Rock of Ages (watch)

Inevitably in the discussion of whether Rock of Ages is a good movie or a bad movie, someone, in the style propagated by “predator dating” books, seminars, and the guy in the fuzzy top hat, will backhand the film with compliments, saying something along the lines of “It’s fun, but it’s a bad film” or “Sure I laughed, but that doesn’t make it good.”

To be fair, there are a number of people I imagine wouldn’t like Rock of Ages. It’s a musical staged around 80s rock songs, so people who don’t like 80s rock and/or musicals are right out. Some people have a blinding, seething hatred for Tom Cruise; they will probably not enjoy his spot-on-hyperbole of a performance. And then there are those who feel like anyone singing a song apart from the original band on the original recording are blasphemers; those people, too, should stay away.

Rock of Ages, simply put, is fun. It’s not subtle, but then subtle is not in the lexicon of musicals. It’s a comedy, really, that frequently bursts into song. Of the three love stories that wind their way through the film (that’s a joke about cassette tapes), only one, the young, amateur-singer couple, is played (ha!) with any sense of straightness. The other two are purely played for comedy. The humorous script and the performances, from Alec Baldwin’s and Russell Brand’s slightly inept bar owners, to Bryan Cranston’s adulterous husband/mayor of Los Angeles, to Tom Cruise’s Axl Rose/Gary Busey-hybrid rocksexgod save the film from being just an excuse to listen to 80s rock.

Some critics, no doubt, are going to attack the film for its ridiculous over-the-topness. And there’s no denying that it is way, way over the top, as well as hugely sex-obsessed. But these aren’t detriments to the film, they are necessary components. Fittingly, for a movie about 80s rock songs, the film itself becomes an 80s rock song. Bawdy, hyperbolic, lewd, loud, tongue-in-cheek; the kind of song you look forward to hearing again.