THE ROCKER
CAROLINE: There’s a new comedy in town called “The Rocker” starring Rainn Wilson who’s better known as Dwight from “The Office.” He plays an aging former ‘80s hair band member and I have to say, I had such low expectations going in that I was pleasantly surprised by how funny it is.
RYAN: I don’t watch “The Office,” and I find Rainn Wilson rather unattractive so I going in didn’t think he had any business headlining a film. I don’t know that he’s funny enough in a world of Steve Carells and Will Ferrells. However, I did like this movie.
CAROLINE: Rainn Wilson definitely did a good job, but for me it was the supporting cast which made it really worthwhile. It has a lot of the usual suspects from SNL, “30 Rock” and the Judd Apatow movies. I think August 2008 is a great month for comedies.
RYAN: Totally! I think I loved Jane Krakowski, of Broadway and “Ally McBeal” fame, the most.
CAROLINE: Of course you did. It also has the fabulous Jane Lynch and anyone else named Jane who we might like.
RYAN: Interestingly and somewhat unexpectedly, Christina Applegate is in it too.
CAROLINE: She’s good, but the amount of Botox she has betwixt her brows is so alarming. She’s got, like, a two-inch gap there now and she can’t move her forehead and it terrifies me.
RYAN: I glad I didn’t notice that funk. I really liked the three kids in the band.
CAROLINE: Yes, Rainn Wilson’s nephew has a band in the movie, and Emma Stone, who we liked so much in “Superbad” plays one of the members. She’s got a little career going for herself, doesn’t she?
RYAN: I thought the original music they played was great.
CAROLINE: This just in – Teddy Geiger is amazing. He plays the lead singer and I loved him so much on the short-lived TV series “Love Monkey.” He’s a real-life singer/songwriter in the vein of John Mayer. It’s nice that they used someone with actual vocal talent in a singing role, unlike so many movies.
RYAN: Overall, it’s a very cute, clever movie and it’s not too long, which is always nice. It had a couple of dumb moments, but it was still entertaining.
CAROLINE: I think that goes with the territory with movies like this. We’ve seen a lot of semi-dumb/semi-funny comedies this summer. But in this one the brilliant moments are so brilliant that I didn’t mind the dumb stuff. Some of the lines were so original and funny and at times even reminded me of the way you and I talk. I was howling with laughter.
RYAN: There was one line that made me laugh so hard. Not since Steve Carell in “Get Smart” pretending to be deaf have I laughed as such. The costumes were great too. Teddy Geiger had many shirts that I’ve actually tried on at the Lucky Brand store over the last year or so.
CAROLINE: I personally loved all the old ‘80s hair band music and references. I was so into that kind of music back then – Cinderella, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, etc. Will Arnett plays the lead singer of the band that kicks Rainn Wilson out and I swear I didn’t even recognize him at first. They do such a good job with the old ‘80s hair and outfits. The very hot Bradley Cooper and SNL’s Fred Armisen are also in the band and look hilarious.
RYAN: What’s your bottom line?
CAROLINE: It might not have the most original premise out there, but the way it’s done is so funny and the cast is so great that for me this movie is a sleeper hit. I didn’t expect it to be this great.
RYAN: The movie poster is very deceiving. When I first saw it, I thought, “I might puke a little bit” because Rainn Wilson is so unattractive. He does nudity in this movie BTW, though not frontal thank God. But I’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt, because he totally delivers and is very funny.
CAROLINE: You don’t have to run out and see this in the theater; it definitely could be a rental. But it’s a slow time of year for movies, so if you’re looking for a funny comedy, you could do a lot worse than this.