Detroit Rock City

Time is flying before my eyes, I cannot believe one of my favorite high-school era movies is now 20 years old with today’s entry for 1999’s Detroit Rock City (trailer). 1999 was an influential year for then-16-year old Dale with fond memories at the theater that year like The Matrix, Fight Club, Office Space, South Park, Payback and yes, even Go! I vividly remember my high school friend Rich and I being the sole people in the theater for Detroit Rock City and once we realized that a few minutes into the film, we then jumped at the opportunity to snag the pair of the far more comfortable handicap seats in the theater.

Rich and I were somehow tamer version of the four high-school rebels who will overcome all odds put in their path to see their favorite band KISS, circa 1978 when KISS fever was running wild! Hawk (Edward Furlong), Jam (Sam Huntington), Trip (James DeBallo) and Lex (Giuseppe Andrews) are ardent KISS fans and even do routine garage-band jam sessions under the moniker, ‘Mystery.’ The opening features a fantastic Mystery rock session of them butchering I Wanna Rock N Roll All Night and setting the stage for all four being hyped to finally see KISS in concert. Obstacles are in their way however as Jam’s super-Christian mother (Lin Shaye) finds and burns their tickets and now the four must persevere on a road trip to Detroit and promise each other that no matter what they will find a way into that KISS concert.

I forgot how fast Detroit Rock City moved, it is only a 90 minute film and nearly the entire back half is the four arriving in Detroit and agreeing to split up with each Mystery-member going on their own mini-adventure to find a way at scoring KISS tickets. There is a lot of fun setup in the opening half, especially a couple fun high school hallway chase scenes and a delightful encounter with a pair of disco thugs, but the back half where the four split up is where the film shines. Jam bumps into an old classmate Beth (Melanie Lynskey), but not before bumping into his protesting mother. Lex gets into all kinds of mischief trying to sneak in backstage, Trip lives up to his name by attempting to beat up a little kid for tickets while Hawk enters a strip-dance contest in hopes of winning enough cash to get tickets from a scalper. All four paths go wildly off course, and when the four reconvene for one last ditch plan of scoring tickets I nearly lost it all over again watching the resulting plan unfold.

I feel obligated to give props to the 70s rock tribute soundtrack. This can easily be a substitute for the next Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, and this is one of only several movie soundtracks I own, but for good reason! Rest assured, it is not a slapped together best of KISS album, as the film’s featured band only has three songs in the soundtrack. The other 12 songs are a nice variety of classic rock jams and all-new covers. Everclear covers The Boys are Back in Town while Thin Lizzy themselves have Jailbreak included. Pantera has an awesome rendition of Cat Scratch Fever while Marilyn Manson reels in his own take on Highway to Hell. Black Sabbath’s Iron Man kicks in at one of my favorite scenes in the movie, and yes KISS’s Detroit Rock City is here in all its glory.

The original DVD release of this was one of several DVDs I purchased while eagerly awaiting the months leading up to the PS2 launch. It and the Fight Club DVDs were what turned me into a bonus features junkie with both having slick menus and loaded with extras. I am glad all the original DVD extras were carried onto the BluRay, but a little bummed at the lack of any BluRay exclusives. A quick thrown together panel with the cast and crew looking back many years later on the film I would have loved. As it stands, the returning extras are not slim picking by any means. There are 18 minutes of deleted scenes worth diving into to see interesting extended takes on several scenes and the only scene to a super-secret second movie they were going to make during downtime, but never panned out. Other bonus features highlights include an instructor teaching how to play I Wanna Rock N Roll All Night in under 10 minutes, alternate angles of the opening and closing scenes, a pair of music videos and two unique behind-the-scenes videos.

Looking into the Sun features some wild editing as the four main cast members borrows a camera and films them goofing off intermittently throughout the production. Misc Shit is a longer, 37 minute all-encompassing making of feature interviewing the cast, crew and Gene Simmons too! Topping it off is three feature-length audio commentaries. Director Adam Rifkin is solely on one, several cast and crew members are stitched together from several recorded interviews in another, and all four members of KISS are interviewed separately in 15-20 minute chunks for the final commentary. I bounced between all three on my second viewing which was a fascinating experience, especially the way the interviews were kind of pasted together in some of the commentary tracks. Highlights from the commentaries include displeasure of not landing Jonathon Taylor Thomas in the lead role, KISS members reflecting back on their first film from 1978 and Rifkin fighting against the studio’s orders to edit down the film to a PG-13 rating. Despite lack of new extras, the recycled bonuses are well worth checking out again.

This movie hit at the perfect time for me which is why I have been raving about it throughout this whole entry. After seeing it initially with Rich, I watched my DVD copy several times in the following years after turning my brother onto the film. I am not a diehard KISS fan by any means, but you do not have to be to enjoy this film. I resonate with it on many levels because I can relate to the fandom of doing anything to see some of my favorite bands in my teenage years and how those first concerts I saw felt like mind-blowing experiences. Detroit Rock City nails that feeling to a T and the whole trek to get there is a journey as riveting as the final destination, and because of that I can only give Detroit Rock City my highest recommendation!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

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Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
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The Avengers: Infinity War
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Major League
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Man vs Snake
Marine 3-6
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Skyscraper
Small Town Santa
Steve Jobs
Source Code
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Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
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The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Apocalypse
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