The Rocker Doesn't Rock

Fox Atomic

John Papamarko (CHARTattack)

08/20/2008 3:45pm

The Rocker is the story of Robert "Fish" Fishman (The Office's Rainn Wilson), the drummer for the fictional '80s hair band Vesuvius. Fish is unceremoniously booted by band manager Billy (Jon Glaser) just before they ink a record deal and open for Whitesnake.

It's not a rare occurrence in rock 'n' roll, and it's encouraging to see a comedic take on what's essentially the story of original Beatles drummer Pete Best, who makes a brief cameo appearance. Fish hangs up the sticks and acquiesces to the life of crappy telesales jobs and homelessness that befall many former drummers… and quite a few active ones as well.

Fast forward 20 years, Fish joins his nephew's band A.D.D. and they rocket to stardom after a particularly difficult to watch nude drum scene is posted on YouTube.

The writers use this to advance the plot and completely miss the opportunity to examine how backwards the music industry has become. Nowadays, you have to become famous before you can record an album, not the other way around. See William Hung, Heidi Montag and Jared Leto.

The hesitance to broach that subject might have something to do with A.D.D.'s brooding songwriter Curtis, played by musician Teddy Geiger, whose own career was launched in a similar way. He was a finalist on the VH1 show In Search Of The Partridge Family before playing singer/songwriter Wayne in the underrated and ultimately cancelled Tom Cavanaugh series Love Monkey.

The film seemed like it was another vehicle to promote Geiger's career. Sure enough, he has a new album coming out some time next year. Anyone want to wager that some of the original songs performed by A.D.D. will show up there?

The Rocker features some fantastic comedic actors who are sadly underutilized. Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Jane Lynch (A Mighty Wind) and Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) share a total of 20 minutes of screen time while Wilson careens around like a buffoon. The unfunniness of his slapstick is particularly amplified when it's set against the other quality actors playing straight against him.

Thankfully, Jason Sudeikis (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live) salvages the cliche role of sleazy, VD-ridden A&R guy David Marshall. With brilliant lines like "John Lennon is rolling over in his grave to hide the boner you just gave him" and a pretty good chunk of screen time, he hints at what The Rocker could have achieved. There are some excellent one liners, but I expected much better from writers Wallace Wolodarsky (The Simpsons) and Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show).

Wilson is better suited to ensemble TV comedies, as he can't carry a film. The Rocker fails as a comedy and a music film. It's more High School Musical than it is High Fidelity.