| The Rocker | |
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Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Cattaneo |
| Produced by | Shawn Levy Tom McNulty |
| Written by | Ryan Jaffe |
| Screenplay by | Maya Forbes Wallace Wolodarsky |
| Story by | Ryan Jaffe |
| Starring | Rainn Wilson Christina Applegate Teddy Geiger Josh Gad Emma Stone |
| Music by | Chad Fischer |
| Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond |
| Editing by | Charles Kaplan Brad E. Wilhite |
| Studio | 21 Laps Entertainment 20th Century Fox |
| Distributed by | Fox Atomic |
| Release date(s) | August 20, 2008 |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million[1] |
| Box office | $8,767,338[1] |
The Rocker is a 2008 American comedy directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Rainn Wilson, Josh Gad, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone, Christina Applegate and Jason Sudeikis. The film was written by Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky, from a story by Ryan Jaffe.
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During the mid-80s, Robert "Fish" Fishman (Rainn Wilson) was the drummer for Vesuvius, a local heavy metal/glam metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. After playing a local gig, Fish's bandmates are approached by their manager, who says that a label is interested in them but will not sign them unless they get rid of Fish, replacing him as drummer with the nephew of the label's president. The band initially refuses to fire Fish, but relent after their manager tells them that they will open for Whitesnake if they sign to the label. Fish curses his bandmates for backstabbing him and vows to start another band that will be more famous than Vesuvius. Twenty years later, Fish leads an unhappy life by failing at another cubicle job, breaking up with his girlfriend, and having to move in with his sister, her husband, and two kids. Fish finds himself living in the attic looking for work, and is further frustrated by Vesuvius's success as a band.
Matt (Josh Gad), Fish's nephew, plays the keyboards in an alternative rock band called A.D.D., joined by the dark, brooding Curtis (Teddy Geiger) and the no-nonsense Amelia (Emma Stone). The band is set to play at the prom, but when their drummer gets thrown out of school, they search for a new one but with little to no success. After much deliberation between the band and having no other option, they agree to ask Fish to play drums at their "gig" for only the one time. The prom turns into a disaster, being Fish's first time on stage in twenty years, and his drum solo takes over the prom King and Queen's dance in a fit of rage, and sheer embarrassment for the band. Fish tries to make amends by trying to get the band a gig. Eventually, he manages to organize a booking in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The band decides to sneak out in Fish's sister's minivan, but are soon caught by the police after she reports it stolen.
When Fish is kicked out of his sister's house and rents the basement of his favorite Chinese restaurant, the band invents a new way to practice via four-way iChat. Because of the stuffy and hot atmosphere in Fish's new residence, he chooses to practice naked unwittingly in front of the camera, which is secretly recorded by Matt's little sister, and posts the recording on YouTube. A million hits later, A.D.D. signs a contract with David Marshall (Jason Sudeikis), an agent whose obnoxiousness outshines his poseur personality. After a successful audition at proving the band's musical talent, David then takes them on tour.
The band wows audiences across the country, with everyone wanting to see the infamous "Naked Drummer". However, Fish commits stereotypical acts, despite the physical costs on his body, and he vandalizes a hotel room, which results in the band's arrest.
After bailing them out, Kim, Curtis's mother (Christina Applegate), promises the other parents she will stay for the remainder of the tour, so their children won't be influenced by Fish's antics. As the tour continues, Fish and Kim find that they have similar interests and begin to find an attraction to each other. A.D.D. also shoots a music video which upon watching, all the band members are featured prominently except Fish, who notices that his face is being obscured during the entire video. Later on it is discovered that David does not want to promote Fish as a member of A.D.D.
David informs the band that they are opening for Vesuvius in a free concert for their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Fish is enraged, refusing to open for the band he started, and the band sticks by his side and agrees not to do the show. During Fish's rage, Curtis's mother tries to calm him down by kissing him, which David witnesses. He tells Curtis, exaggerating the truth, hoping to get Fish fired. During their next concert, Curtis announces to the crowd that the band will do the show after all, much to Fish's dismay. After they have a heated argument in front of the crowd, Fish quits the band on the spot and leaves despite Kim's protests. Fish enters a downward spiral of depression as he throws away his treasured drumming sticks, cuts his hair, and has Stan get him a miserable job in the corporate world.
