie is based on a musical that is comprised of "big hair band" songs from the 1980s, which is far from my favorite genre but which can be enjoyable at the right time or moment.  The songs come across pretty well in this format, although they do manage to sneak a couple of non-80s songs in there.

The highlights of the film are:

- Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx, an amalgam of just about every big hair band, badly behaved rock star you can possibly imagine.  He may be a weird dude, but you have to give Cruise props for taking on some of the roles that he does, and this one isn't exactly designed to push him to the top of the Box Office Stars list.

- Paul Giamatti as a sniveling, somewhat sneaky agent, totally believable as a jerk.

- But most of all, Alec Baldwin as the owner of the Sunset Blvd. club (loosely based, I would imagine, on the Whiskey-A-Go-Go?) where most of the action takes place, and Russell Brand as his sidekick.  Without spoiling the surprise, let's just say that their relationship evolves in an interesting (and hilarious) way.

Overall?  It ain't gonna win any awards.  But you could do worse with your two hours then to spend it in a nice cool theater with these characters, and those songs.