Rocker Sinks Like a Stone

We’ve seen The Rocker before: It was called School of Rock, and it was funnier, critics agree. “The only brazen thing about the film is how shamelessly it rips off School of Rock, recycling its flaky-educator loser-of-the-gods premise, only this time in high school,” writes Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Claudia Puig of USA Today suggests skipping the movie and staying home to play Rock Band.

Rainn Wilson, headlining as a washed-up drummer who gets his second chance at fame in his nephew’s band, “doesn't have the heft to carry an entire film,” Steven Rhea writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ultimately, the movie “can't decide whether it's a film about a lovable loser having a midlife crisis, a racier comedy about a multi-generation rock band or a heartwarming look at second chances,” Puig writes. (More movie review stories.)