The Best and Worst (Narrative) Films with Rock Stars

Celia Cyanide · May 3, 2010

I'm not talking about documentaries, or concert films, only narratives.

Best:
PERFORMANCE with Mick Jagger
Very well made movie all around. well shot, well acted, and unique

CORRUPT with Johnny Rotten
Weird, but he and Harvey Keitel are very interesting

HEAD with The Monkees
If you haven't seen this, please do, regardless of your opinion on the Monkees. It has some of their best work as musicians, and it's just bizarre and creative. And the Monkees had much more to do with the creation of this than the Beatles did HARD DAYS' NIGHT.

Worst:
KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK with KISS (duh!)
They told them it was going to be HARD DAYS' NIGHT meets STAR WARS. Whatever, dude!

SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton
This movie all but ruined Abbey Road for me. I blame Aerosmith. I turned to this on TV as a child and I saw their cover of "Come Together." I thought it was cool, so I kept watching. It is their fault I sat through the whole thing!

THE GREAT ROCK AND ROLL SWINDLE with the Sex Pistols
Interesting concept, but disjointed and loaded with BS. not to mention horribly insulting to the band members. Having said that, RIP Malcolm McLaren.

maxmordon · May 3, 2010

I am rather fond of Keith Moon's Uncle Ernie in TOMMY, I really don't count Daltry's performance since most of the time he's just looking blankly, an art perfected by Keanu and Cage.

Celia Cyanide · May 3, 2010

I can't believe I forgot PINK FLOYD--THE WALL!

SirOtter · May 3, 2010

maxmordon said:
I am rather fond of Keith Moon's Uncle Ernie in TOMMY, I really don't count Daltry's performance since most of the time he's just looking blankly, an art perfected by Keanu and Cage.

Daltrey was as bad or worse in Lisztomania, an appalling waste of celluloid. And Ringo Starr was nothing to write home about in Candy, a film not even Marlon Brando and Richard Burton could salvage.

Zoombie · May 3, 2010

Mick Jagger was fantastic in Freejack.

poetinahat · May 3, 2010

The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin: I can't remember whether it was any good; like any dutiful teenaged Zeppelin fan, I went and I watched. I think it's a concert film, but IIRC, it's half concert, half fantasy dream sequences. As I describe it, it sounds dreadful.

Somewhere, there's a film called Ned Kelly with Mick Jagger in the title role. I hear it's terrible.

I loved Repo Man - good goofball performance by Zander Schloss from the Circle Jerks (and nice cheesy cameo by the band). But the "sequel", Straight to Hell, is fricking horrible. It is so bad it's almost good, but not quite. It is noteworthy for the sheer volume of rockstar roles -- Joe Strummer, Courtney Love (god, she was horrible then, and she wasn't even famous yet - worst acting performance I've ever seen), Elvis Costello, the Pogues, Tenpole Tudor, Jim Jarmusz... anyone I'm forgetting?

Do you count John Lurie, of the Lounge Lizards? I loved Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law (him, Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni).

And yes, Sgt Pepper's was beyond awful. Except Aerosmith. Carry That Weight?! Good god.

BenPanced · May 3, 2010

Best of the Worst: Never Too Young To Die, an inaction movie with not one, but TWO singers: Vanity and Gene Simmons. John Stamos plays a college student who inherits his father's (George "I Was James Bond Once!" Lazenby) secret agent legacy. Vanity plays his sidekick/babechick and Gene Simmons plays Velvet VonRagnar, a hermaphrodite planning on poisoning the country's water supply (the evil computer program is called Ram-K. Couldn't you just?). Simmons knew what a honker the movie was and just ran with it.

The New American Hero

maxmordon · May 4, 2010

SirOtter said:
Daltrey was as bad or worse in Lisztomania, an appalling waste of celluloid. And Ringo Starr was nothing to write home about in Candy, a film not even Marlon Brando and Richard Burton could salvage.

I knew I have blocked Lisztomania from my mind for some reason.

And yes, I can't believe I didn't mention The Wall either!!!

poetinahat · May 4, 2010

Did anyone ever see Dune? Wasn't there some rockstar-type in that too? :e2shrug:

Williebee · May 4, 2010

Sting in Dune
Bowie in Labyrinth

And here's a hearty second for "Head!" It was a fun ride.

Williebee · May 4, 2010

Kristofferson in a whole bunch of stuff, but particularly Semi Tough & A Star is Born.

regdog · May 4, 2010

Celia Cyanide said:
I can't believe I forgot PINK FLOYD--THE WALL!

That movie rocked

poetinahat said:
Somewhere, there's a film called Ned Kelly with Mick Jagger in the title role. I hear it's terrible.

