{"id":977,"date":"2008-08-20T17:02:28","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T21:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=977"},"modified":"2016-01-10T14:21:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T19:21:43","slug":"review-the-rocker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2008\/08\/20\/review-the-rocker\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE ROCKER"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\u201cSmiling is for the weak,\u201d one character tells Robert \u201cFish\u201d Fishman (Rainn Wilson), a forty-year old drummer getting a second chance at the brass ring of rock godhood.<\/p>\n

If she is right, than I remained strong through my viewing of The Rocker, barely even smiling at the tepid comedy that feels more middle-of-the-road adult contemporary than bawdy and rebellious rock and roll.<\/p>\n

Twenty years have gone by since Fish was kicked out of the rock band he started on the eve their making it big. While they have gone on to worldwide fame, he has remained in his hometown of Cleveland, drifting from job to job. He finds himself back behind a kit when his nephew\u2019s band needs a drummer for an upcoming gig, playing the prom. What follows are some fairly predictable plotlines about the band\u2019s sudden rise to fame and Fish\u2019s over-exuberance at finally achieving the fame he had always wanted.<\/p>\n

The main problem lies with the film\u2019s inconsistent take on Wilson\u2019s character. Large portions of the film have Fish coming off as such a clueless and cartoony buffoon, one has to wonder how he hasn\u2019t wound up dead already through some dimwitted misadventure. Wilson plays things very broadly, resulting in a performance that doesn\u2019t sit well next to the more grounded work of the rest of the cast. However, there are times when the script calls for Fish to deliver some startling perceptive words of wisdom to his younger bandmates. These scenes standout, and not in a good way, as one can\u2019t believe that such salient advice is coming from someone the movie has gone to great lengths to present as an oblivious goofball.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The film\u2019s real standouts are Fish\u2019s bandmates. Relegated to players supporting Fish\u2019s antics, with each being given a few moments to shine. Fish\u2019s hefty nephew Matt (Josh Gad), delivers some of the best and understated comic moments of the film. It is unfortunate his subplot concerning his becoming the object of a fan\u2019s affection never really resolves itself. Emma Stone\u2019s role as the band\u2019s bassist is equally underwritten, but at least her character gets a bit more closure to her story of unrequited feelings for lead singer Teddy Geiger. Geiger\u2019s character\u2019s own transformation from sensitive if moody singer-songwriter to self-important jerk and back is handled abruptly and clumsily, feeling as if it is motivate by nothing more than the need to add one more complication to the story going into the third act.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s character seems to spend a goodly portion of the film drenched in sweat, presumably to reinforce what a wild and crazy drummer he is. It is difficult, though, to keep from interpreting his voluminous perspiration as nothing more than flop sweat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSmiling is for the weak,\u201d one character tells Robert \u201cFish\u201d Fishman (Rainn Wilson), a forty-year old drummer getting a second chance at the brass ring of rock godhood. If she is right, than I remained [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[310,309],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-review","7":"tag-rainn-wilson","8":"tag-the-rocker"},"aioseo_notices":[],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}