Rock Star (2001 film)
| Rock Star | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Stephen Herek |
| Produced by |
Robert Lawrence Toby Jaffe |
| Written by | |
| Starring |
Mark Wahlberg Jennifer Aniston Jason Flemyng Timothy Olyphant Timothy Spall Dominic West |
| Music by | Trevor Rabin |
| Cinematography | Ueli Steiger |
| Edited by | Trudy Ship |
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Production
company |
Bel Air Entertainment
Maysville |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. (US) Studiocanal (International) |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $38–57 million |
| Box office | $19.3 million |
| Rock Star | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | August 28, 2001 |
| Label | Priority |
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
Rock Star is a 2001 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek and starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. It tells the story of Chris "Izzy" Cole, a tribute band singer whose ascendance to the position of lead vocalist of his favorite band was inspired by the real-life story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, singer in a Judas Priest tribute band who was chosen to replace singer Rob Halford when he left the band.
In the mid-1980s, Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg) is a Pittsburgh fanatical admirer of a heavy metal band called Steel Dragon. By day, Chris is a technician and by night, he is the lead singer of a Steel Dragon tribute band called Blood Pollution (the name is taken from a Steel Dragon song).
Internal struggles among the actual Steel Dragon band members culminate with the firing of their lead singer, Bobby Beers (Jason Flemyng), and the starting of recruitment sessions to find a new vocalist. Chris experiences his own strife with his Blood Pollution bandmates, particularly guitarist Rob Malcolm (Timothy Olyphant). During a live performance, Rob's playing fails to live up to Chris' over-demanding standards regarding note-for-note accuracy to the original Steel Dragon recordings, and Chris sabotages Rob's amplifier mid-song - a fight breaks out between the two onstage. The next day, Chris arrives at Blood Pollution's rehearsal space (the basement of an X-rated theater) to find that he's been fired and replaced with his arch-rival, the (now former) lead singer of another Steel Dragon tribute band. Rob also cites Chris' inability to create his own musical style, preferring to remain the singer in a tribute band.
One day, Chris receives an unexpected phone call from Steel Dragon's founder and rhythm guitarist, Kirk Cuddy (Dominic West), and is offered an audition for the band (thanks to two of Blood Pollution's groupies, who showed Kirk a videotape of one of Blood Pollution's concerts). After hanging up on Kirk once, thinking he's being made fun of, Chris ecstatically agrees. At the studio, he meets the band, as well as learning that Bobby Beers was fired because he was a closeted gay, and gives an outstanding performance of "We All Die Young" (a Steel Dragon song in the movie, but it is actually a song by Steelheart, whose lead vocalist Miljenko Matijevic provides Cole's singing voice for the film). Chris joins the band as their new singer, adopting the stage name "Izzy". Following a successful debut concert with Steel Dragon, Izzy must come to grips with the pressures of his new-found fame and success. The band embarks on a lengthy tour and Izzy experiences the excesses of the lifestyle, with the group's manager, Mats (Timothy Spall), serving as a sympathetic mentor to Izzy.
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