'Detroit Rock City' is one of those films that is always welcome on my television at home.

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2015)

Over the years, we have seen a wide variety of coming-of-age stories on film, but nothing quite like 'Detroit Rock City'. While this film has all the aspects of a true coming-of-age film, it also has a ton of very adult situations, which ultimately made this film rated R. We've seen a group of kids find rich stuff, look for a dead body, build a tree house, and even shoot a homemade movie based on 'Rambo'.
It wasn't until 'Detroit Rock City' in 1999, where we had a group of four burnout teenagers literally do whatever it took to score KISS tickets, which included stripping, robbing a store, fighting, and even drugging a preacher with magic mushroom pizza. While this movie didn't do to well at the box office, it became a huge cult hit on home video and continues to garner laughs and a spectacular soundtrack some 16 years later.
'Detroit Rock City' centers on a teenager named Jeremiah or "Jam" for short, whose single mother (Lin Shaye) rules over the household with a God fearing iron fist. She makes him tuck his button down shirts into his khaki pants for school and would never allow him to listen to anything more dangerous than The Carpenters. Little does Jam's mother know that he secretly loves rock n' roll, especially KISS, and is in fact a drummer in a KISS cover band with his three friends Hawk (Edward Furlong) , Lex (Giuseppe Andrews) , and Trip (James DeBello).
These friends are not necessarily the friends you would bring home for a family night dinner, as they are always stoned, dirty, and destructive. That being said, they are true and loyal friends to the end, which is what this film is all about. Jam has four tickets for him and his friends for the KISS concert that night, but unfortunately his mother finds them and burns them up in front of everyone. This causes all four friends to ditch school and try to score KISS tickets by anyway possible, but due to their lack of intelligence, it proves more difficult that it really should be.
Whether it be fighting off disco douchebags, saving a girl from two rapists, winning money in a strip contest, even outrunning a fat Elvis security guard, or having sex for the first time in a sacred place, these four friends will stop at nothing to see KISS and protect their friendship to the end. The movie is completely silly and has some very gross out moments, including two gallons of puke and one hell of a bloody fight in the street. That being said, 'Detroit Rock City' is as genuine as it is funny, and even though these kids might not be the brightest in the bunch, they would be friends I'd like to have.
It's so exciting that all four members of KISS signed off on this movie. Not even that, each member had a ton of creative input that went into this production as well as cameos. Speaking of cameos, there are a ton of them here, including Shannon Tweed, Ron Jeremy, Joe Flaherty, Natasha Lyonne, and Melanie Lynskey to name a few. Everyone does a great job in their roles here, and seems to have an amazing time on screen, no matter how over-the-top it can get. 'Detroit Rock City' is one of those films that is always welcome on my television at home, because it's highly entertaining, hilariously funny, and has an excellent soundtrack.