Production year: 2012
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 123 mins
Directors: Adam Shankman
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough, Malin Akerman, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Tom Cruise
This hugely dislikable film of the rock musical currently running in London's West End is set in 1987 Los Angeles and stars the colourless Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta as out-of-town innocents who come to Hollywood to become singing stars. It's love at first sight, success at second try, and they are the only pure spirits in a world of sleazy rockers and corrupt politicians. The tone is uncertain, the music loud but tame, the performances misjudged. The dialogue features such gems as a noisome gay rock venue manager (Russell Brand) describing his opponent, the mayor's moral-crusading wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), as looking as if she's been "hibernating in Margaret Thatcher's bumhole". Never has Los Angeles looked less enticing.
