Image Credit: David James
Rock of Ages may not be a hit with critics, or at the box office, but for those of us who sat through the movie — of which Tom Cruise’s performance as sex-dripping rock god Stacee Jaxx is widely recognized as the highlight — what was the best moment? Poll below! READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: David James
There’s no way around this fact: Rock of Ages is not a great movie. EW’s movie critic Owen Gleiberman gave the film a C and wrote this in his review: “Most of the numbers in Rock of Ages are flatly shot and choreographed, and they look as if they’d been edited together with a meat cleaver. With rare exceptions, they don’t channel the excitement of the music — they stultify it.” He went on to say that Rock of Ages — which was transferred from its jukebox Broadway origin to the big screen — is “a metal musical with a soft-rock soul, clunkily shot on sets that look like sets.” Harsh.
But Gleiberman also zeroes in on the one part of the movie that feels right: Tom Cruise’s performance as rock God Stacee Jaxx. “In the end, however, there is a reason to see Rock of Ages, and that’s Tom Cruise’s funny, louche performance as Stacee Jaxx, the film’s jaded and dissolute Axl Rose metal-god figure,” Gleiberman writes. “Cruise, holding his pistol-tattooed, zero-body-fat flesh at a drunken 45-degree angle, has the look and the poses down flat, but he also gives Stacee a haunted underside. … Cruise, who can truly sing, does a rendition of ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ that rocks it and finds the deep soul of it. At that moment, you can glimpse the movie that Rock of Ages should have been.”
And Gleiberman is right. I was stoked to go see Rock of Ages yesterday afternoon, especially after loving both performances of the Broadway version that I caught. (Maybe it was the free-flowing booze in the theater that made me like the stage version so much?) The cast and the songs had me pumped, too. Even going in with a good attitude couldn’t save the movie that, truly, I thought might join the highfalutin bastion of flicks in my world — Coyote Ugly, Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, Jawbreaker, and so on — that I consider deliciously outrageous (each in their own way) and are worth repeated, nearly weekly viewing.
But Gleiberman is also right that Tom Cruise was one of the only redeeming things about the movie. I think the word I would use to describe his performance is dedication. He just seemed into it, if that makes sense — really into the idea of who Stacee Jaxx was and going into that space full force. Cruise was clearly also dedicated to his fitness because, well, he had nice abs that were never covered up while he was on screen.
Who out there saw Rock of Ages? Do you agree that Tom Cruise’s performance was the movie’s only redeeming quality?
Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky
Read more:
‘Rock of Ages’ review
‘Rock of Ages’: Step and Repeat!
‘Rock of Ages’: Alec Baldwin’s hair-raising transformation
‘Rock of Ages’ trailer: Tom Cruise sings! Plus: Director Adam Shankman on the film’s ‘biggest lie’
‘Rock of Ages’ new trailer: So cheesy it’s awesome?
Tom Cruise in ‘Rock of Ages’ — FIRST PHOTO
Image credit: Art Streiber, exclusively for Vanity Fair
Well, I just lost my afternoon. In honor of Paramount’s 100th anniversary, Vanity Fair has “assembled 116 of the greatest talents ever to work at the studio.” That means Leo, Bob, and Marty, some icons of the studio’s golden age (hello, Eva Marie Saint, Jerry Lewis, and Michael York!), almost the entire casts of Transformers and Star Trek, and even that Canadian whippersnapper Justin Bieber, whom you might remember from a little indie film called Never Say Never. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg (Titanic zing, hey-yo!).
Because Vanity Fair knows you want to see every one of those 116 faces up close and personal, they’ve installed a zoom function on their site. Fair warning, PopWatchers: This thing is addictive. Click through at your own risk. Below, we scope out a few of the famous faces and hand out our portrait honors. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
It’s already June — and high time to figure out your summer jam — so it’s a good thing Usher’s new record is out this week, ready to be blasted at barbeques and in the carpool lane to the beach with the windows down. Plus, while summer TV used to mean reruns and the MTV Beach House, the appearance of great summer programming is just one of the many reasons we’re happy to be living in America today. This week a bunch of favorite shows kick off their new seasons, while another comes to an end. Sunday is a DVR-filled competition, with the premiere of True Blood, the Mad Men season finale, and the Tony Awards – how to choose?! The week fills out with new music, a rockin’ movie premiere, and some fun ideas for dad’s special day. Have a great week!
