Rock Star

Long before Rock Star hit theaters, we heard that the studio changed the title from the much cooler sounding Metal God and were disappointed. However, in retrospect, Metal God was too cool a title for the final product. Rock Star is an “eh” title for an “eh” movie. It was Heavy Metal Parking Lot without genuine mullets, Boogie Nights without Heather’s unfettered Grahams. Unfortunately, the same can be said of the DVD.

While not “bad,” it’s not all that mind-blowing either. The “behind-the-scenes” documentary amounts to nothing more than E! channel filler, and never should an Everclear music video be considered a “special feature.” Art Alexakis has gotten away with writing the same song for the past five years, and the tune “Rock Star” is no different. Salvaging the disc, however, is the solo commentary by director Stephen Herek. Informative (the creative uses of digital effects—from covering the Santa Monica mountains with Pittsburgh smokestacks to changing Tim Olyphant’s unauthorized Harley Davidson T-shirt into “Hard Head Beer”—are amazing) and funny (the challenge of shooting around Marky Mark’s tats and aversion to make-up), Herek doles out tales in quick bites, rather than droning on in boring tangents like other directors left to their own devices. Oh, OK—we might have banged our heads a little to “Stand Up and Shout.” We’re only human.