Matt and Amelia convince Curtis that the band is nothing without the spirit of Fish after the label's newly appointed drummer doesn't fit in. Curtis apologizes to Fish, and then he convinces Fish to do the concert citing that he has a second chance at becoming the rock star he was destined to be. Upon arriving at the stadium before their performance, Fish encounters his former bandmates who have become pompous, vain and arrogant, with faux-British accents and a new drummer named Sticks (Lonny Ross), who is actually from England. Vesuvius actually does not remember Fish until one bandmember says he faintly remembers. However, to his happiness, Fish finds that he is able to let the past go and wishes Vesuvius a great show. Fish and the band play an incredible show, gaining a standing ovation from the audience. After their gig, Amelia and Curtis, and Fish and Kim both start a relationship. Vesuvius takes the stage, and during their set the lead singer's microphone falls off the stand while the voice track of their song continues, revealing that they were lip-syncing the entire time. The audience goes into a huge rage, booing Vesuvius off the stage in a cloud of embarrassment, and chanting an encore for A.D.D. The band takes the stage again and performs for the crowd despite the advice of David, whom they fire on the spot for his obvious treachery.
The Rocker was mostly filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with some exterior shots filmed in Cleveland, Ohio.[3]
The songs attributed to the band A.D.D. were mostly written and produced by musician/producer Chad Fischer, of the band Lazlo Bane. Fischer also performed most of the music, with Teddy Geiger singing the lead vocals. The songs attributed to the band Vesuvius were written and performed by all the members of Lazlo Bane, with lead vocals sung by Keith England.[4][5]
To promote the movie, the song "Promised Land", as performed by the fictional band Vesuvius, was released as free downloadable content for the video game Rock Band, which is shown being played in the movie.
A viral marketing effort for the film was begun on August 11, 2008, when Rainn Wilson posted a message to the MySpace blog of Jenna Fischer, his co-star from The Office. According to his message,[6] he had "kidnapped the lovely Jenna, put her, bound, in the trunk of my Firebird and logged onto her MySpace to send out this bulletin....To free America's sweetheart...you must attend my new movie, 'The Rocker', which opens August 20th....As soon as the film grosses 18.7 Mil, she will be released and given a peach smoothie." Ironically, the film was not even close to grossing that much money. A subsequent blog entry pointed readers to http://freejennanow.com/, where videos were posted and features such as a "Free Jenna Game" and countdown tickers could be found.
'The Rocker: Live The Dream' was a competition to promote the film via MySpace and Kerrang! magazine in the UK. Over 1200 bands entered original songs at www.myspace.com/therockeruk for a chance to win a photo shoot and interview with Kerrang! magazine, a trip to the MySpace Black Curtain Screening in London, Gibson musical equipment and an assortment of 20th Century Fox merchandise. Ten bands went through to the final judging and Scottish band Alburn were chosen by Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan, as the winner.[7] Alburn dressed and posed as characters from the film in the Kerrang! photo shoot. Rainn Wilson recorded a video message for the winning band, which was played at the MySpace Black Curtain Screening.
A Flash game titled The Rocker: TV Toss was also released. In the game, the player controls Fish (in 1st person view). The objective is to do damage to the hotel room by tossing TVs at various objects. The high score is calculated by means of the cost of objects damaged.
The film has received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 118 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, The Rocker had an overall approval rating of 40 percent, with a weighted average score of 5.1/10.[8] Entertainment Weekly gave it a C-.
The Rocker was released on August 20, 2008 in the USA. It was disappointing at the box office, opening outside the Top 10 at #12 with $2.64 million for its first weekend, grossing less than $7 million overall during its entire theatrical run.[1] One of the stars of the film, Emma Stone, had another film (The House Bunny) open the same weekend. It fared much better than The Rocker, opening at #2.
Loosely based on an actual event in the story creator Ryan Jaffe's real life. Jaffe plays roller hockey with a group of friends in Hollywood. During a game, one of the high school aged players mentioned his band needed a drummer. One of the adult players piped up and offered to play with the teen rockers and an idea was born. The story of how the drummer is kicked out of being in the biggest band in the world is taken from Pete Best, who suffered the same fate as the original drummer of The Beatles. Best himself makes a brief cameo role in the film.
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