Now, for those of you who don't know, I'm a big old musical theater geek. And as such, I already knew what Rock of Ages was. But because theater tickets are so expensive, I thought, "Why not just see the movie?". I'm so glad I did! There isn't anything better than 80's high hair and Rock of Ages totally proves it.
  The story begins with a girl named Sherrie (Julianne Hough) leaving her small town in Oklahoma to pursue a career of singing in LA. Though the flashy lights and the even flashier people put her under a spell, the minute she heads to her favorite heavy metal club, The Bourbon Room, she gets mugged. But here comes her knight in ripped jeans Drew (Diego Boneta), a kid who works at The Bourbon Room, but hopes his band, Wolfgang Von Cult, will launch out of their garage. The minute these two kids look into each other's eyes, you know it's love. So Drew gets Sherrie a job as a waitress, and all is wonderful in a happy montage of them fooling around on the boardwalk, on the beach, in his room, etc. But then real life hits them: Arsenal, the biggest heavy metal band of all time, is playing at the club for one last show before the ultimate rock god Stacey Jaxx (Tom Cruise) goes solo. The manager of the club, Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) is nervous as hell, worrying that a) Stacey is not gonna make it to the show, b) he's not gonna make enough to keep the club going and c) that those damn Mothers against Metal (with Catherine Zeta-Jones, as Patricia Whitmore, leading the way) are going to shut him down for good. But with his right hand man, Lonny (Russell Brand), he keeps his cool for the most part. It's the night of the big show and then all of a sudden, the opening act drops out when Sherrie suggests that Drew goes on to play. As this is going on, Stacey Jaxx has arrived for his "drink til he passes out and sleeps with groupies" routine, but is interrupted when a journalist from Rolling Stone magazine wants to interview him. At first, you believe Constance Sack (Malin Akerman) is just a hot nerd, but when she takes off those thick rimmed glasses, Stacey knew he wanted to be with her. But of course, things aren't that simple. Constance leaves before Stacey can really get to her, Drew thinks Sherrie cheated him when she walked out of Stacey's dressing room (while pulling up her shirt!) and Stacey's sleezy manager Paul Gill (Paul Giamatti) takes the entire cut of Dupree's earnings, meaning that he still can't save the club from being repossessed. What's a kid with Aqua Net and black eyeliner to do?
  What I loved most about this movie was the fact that I knew almost every song. I found myself singing along to favorites like "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", "Dead or Alive" and of course, "Don't Stop Believing". In fact, my best friend kept shooting me looks to hush up. And what was even better was that there were actual rock stars in it! I saw Debbie Gibson (though not a heavy metal artist, I still respect her) and Sebastian Bach! And that was pretty damn cool. Now I know I can't fight this feeling anymore so I'm just gonna say it: see this movie. It's one hell of a ride.