Metacritic reviews

Even though it's weak in the final stages, Rock Star has more than enough sparkle to last you. That's chiefly thanks to Wahlberg, the main firework of this movie.

A genial look at what happens when a wannabe becomes a headliner, Rock Star only stumbles when it decides it has to deliver a lesson about What's Really Important.

Its familiar story has pleasing quirks.

Rock Star sinks into a morass of melodrama.

Herek does capture the rush and crush of a stadium concert, and the music (more Leppard than Priest) isn't half bad -- in a disposable, arena-rock sort of way.

Like the type of music it celebrates, Rock Star is just a lot of posing, adding up to very little.

Rock Star roars to life with a promise of something inspired and inventive whenever Wahlberg leaps onstage. Offstage, however, even he can't breathe life into this same old song.

Somewhere along the way, Stephen Herek's Rock Star decided to become a dippy, cliche-ridden drama and, worse, an odd indictment of metal music. Joy.

Rock Star neither touches a raw nerve nor garners any resonance as a period piece. You'd be better off renting "This is Spinal Tap."

The music could have been better in this spineless drama, which has several angles but no perspective.