The Rocker

Introduction

Just before the Beatles became the biggest band on the planet, they jettisoned drummer Pete Best in favour of Ringo Starr. In The Rocker, the same thing happens to Robert 'Fish' Fishman, who is dumped by the 80's hair-metal band Vesuvius as they sign the record contract that will propel them to worldwide fame.

Twenty years later and in a dead-end job, Fish loses it when a colleague plays the new Vesuvius album and finds himself unemployed and homeless. Moving in with his sister's family, Fish discovers his geeky nephew needs a drummer for his high school band ADD. After wrecking the band's performance at the Prom with his over-enthusiasm, Fish accidentally turns the band into a household name via YouTube, leading to a contract and a tour of the Mid-West.

Fish makes the most of this second chance, living the rock 'n' roll dream that eluded him two decades before.

Video

Most modern releases have great picture quality and The Rocker is no exception. The transfer is nigh-on flawless with excellent colours and contrast, though some of the green screen work is a little too obvious.

Audio

A very clear Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack with some good songs and music throughout.

Extra Features

The commentary with directory Peter Cattaneo and Rainn Wilson is informative and a decent listen - I got the impression that Cattaneo could have easily done the thing solo, but the interjections from the rather gregarious Wilson stop the track from ever getting dry.

The second commentary features the rest of the band and Jason Sudeikis and I didn't even make it to the end as they were too busy laughing at the film and providing unrelated information to mention anything useful.

There are seven featurettes, most of them short, which are either in-jokes or completely uninformative. The deleted scenes are worth a watch, but it's a shame the volume is so low. The I'm Not Bitter music video is basically a trailer set to that song.

Conclusion

The Rocker is basically School of Rock but with high school students. Rainn Wilson plays the Jack Black role as the larger than life, socially unrestrained, frustrated musician - and he's very good. Wilson is a fine comedic actor, particularly physical comedy and he is clearly the star of the piece. Most of the other adult roles have been taken from US TV comedies like 30 Rock, Arrested Development and Saturday Night Live and they all do a sterling job, showing their comedy pedigree. Of the younger actors, the only one I'd seen before was Emma Stone (Superbad, The House Bunny) and she fits in well with Josh Gad and Terry Geiger, whose background as a singer/songwriter gives his role a degree of authenticity.

The film is quite sharply written and well directed by British filmmaker Peter Cattaneo, best known for The Full Monty, who elicits some good laughs from the material and fine performances from the entire cast and there's even a cameo by Pete Best near the beginning.

Whilst not reaching the heights of The Full Monty nor as charming as School of Rock, this is a really enjoyable film which is slightly let down by the extras, which are a clear case of quantity over quality.