This film came and went last year without much attention, aside from Gina Gershon appearing on the cover of Maxim. There's good reason too -- it's one of those films that's clearly a victim of its own premise. If you ask me, movies about music are one of the riskiest and most difficult genres to pull off, particularly if it's a story about people creating music we've never heard before (so THE DOORS, for example, doesn't apply here because Oliver Stone didn't have to worry about writing original songs and he knew in advance that his audience already liked the music).


Cameron Crowe's impressive ALMOST FAMOUS is definitely towards the top of the list in this genre, as the cast performed original songs that not only matched the tone of the era, but were actually pretty darn good. This was huge when it came to convincing us that the band was of a quality that might cause genuine interest from a magazine like Rolling Stone, and the concert scenes were also convincing for the same reason. Well, the problem with PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL is that it's about a women's rock band that never really makes it, which also must deal with a tricky catch-22. If the music was outstanding, the whole story would be unrealistic because we wouldn't believe for a second they'd never get signed and the lead singer (played by Gershon) would be some 40-year-old burnout working in a tattoo parlor.

On the other hand -- and this is the path the movie decides to take -- by presenting a collection of songs that aren't awful but are a heck of a long way from being something we'd want to spend time listening to, it's difficult to get into the story and support the characters. Sure, there's a lot more to this movie than music and the band's passion for pursuing their dreams, but in the end these films always come down to the music and it simply didn't work for me. The fact that the story's dramatic elements are severely overplayed didn't help much either. If you love movies about music you still might want to check it out, but outside of that I wouldn't recommend it.

Posted March 21, 2004 | link