It is and so is the remake with Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom

Celia Cyanide · May 4, 2010

I have not seen Ned Kelly, but I wanted to, just because young Mick Jagger was in it. He did well in Performance.

The Wall is awesome. That was Bob Geldof from Boomtown Rats, and I thought he did an amazing job. I have no idea how or why he ended up playing that role, but I'm surprised he didn't do more acting after that. Roger Ebert loved that movie, and while Roger Waters was not particularly fond of it, he has nothing but praise for Geldof.

An interesting bit of trivia...the last time time any of the members of Pink Floyd saw Syd Barrett alive he showed up at the studio at random while they were recording Dark Side Of The Moon. None of them recognized him at first, and when Roger Waters finally did realize who he was, he started crying. Barrett had gained quite a bit of weight and shaved his hair and eyebrows off. That was why they had Pink do this in the movie.

poetinahat · May 4, 2010

Wow. What a story.

Another sidebar: A year or two ago, I went to the Sydney premiere of a Tom Stoppard play, "Rock 'n' Roll" -- it takes place in Cambridge and Prague, with the Velvet Revolution as the historical backdrop. The MC is a Czech scholar and rock aficionado.

Syd Barrett appears as a sort-of chorus character.

willietheshakes · May 4, 2010

I have a fondness for Purple Rain...

Yes, I'm seeking help.

Celia Cyanide · May 4, 2010

I have never actually seen that movie. I do appreciate it, though, because it was shot at First Avenue, the club where I used to work. Because of that movie, the club is famous. People in other countries ask me about it. But at least once a week, someone would ask, "Does Prince still own this place?" when in fact he never did.

Prince strikes me as being far too...shall we say...self-aware to be a good actor.

CaroGirl · May 4, 2010

Best:

Bowie in Labyrinth and in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.

Keith Richards in The Pirates of the Caribbean (for the casting alone).

SirOtter · May 4, 2010

Best - A Hard Day's Night

Worst - The aforementioned Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Aerosmith on Come Together was, indeed, the high point of an otherwise dreadful film. Steve Martin's version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer was moderately amusing, but the rest was truly terrible.

BenPanced · May 4, 2010

Williebee said:
Kristofferson in a whole bunch of stuff, but particularly Semi Tough & A Star is Born.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. OMFG. That was a wonderful, wonderful movie.

Celia Cyanide · May 4, 2010

SirOtter said:
Steve Martin's version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer was moderately amusing, but the rest was truly terrible.

From wikipedia, I think Janet Maslin is so right:

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film's "musical numbers are strung together so mindlessly that the movie has the feel of an interminable variety show"; while it may have been "conceived in a spirit of merriment, ... watching it feels like playing shuffleboard at the absolute insistence of a bossy shipboard social director. When whimsy gets to be this overbearing, it simply isn't whimsy any more." She complimented Martin on his "completely unhinged rendition of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," but pointed out that his scene is a "reminder that the film is otherwise humorless."[5]

Celia Cyanide · May 4, 2010

poetinahat said:
Wow. What a story.

Oh, wait! I forgot! It wasn't Dark Side Of The Moon, it was Wish You Were Here. So it been even longer since they'd seen him last. They played Shine On You Crazy Diamond for him. He didn't get what it was about, and he asked, "Where do I put my guitar on?" They also said he tried to brush his teeth by holding the brush still and jumping up and down.

regdog · May 4, 2010

willietheshakes said:
I have a fondness for Purple Rain...

Yes, I'm seeking help.

It was a whole lot better than Under the Cherry Moon. I was able to sit through 4 minutes of that disaster movie

willietheshakes · May 4, 2010

Celia Cyanide said:
Oh, wait! I forgot! It wasn't Dark Side Of The Moon, it was Wish You Were Here. So it been even longer since they'd seen him last.

Phew. I thought I was gonna have to get all music-geeky and pedantic on you.

SirOtter · May 4, 2010

Celia Cyanide said:
From wikipedia, I think Janet Maslin is so right:

I'm not sure it's possible for her to have been any more right.

What a complete clusterfuck that film was. Alas, I found myself escorting younger relatives to it more than once. It's a wonder I didn't crawl into a warm tub and open a vein. Could they possibly have picked a less appropriate song for Alice Cooper? And perverting the meaning of She's Leaving Home to fit into what is laughably referred to as a plot they way it was done still rankles. I'm generally opposed to obliterating films, but I would cheerfully set fire to the last existing copy of this huge pile of manure.

AceTachyon · May 6, 2010

Bowie was also in The Prestige with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale.

The Best and Worst (Narrative) Films with Rock Stars

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THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

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Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

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Gentleman. Scholar. Bastard.

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