SUNDAY, JUNE 10
The Tony Awards, CBS, 8 p.m.
True Blood, HBO, 9 p.m.
Mad Men, AMC, 10 p.m.
There’s too much happening Sunday night to choose just one thing to watch. I’ll be liveblogging the Tony Awards, Broadway’s biggest night, along with Thom Geier, starting at 7:45 p.m. ET, so come back to EW.com later today and check it out. While you’re planning your Sunday TV, make sure the DVR is set for True Blood’s return on HBO and the Mad Men season finale on AMC. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: David James
Tom Cruise has done it all: Danced in his underwear, flew a jet plane, suffered a PR meltdown, and scaled the tallest building in the world. But there’s one mission he’s yet to complete: Singing seriously on film. (Bar-room bet serenades don’t count.)
That all changes with June’s Rock of Ages where he’ll play Stacee Jaxx, a rock star that belts out classic ’80s hair metal such as “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (Listen here). The actor talked with Playboy about the role, a new start, and singing for Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott. Some of the juiciest excerpts are below:
Image Credit: David James/Paramount Pictures
One of the finest compliments you can give any fourth film in a franchise is that it made you want to go back and watch the first three movies again. That’s what I was thinking as I left Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (along with how lucky Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt was to forget to ditch his goggles while changing into his suit). Is M:I 4 officially the best of the franchise? We take it to a vote below. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Charles Sykes/AP
Could David Beckham really be a movie star? His pal, Tom Cruise, thinks so. At a recent premiere of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, the film’s star was asked if the soccer legend could step into his line of work. “I’d love to do action movies with Beckham,” Cruise said on the red carpet. “He would be great, he could kick ass.”
Of course, Beckham is, in many ways, already bigger than our most famous movie stars. His popularity was so transcendent they titled a whole movie after his extraordinary ability to bend a soccer ball. He’s handsome, he’s stylish, he’s charming. He could be a movie star. In fact, when Beckham joined the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, it was assumed that the lure of Hollywood was a major factor in his decision to play in the less-competitive American soccer league. Only 36 years old, he could still easily make the transition to show business as his days on the pitch wind down.
It’s an interesting parlor game: What celebrity athletes have the looks, and more importantly, the aura, to translate fluidly on the silver screen? READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Industrial Light & Magic
I had a fair number of questions going into my screening of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. Would a 50-year-old Tom Cruise still be able to pull off the action scenes? Would my favorite director, Brad Bird, the man behind the best cartoon that everyone ignored (The Iron Giant), be able to effectively helm a live-action blockbuster? And whoa, when did titles start having colons and hyphens? (A pressing question for an EW blogger!)
Perhaps the biggest question on my mind, though, was simple: Will MI:4 be any good?
The answer, I’m happy to report, is… absolutely! And there’s one particular section that had the whole audience clapping: the much advertised Dubai sequence, because much like Mission: Impossible 3‘s Italy-Vatican arc, Ghost Protocol‘s middle act proves to be its most enthralling. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: HBO
Stay up late to watch Katy Perry on Saturday Night Live? Did you celebrate New Year’s Eve early with 41 of your closest onscreen celebrity friends? That is all so eight hours ago. PopWatch is already looking ahead to the coming week of must-see water-cooler events, starting with tonight’s season finale of Boardwalk Empire and culminating with Saturday’s much-anticipated SNL homecoming of the season.
SUNDAY
Boardwalk Empire finale, 9 p.m., HBO
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put my psyche back together after last week’s episode, which only explained everything about Jimmy (Michael Pitt). (I always suspected something was off between him and his mom, but for the show to go all Grifters was still a shock.) Tonight, season 2 concludes with Jimmy seeking a rapprochement with Nucky, whose legal complications might hinge on his own lady’s heavy Irish conscience. READ FULL STORY »
In honor of EW’s Comedy issue (on newsstands now), we’ve put together a compilation of our favorite celebrity crack-ups. From Ryan Gosling’s giggle to Britney Spears’ snort, Natalie Portman’s adorkable Golden Globes guffaw, “serious newsman” Anderson Cooper’s show-stopping hysterics, and everything in between, we’ve hand-picked stars’ best funny haha moments. Check out the unexpected — and infectious — video after the jump. READ FULL STORY »
