Rock of Ages
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: June 15, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
17
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
New York PostLou LumenickJun 15, 2012
Shankman's staging of the numbers - especially the leaden choreography and hackneyed locations such as the Hollywood sign - was far sloppier and less creative than for his last musical, the vastly superior "Hairspray." Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 14, 2012
Don't stop believing. Just avoid clichéd musicals that try to capture the anarchic spirit of rock with trite commercial re-treads. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 14, 2012
Rock of Ages gets too mired in plotty cul de sacs, manufactured setbacks and numbers that are all staged as show-stoppers. In the words of the Journey song that serves as a climactic singalong, it goes on and on and on and on. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJun 13, 2012
This glossy musical, from "Hairspray" director Adam Shankman, is a shameless crowd-pleaser where cardboard characters use the most overplayed and ubiquitous hits of the 1980s to express the aching banality of their souls. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 16, 2012
Rock of Ages withholds nothing and makes miracles seem cheap. Read full review
30
TimeRichard CorlissJun 14, 2012
Though it has moments where it rises to fun-awful status, with a hideous giddiness that turns moviegoers into rubbernecking motorists at a crash site, it's mostly just awful. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 13, 2012
Creating plot from lyrics, in this case, leads to heavy-handed literalism and limited creativity. The wall of music is amusing for a while, but grows into a loud, wearying assault long before the movie's two hours are up. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJun 12, 2012
A cinematic event. It's not every day, after all, that you get to see two great American traditions - guitar/bass/drums rock music and Tin Pan Alley musical theater - so thoroughly, mutually degraded. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJun 14, 2012
Oddly tone deaf. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 14, 2012
Doubtless, like The Producers, it will be adapted back into the theatre, some time in 2017, at which time it will be even more bland and tiring. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineNick SchagerJun 13, 2012
If the Adam Shankman film's debasement of its subject into campy kitsch is the unavoidable fate of all culturally dangerous art, that doesn't make it any less palatable. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedJun 13, 2012
I haven't seen a movie this bad since "Battlefield Earth" and "Howard the Duck." Read full review
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