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Dir. Peter Cattaneo
Rating: 4.4 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Alex Berg
Rainn Wilson takes front stage as Robert “Fish” Fishman in Peter Cattaneo's new comedy, the tale of a middle-aged has-been drummer who gets a second chance at music stardom. The film takes place 20 years after Fish has been kicked out of '80s hair band Vesuvius, now being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fish’s life is in shambles, jobless and alone, his salvation comes from his nephew Matt (Josh Gad), who has a garage band in need of a drummer. The resulting band hits the road, gaining fame and recognition along the way, as Fish attempts to relive his former hair band glory. From the get-go, Wilson strains to inject the film with its physical humor. The first time we see him fall over or get hit by something is amusing, but five minutes into the film, we’ve seen just about every joke that will be made by or about his character. Sure, the drunken idiot montage of Fish is funny, but it's hardly revelatory. Fish’s shortcomings are no fault of Wilson; he delivers one-liners like a champ, bangs on the snares like his life depends on it and shakes his gelatinous, naked ass for all he's worth. Unfortunately, the script is hardly as diligent or hard-working. The excellent ensemble cast, which also includes Christina Applegate, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen and Jeff Garlin, are almost redeem the predictable plot, but it's just not enough. The script isn’t all bad. It scores a few culturally relevant jokes, including Fish's growing fame from a naked You Tube video of his drumming, and a handful of decent one-liners (“John Lennon just rolled over in his grave because you gave him a boner”), but what essentially dooms the film is pretty inescapable: We already saw School of Rock and liked it a lot more.
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