Mediocre

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2009)

Basically, "The Rocker" is a 100% cliché sports / music movie. The hero falls flat on his face, then you have the "training phase". When he's back on his feet on the way up, there's a "twist" putting him down and quickly after that comes the happy end. Nothing new, nothing unexpected here. Added into the mix is quite a bit of comedy, which works fine. I had some good laughs and some smiles during the film. The two things annoying about the file for me were:
a) the band seen during the vast majority of the film is not exactly what I expected seeing in a film called "The Rocker". The songs aren't bad, but they just don't rock. Real letdown for me.
b) I play drums and I know quite a few drummers and it got on my nerves that, obviously, nobody found the time to tell Rainn Wilson how to hold drum sticks. He does an admirable job of hitting roughly the right things on the drum set at the right time, but... well, I could just tell he's not a drummer and that he's faking, somewhat ruining the "illusion". He took the time to seemingly learn one or two beats and to learn when to hit what during some of the more prominent breaks in the songs seen in the movie, but nobody told him how to hold the sticks. I just don't get that.
Anyhow... nice, fairly enjoyable movie overall. If you have the choice between School of Rock and this one, I'd pick School of Rock, especially if you haven't seen it yet. Same structure, better music, more / better gags and the kids know what they're doing.