# Detroit Rock City (1999)

### reviewed by
James Sanford

When it comes to rolling with the changes in the music world, KISS runs a close second to Cher. The band originally coasted in on the glam-rock movement of the early 1970s, worked a few ballads like "Beth" into their repertoire to broaden their audience, went disco in 1979 with "I Was Made For Lovin' You," tried their hands at Alan Parsons Project-style pomp-rock with "Music From The Elder" and returned to their roots just in time for the '70s nostalgia craze. The closing credits of "Detroit Rock City" find lead singer Gene Simmons belting out a power ballad penned by Diane Warren, whose "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" put Aerosmith back on the top of the charts last summer.

The KISS story would undoubtedly make a fascinating film, but "Detroit," despite taking its title from one of the group's early hits, turns out to have very little to do with the band. Instead, it focuses on a much less intriguing quartet, four Ohio teens (Giuseppe Andrews, James Bellows, Edward Furlong and Sam Huntington) who go to extremes to catch a KISS concert at Cobo Hall in 1978.

That too might have been a potent topic for a movie if anyone connected with "Detroit" had any first-hand knowledge of what 1978 was like.

No such luck. "Detroit" is so poorly researched it prominently features David Naughton's "Makin' It" and Rupurt Holmes' "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" on the soundtrack despite the fact they were released in 1979 and then includes a reference to the Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men," which didn't come along until 1982. The slang in Carl V. Dupre's shoddy excuse for a script is also alarmingly wrong for the period.

Then again, what more should be expected from a film by director Adam Rifkin, whose previous credits include "Psycho Cop Returns" and the pitifully bad Charlie Sheen vehicle "The Chase"? Rifkin's style, to use the term in its loosest sense, consists of shooting his actors in tight close-ups and having them shout their lines, as if that somehow makes dumb dialogue funny. Every bit of slapstick is photographed from multiple angles which only goes to prove how awkwardly set up most of it is.

"Detroit" is sorely in need of the authenticity and easy humor of "Dazed and Confused," the 1994 Richard Linklater comedy it's obviously trying hard to imitate. But "Dazed" had characters the audience could actually feel something for; "Detroit" offers insipid cartoons, including a perverted priest, a gang of John Travolta wannabes and a witchy mom, ineptly played by Lin Shaye. Even its "heroes" are interchangable and charmless.

KISS itself only turns up in person at the very end, performing for a few brief minutes before the end credits roll. Fans who want to see the band in action would be better off tracking down a video of "KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park," a deliciously campy made-for-TV movie that shows what 1978 was really all about. James Sanford

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews