OxfordPress.com

Grade: C

Verdict: Rock-movie lite.

Details: Starring Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Aniston and Timothy Spall. Directed by Stephen Herek. Rated R for sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and rock violence. One hour, 46 minutes.

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Review: “Rock Star” is everything last year's “Almost Famous” wasn't. And that's not such a good thing.

A “nice” movie about the not-so-nice world of a heavy metal band in the mid-1980s, “Rock Star” seems synthetic. Like the Muzak version of a Def Leppard hit. It's quite harmless, but you have to wonder, is harmless what a film like this should be?

Technically, rock fan Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg) still lives at home with his parents. But in his head, his real home is with his adored metal band, Steel Dragon. Chris' devotion is so complete that he insists his own band, Blood Pollution, isn't a cover band, it's a tribute band. Which means, you don't change a guitar chord or a drumbeat, lest you desecrate the holiness of Steel Dragon. This gets kind of old for his less slavish colleagues.

Just when things are looking dicey, Chris gets the Call. The only-in-the-movies call. Steel Dragon's lead singer is being forced into early retirement by his mates. They hear about Chris through some mutual groupie friends and, after a brief audition, decide he's the singer for them.

But you know what they say about being careful what you wish for.

Chris and girlfriend Emily (Jennifer Aniston) discover that they haven't just signed on with Steel Dragon, they've signed into the rock universe of absolute excess. Which, like power, soon corrupts Chris absolutely.

Timothy Sprall, who plays Dragon's wise but manipulative road manager, has the task of spelling out whatever director Stephen Herek (“Mr. Holland's Opus,” “101 Dalmatians”) and writer John Stockwell think the audience may have missed. He says to Chris soberly, “Your job is to live the fantasy other people only dream of.”

Whoooaaa . . . heavy.

Wahlberg looks happier here than he did in last month's “Planet of the Apes.” And he's credible onstage thanks in part to his Marky Mark incarnation. But he's stuck with a script that never tries to be anything more than skin-deep, and it reduces him to skin-deep as well.

Further, casting real-life rockers (Zakk Wylde,cq-bg former Ozzy Osbourne strummer, Dokken's Jeff Pilson) as some of the members of Steel Dragon may give the band a certain sexy versimilitude. But these guys aren't actors and aren't given much to do.

Overall, Wahlberg comes off as a good sport, with his career still intact. Aniston comes off OK, but she's less interesting than she's been in movies like “Picture Perfect.” And their movie comes off as, well, a cover movie for a real rock movie.

Or would you call this a tribute movie?

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, (none)