A movie based on a Broadway musical based on the music of the 1980’s. Welcome to Rock of Ages. Set in Hollywood circa 1987, Rock of Ages is the new big budget theatrical adaptation brought to us by director Adam Shankman who spun John Travolta in Hairspray to a $200 million gross back in 2007. For this adventure which features countless songs and ballads from the hair bands of the 80’s (and one from the 90’s), Shankman recruited a star studded cast including Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand and Tom Cruise (yes, THAT Tom Cruise).

The story surrounds the budding relationship between Drew (Diego Boneta), a wannabe singer that with a bad case of stage fright, and Sherrie (Julianne Hough) a small town girl who moves to Los Angeles looking to get her big break. The two meet and immediately fall in love with their romance maturing at the Bourbon bar owned by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin). Dennis is struggling to keep the bar and stage operational. His lapse in paying taxes and the persistent objective of the Mayor’s wife (Zeta-Jones) looking to clean up the neighbourhood by forcing closed The Bourbon forces Dupree to put his hopes on a solo concert by rock legend Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to help turn his fortunes around.

And all of the love, the politics, the struggles and the resolve will be force fed to audiences via a soundtrack that will take any 35+ year old down memory lane with tracks from Pat Benetar, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Warrant, Poison and just about every other hair metal band that was throwing out rock/pop hits during the 1980’s.

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