Josh Gad – Christian Sauvé

The Rocker (2008)

ByChristian Sauvé 2019-11-012023-03-18 Movie Review

(On TV, November 2019) I wasn’t expecting much from The Rocker — It didn’t exactly make a mark in the decade since its disappointing theatrical release, and Rainn Wilson is (at best!) a very specific comedian. But I wasn’t counting on the power of rock, or specifically a movie taking place in the rock band touring realm, taking on the comfortable tropes of the subgenre and playing with them. A journey to fame that we think may take the entire film ends up being resolved in the first act (thanks to some social media shenanigans that still ring true eleven years later), leaving the film the luxury of heading out on the road to live out the Rockstar lifestyle. (The Rocker does itself no favour by leaning too much on vomit humour.) Rainn Wilson is occasionally annoying but not as much as anticipated, and he’s clearly the wildcard that brings a straighter cast of character together. Otherwise, the film features early roles for Josh Gad and Emma Stone as teenage rock musicians, along with Christina Applegate playing hen mother/love interest. The soundtrack is about as great as what we could have expected from a movie with such a title. I suspect that anyone’s liking for The Rocker will hinge on how susceptible they are to rock band tour comedies and/or Wilson as a comic performer. But I was pleasantly surprised, without going to the extent of claiming it’s a good movie.

Movie Review

The Wedding Ringer (2015)

ByChristian Sauvé 2015-10-022017-08-31 Movie Review

(On Cable TV, October 2015) I remain astonished at Kevin Hart’s gift in consistently transforming what would be an obnoxious persona into solid comedy gold. In The Wedding Ringer, for instance, he takes up a hustler role specializing in grand-scale deception and somehow makes it funny. The basic plot has something to do with faking best men for a groom without much of a social life, but the real point of the film are the comic set-pieces, the characters, and seeing Kevin Hart speak as fast as possible. It shouldn’t work (and, at times, it doesn’t) but Hart is at his best and manages to elevate the rest of the material. Compared to him, most other actors are a bit dull, including Josh Gad as the nominal lead of the story. Some plot points are fuzzy (such as the overheard conversation that crystallizes the film’s ending, which barely makes sense) but the set-pieces are fun. There isn’t much more to say about the film: It’s fun, hits more or less the right spot for anyone expecting that kind of comedy and it even pays itself a short homage to The Usual Suspects. That could have gone much worse.