plot : a young man who loves heavy metal music and especially the band steel dragon , to whom he’s devoted a tribute band in which he sings , gets launched into stardom when the real group get rid of their lead singer and call on him to take his place .
critique : i’m a sucker for movies like this .
a young man with a humble background and lofty dreams , works hard , devotes the time , the energy and the patience , and ultimately hits it big-time .
in the case of this film , our boy loves a certain heavy metal band and as luck would have it ( yup , luck always finds its way into these types of equations , although generally tied very closely to hard work ) , they need a new singer .
his entry and adaptation to the whole ” rock ‘n roll ” lifestyle fills the rest of the film and is really fun to watch .
although i will preface this by saying that one thing that would definitely enhance your appreciation for this film is your own love ( or past love ) of heavy metal music and the whole scene around it .
metal was one of my first loves as a teen and even though the genre of music isn’t that prominent anymore , i still check out my motley crue , twisted sister and anthrax cds every now and again .
that’s not to say that you won’t like this film if you don’t like the music , but the music and live performances from the band , play a big part in the movie , and i for one , had a blast watching and listening to it all .
but the even greater draw in this film is the standout performance given here by mark wahlberg .
wow , hand this fella some major props , as he totally becomes this heavy metal geek/god ( incidentally , metal god was the film’s original title , and a much better one if you ask me ) .
he is this movie and i was quite taken by his character pretty much the whole way through .
he came off like a regular guy with extremely passionate goals and work ethic , who was willing to do anything in order to fulfill his dreams .
aniston was also surprisingly good as the girlfriend ( and the romance angle between them was sweet ) , but she didn’t pull me in hard enough during their emotional scenes .
i was also impressed by some of the ” real ” musicians who played in the film ( zakk wylde from ozzy osbourne , jeff pilson from dokken , stephan jenkins from third eye blind , blas elias from slaughter ) , but actor dominic west as kirk cuddy made the biggest impression among the band members .
it’s to note that this film was based on a real-life tale of a young man who used to sing in a judas priest cover band and then went on to become their actual singer ( their original singer also admitted to being gay , as in this film ) .
just for the record , i’m certainly not recommending this film for its originality or surprise elements , since most of this stuff has already been covered in some way or another in other movies , but because it’s a fun , uplifting , well-paced movie with a solid central showing by wahlberg and energetic live performances .
oh yeah , and for those who dig the ” heavier ” side of music , the soundtrack also rocks ! !
you see . . . dreams
can come true . . .
where’s joblo coming from ?
almost famous ( 8/10 ) – blow ( 8/10 ) – boogie nights ( 9/10 ) – detroit rock city ( 8/10 ) – girlfight ( 6/10 ) – goodfellas ( 10/10 )