Another double movie day, was yesterday. Following up a kiddie movie with a regular big people movie outing seems to be becoming a habit for us. This time, we opted for Rock of Ages.

Musical, many familiar rock hits that were sure to stir the chords of nostalgia and good old Tom Cruise was certainly not a combination about to fail. Never mind the teenage love and some rather soppy songs (Foreigner’s ‘Waiting For A Girl Like You’ for example) thrown in that had us grinning at the memories of kids back in school who sang that particular genre at inter-school contest, replete with faux vanity and unrequited love! We were four high school friends (I typed fiends at first in a classic slip!) watching it together, so nostalgia was right there waiting to happen anyway!

Despite the delegation of Tom Cruise as a special appearance in the film, he hogged the show. Playing a rock God is no easy thing and he inhabited the role with ease, combining Bon Jovi and Axel Rose in a long-haired, shaven chested, sex-dripping, garbled funda shooting, eccentric-dressing exotic creature. Of course, he was the nice guy too, all for justice and friendship and loyalty! Too good to be true.

Against the backdrop of the puppy love of two aspiring rock musicians, the forgettable Sherie (Julianne Hough) and the not-so-forgettable Drew (Diego Boneta, quite cute, actually), Cruise’s character Stacee Jaxx meets Rolling Stone journalist Constance Sack (Malin Åkerman), who forces him to face up to the emptiness and loneliness in his rock-God life. Love happens on two fronts therefore, funnily enough and steamily enough between Jaxx and Sack (hilarious names, quite appropriate!) and the film closes with the three rockers performing, while Sack cheers on with her hand on a prominent baby bump! Soppy, soppy…..but I ain’t complaining. We enjoyed the music that was popular when we were in school back in the late ’80s. We sang along and relived the good days when listening to rock and roll on our cassette players and walkmans could transport us to glamorous lives and foreign shores! Good times were recreated last night….