The Rocker

Review

With a half-decent climax, the go-for-it parody The Rocker would have been pretty good bordering on good instead of just okay. Its appeal rests on Rainn Wilson, of NBC’s The Office, a large, misshapen fellow whose features swim in the middle of his big face and whose movements are the opposite of fluid. He plays Fish, a drummer unjustly chucked out of a heavy-metal band that went on to superstardom who now has another shot with a group of high-school kids. I liked a lot of The Rocker (Christina Applegate, as the mother of the group’s lead singer, is blessedly grounded), but it’s depressing when the best thing you can say about a comedy is that its second-rateness is pleasantly in sync with its unmagnetic hero. — David Edelstein