Plot: Drummer Robert “Fish” Fishman is fired from the hair metal band ‘Vesuvius on the eve of their success. He spends the next twenty years working a dead end job until a new opportunity presents itself in the form of his nephew’s garage band.The Ups: This is a fun little movie with quite a few decent laughs and a little bit of heart without cheesing it up too much. Rainn Wilson is great, really a talent with wonderful comedic timing and has just enough of that neighbor look to make him even funnier. Joshua Gad who plays Fish’s nephew was a nice surprise. The trailers had me believe that he was a Jonah Hill knock off but thankfully this is not the case. While there is a similarity their humor is a bit different and this kid is actually likeable as opposed to Jonah Hill’s “funny but an asshole” characters. Teddy Geiger who until now was known only as a pop music one hit wonder actually turns in a decent performance and while I don’t see Oscars in his future he wasn’t bad. Watch for a great cameo/bit part by Will Arnett as Vesuvius lead singer also the bands agent plays the pitch perfect douchbag manager type.
The Downs: Formulaic to a fault. The film was completely predictable and followed the same template as every other movie of its kind. Also, little attention was paid to the movie’s subplots, a big deal was paid to an absentee father but the only payoff was that it served as inspiration for the songs. The love story arc was brought up and dropped about three times with no real resolution. For a comedy A LOT of the jokes fell flat and they seemed to reuse all standard sight gags Guy stands up and hits his head, Guy gets hit in the Crotch, Guy is naked and it is not pleasant.
The Final Word: Not a theater movie, maybe a rental if you don’t mind seeing the same thing played out with different characters. It’s unfortunate because the entire cast did a great job, it just didn’t seem like they had all that much to work with. Then again, maybe it’s partially the effect of having so many amazing movies out this summer before it.
6/10
