One Day KISS Will Make A Great Film, But This Isn't It

Rating: 3/10 (14 August 1999)

What a mess. Detroit Rock City is made by someone who should be making music videos. It consists of about 40 songs that are played along with rapid fire editing and overacted scenes. It is like we are watching MTV if it could be programmed by people who want to rawk rather than teeny-boppers. How fast are we going to demand that movies go before they become incomprehensible?
By the way, I love KISS. KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park is an awful film, but at least it is about them. This film is about these boys and their lame, male-fantasy coming-of-age story. The best part was the opening credits, where we get to hear KISS and see cool stuff from the 1970's. The rest is just awful. Even their performance at the end sucked because it tried to squeeze all the highlights from a KISS show into one song.
The performances were all o.k. Edward Furlong is a fine actor, but he is just earning a check here. The other teens are all unremarkable except for Lyonne, who is always worth watching. The photography is standard while the editing, as mentioned above, is awful, almost as bad as a Michael Bay film. The soundtrack is fun, but I feel like I am listening to a radio station because they switch songs s often. Films seem to have forgotten how to use music. Anyway, not much works.
The great KISS film will be a concert film. It is the only time that Gene Simmons allows the band to not be a marketing ploy. On stage, they are great. Everywhere else, they always come up short.