When his unmarried mother dies, custody of 13-year-old Job is assumed by his alleged father, Chris, whom he has never seen. Job is an enthusiastic cadet at a military academy, and Chris turns out to be a top-grossing rock star who removes Job from his beloved school to keep him company on tour. Getting acquainted is fraught with culture shock for both father and son. Written by Paul Emmons
USAPG-13
USA
All issues not pertaining to the baseball game scene are secondary. The film is montage-heavy, fueled by only the most cloying of tropes, and nil on genuine substance. The child lead in The Toy had multiple father figures pulling authoritative rank and still that shocking film with all its baggage found more focus than this bland thing.
Then the baseball scene happened. Which was already sliding off-base after switching the roles and making the previously stern father into a clown while the son being swayed by the rockstar's rowdy, lawless/reckless friends turned into a rigid, uptight perfectionist. Apparently, it's the team's fault the crowd are showering them with homophobic slurs. And the child protagonist is siding with them and calling…
Mick Jagger provides a story of a rock star trying to do the right thing and bond with his estranged son, only for the son's rigid military school upbringing to cause friction--this all culminates in a campfire scene where the son weeps about his mom's drug addiction. Umm, fuck you, Mick Jagger? This is rock star irresponsibility apologia, a we're-secretly-good-folks, a it's-the-drummer's-fault! The rock star dad doesn't really have a moment of becoming less self-centered that we can see; the brat is at least somewhat fairly treated as "just a kid." But really this is all just about how hard it is to be a super rich rock star with a tweenage kid.
And the music is the sort of…
There's not much going on here in terms of storytelling or character development or drama or whatever, but who needs all THAT, right? There are way too many music montages and for some reason there's a pointless baseball game near the end, but at the same time the film's earnestness is somewhat endearing, the kid actor is pretty good and I have to give the movie an extra half star for Nick Mancuso's total, utter commitment to the material. He actually makes for a believable 80's rock superstar, and mouths the lyrics to a selection of ersatz stadium-rock songs with gusto. If you're like me, you won't care at all about whether or not he ends up bonding with his…
Utterly charmless and devoid of one enjoyable aspect, this serves as proof that despite everyone's current feelings, not EVERYTHING from the 80's is golden. It is a just a dirge of shitty music one after another like a funeral parade, sounding like soulless imitations of Springsteen or Bryan Adams tunes that you just know is playing somewhere right now in a bar where guys with oil stains on their shirts are unironically rocking mullets and drinking Keystone Light. There's not a genuine moment or scene anywhere in this, feeling as phony as this motherfucker's jeri curls, and for a movie barely over 80 minutes long, this feels like it runs for an eternity, offering next to nothing in terms of…
Kind of nice but mostly dull domestic melodrama about a rock star trying to connect with his illegitimate 13-year-old son, of whom he now has sole custody. No backstage debauchery or anything here - this guy is 37 years old, totally pro and past his party years, kind of boring. Whereas the kid's right out of military school and is a very severe grade of tighty whitey, so maybe even more boring, just with some teenage-boy angst.
Nothing that actually happens in this movie is all that interesting - there are father-son bonding moments over campfires and softball games and roadside diners, and the biggest possibility of anything ever going off the rails is when the kid hangs out with…
This movie feels like something hay was made as a tax dodge or a currency exchange scheme or some kind of financial manuver rather than a story anyone really wanted to tell. Mick Jagger is credited as a screen writer. My guess his the scope of his involvement was making an off-hand comment at a business lunch or dinner about making a movie where a rock star has to connect with his son.
I agree that Nick Mancuso is 100% committed to the part. He has to be considering the lack of logic and massive gaps in the script. The film is also a groundbreaker in product placement.
It’s like Over the Top, only the Stallone character is a Rick Springfield clone.
Painfully awful
It's like OVER THE TOP, but with 80s heartthrob rock instead of arm wrestling.
Surprisingly watchable.
I rented it because it was Tri-Star; i love you, Tri-Star. (You know that logo is playing and that pegasus is galloping forward in your mind right now.)
It’s a pretty typical son gets to know dad kind of film so nothing special unfortunately
Good music (from Jesus Christ Superstar's Ted Neeley, who doesn't appear, but it is his voice you hear), and an OK plot about a rock star father trying to make a connection with his illegitimate child. Mick Jagger wrote this, and I suppose the rock star milieu has an authentic ring to it, but it is too derivative to be anything other than average.
