As a man, I’m not ashamed to say that I love musicals. I believe it started when I first saw Grease in 1995 at my grandmother’s house.  Rock of Ages is a film based off the musical of the same name and stars an ensemble cast including Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Mary J. Blige, and a few more big name actors. The film tells the story of Sherrie Christian (played by country music artist Julianne Hough) and Drew Boley (played by Diego Boneta) and how their relationship starts, falls apart, and is ultimately rekindled. Sherrie travels to Hollywood to become a singer where after being mugged she meets Drew a bartender at the infamous bar The Bourbon Room. Drew dreams of one day becoming a rock god with his band Wolfgang Von Colt. He gets her a job there and their relationship starts. After Drew is given the chance to play the opening act for Stacee Jaxx (played by Tom Cruise) his relationship with Sherrie falls apart as he believes she slept with his idol. Sherrie quits and becomes a waitress at a strip club and Drew follows his dream of becoming a rock star only to find things do not turn out as expected. They meet again at the same spot where they had their first date and start to reconcile over their experiences in the past couple of weeks. I have to say this movie was great. The screen time was pretty well balanced between every actor. The music was spectacular and was incorporated into the movie very well. A good example is when Drew plays part “Don’t Stop Believin” for Sherrie at the Hollywood sign. Watching this movie I couldn’t help but sing along and strum my air guitar every time the cast broke out in song. The breakout star of this movie for me was Tom Cruise. Say what you will about him being crazy, but the man can act his ass off. He did a great job as Stacie Jaxx. Encompassing the eccentric attitudes of many great rock legends from the 1980s. Also playing their parts well in this movie are Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, and the ever talented Alec Baldwin. I could tell that they all enjoyed acting in this movie and played their roles with great conviction. This movie was fun to watch and fun to listen to. It made me want to go home and download all the greatest rock songs from the 80s and watch more musicals. This would be a great movie to see while on a date. I give Rock of Ages a Decent 8/10.