BLU-RAY
REVIEW: THE ROCKER
01/28/09
Ever since the debut of the
American television show The Office, Hollywood has fallen in
love with Rainn Wilson. The character of Dwight Schrute that
Wilson plays on The Office is one of the funniest characters
television has seen in a long time. However, Wilson plays
Dwight straight, he is funny because of how bizarre he is.
In The Rocker Wilson is asked to give your typical comedic
performance, something like Will Ferrell would do. I’m not
say Will Ferrell would have faired any better since The
Rocker follows the basic Hollywood formula. Since comedies
are usually rated by how many laughs they get, and The
Rocker has a few good laughs, but not enough; I would have
to say The Rocker is at the least bearable.
In The Rocker, Robert 'Fish' Fishman (Rainn Wilson) is the
drummer of the band Vesuvius. Right before the band is about
to make it big, Fish is let go from the band. Fish spends
the next twenty years roaming around never real getting
anywhere in live. After getting fired from his job at a call
center and losing his girlfriend, he moves in with his
sister. Conveniently for him, his nephew Matt (Josh Gad) has
a band, A.D.D, in need of a drummer. The rest of the band
members, Amelia (Emma Stone) and Curtis (Teddy Geiger), are
reluctant to let such an old person into the band. You can
probably guess what happens next. A.D.D makes it big and
Fish is set on a course to confront his past ghosts: the
members of Vesuvius.
The Rocker has a good cast including Christina Applegate who
plays Kim. Christina plays Curtis mom and develops a
friendly relationship with Fish. None of the cast gives an
above average performance expect for a supporting character
played by Jeff Garlin who plays Stan, Fish’s brother in law.
Jeff Garlin plays Larry David’s agent in the show Curb Your
Enthusiasm, and he hilarious both on the show and in The
Rocker. A cast member that real bother me was Josh Gad, he’s
like a poor man’s Jonah Hill and every time I would see him
I would think: this movie would be so much better with Jonah
playing his part.
While the movie has it moments and is fairly entertaining, I
felt it was about twenty minutes too long. Also, I don’t
think this is the type of movie Rainn Wilson should be
doing. The writing is just not there. When you sit down to
write a comedy you have to remember to make it funny. You
just can’t seat back hire a talent like Rainn Wilson and
think he can make the material funny by making funny
expression.
The Rocker didn’t do to well in the box-office, however, Fox
has loaded the Blu-ray “Born To Rock” with a bunch of
features. The movie is presented in 1080P anamorphic
widescreen and looks great for this type of movie. The
colors are vibrant and artifacts are nonexistence. The audio
presented in 5.1 DTS-HD, is pristine and those who like this
type of music will be very pleased with the quality. The
“Born To Rock” edition also includes a digital copy of the
movie for portable media players, commentary with director
Peter Cattaneo and actor Rainn Wilson, commentary with
actors Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone and Jason Sudeikis,
10 Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel (including separate options of
“Matt Gags” and “Vesuvius Gags”), Rainn Wilson: Office
Rocker featurette, Pete Best Interview featurette, Behind
The Band: Vesuvius featurette, Rock Beat With Fish Fishman
featurette, The Music of The Rocker featurette, Rock Tales
featurette, MTV Film Festival Panel, Fox Movie Channel
Presents: In Character With The Rocker, “I’m Not Bitter”
music video, Four exclusive pod casts and a Vesuvius Public
Service Announcements. I spent about two hours going through
the feature. If you are a fan of The Rocker the “Born To
Rock” edition is for you.
Review By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio) 1080P
AUDIO:
English 5.1 DTS HD/Dolby Digital English, French and Spanish
5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English/Spanish
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Digital Copy movie file for portable media players
Commentary with director Peter Cattaneo and actor Rainn
Wilson
Commentary with actors Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone
and Jason Sudeikis
Deleted Scenes - 10 deleted scenes where the last
one is sort of an alternative ending. One delete scene shows
Fish and Pete Best who The Rocker is sort of based on.
Gag Reel - Ten minutes of gags are presented here
for those of you that like these sort of things.
Gag Reel Matt Gags - Boring scenes showing
Josh Gad improvising. (2:36)
Gag Reel Vesuvius Gags - More boring scenes
showing the guys from Vesuvius improvising. (4:08)
Rainn Wilson: Office Rocker featurette - Shows
the cast of The Rocker brown nosing Rainn Wilson. (3.31)
Pete Best Interview featurette - A interview with
Pete Best who was the drummer for The Beatles right before
they hit it big. (6:44)
Behind The Band: Vesuvius featurette - Shot to look
like a VH1 behind the scenes of the band. (2:41)
Rock Beat With Fish Fishman featurette - Shot to
look like a real documentary with Fish. (2:31)
The Music of The Rocker featurette - Director Peter
Cattaneo and Music Supervisor Patrick Houlihan discuss how
he wanted the music for the movie to be good. (11:15)
Rock Tales featurette - The cast talks about wanting
to be rock stars. (6:21)
MTV Film Festival Panel - a hilarious piece showing
Josh Gad via satellite getting frustrated that nobody can
hear him. They should have writing this into the
movie.(5:51)
Fox Movie Channel Presents:In Character With The Rocker -
Rainn Wilson discuses his character Fish. (2:16)
“I’m Not Bitter” music video - A.D.D‘s video of the
song I‘m Not Bitter. (2:48)
Four exclusive pod casts
Maya Angelou - Rainn interviews Maya Angelou who is
really Slash from GNR. (3:09)
Giuseppe - Slash tells Rainn he loves the
movie The Rocker. (2:47)
Reunion - Slash plays guitar while Rainn
sings. (2:48)
London - Rainn interview Slash about London.
(2:30)
Vesuvius Public Service Announcements - Vesuvius
does a handful of PSA (1:11)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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