Detroit Rock City

Reactions to Detroit Rock City may fluctuate according to your degree of nostalgia for the Seventies. This story about four high school dudes trying to get into a KISS concert by hook or by crook is a mildly diverting comedy but has little of substance to recommend it. Broad performances and wild zoom camerawork make this a cartoony slice of Seventies life, but it's too excessive to be mistaken for satire and too goony to be mistaken for a loving flashback. Many are heralding this movie as a return of the teen rock comedy and citing such antecedents as Dazed and Confused, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and Rock & Roll High School. Granted, the music in Detroit Rock City is pretty great (and not all KISS tunes) and constant, but the movie lacks one thing these other films had in spades: talent in front of and behind the camera. Oh yeah, did I mention that the members of KISS make cameos in the film and head KISSer Gene Simmons produced Detroit Rock City?