“The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” the music drama that was partially shot on Route 66, finally officially hit theaters this weekend, but that’s likely the last you’ll hear much of it until it comes out on DVD.
Here’s the trailer:
https://youtu.be/cjlcRIlzH9A
If you’re expecting the film to give more prominence to the Mother Road, I wouldn’t count on it. Here are the reasons:
- After several weeks of publicity, the film opened this weekend in only three screens, according to Box Office Mojo. Three. That’s all.
- The film already is available on-demand from Time Warner Cable. Apparently there’s not much faith the movie will enjoy a wider release in theaters.
- According to my archives, the film was supposed to be in theaters by late 2009. It’s a bad sign when a movie shows up on screens almost two years later than anticipated.
- As of Sunday morning, “The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” sports a 0 percent freshness rating from critics at RottenTomatoes.com. That’s awful.
It’s not as if the film didn’t have potential. It contains a jam session with the now-deceased Pinetop Perkins and other blues masters that must have been a musical treat. And it would have been intriguing to see co-star Peter Fonda revisit a few of those Route 66 sights from his seminal film “Easy Rider.” And the recent death of Amy Winehouse might have brought timely poignancy to the film’s subject matter.
But there’s little point in cheerleading for a Route 66 film that’s obviously dead in the water as it hits a smattering of theaters. “The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” isn’t going to impact Route 66 tourism like the original “Cars” did, that’s for sure.
Ron,
recording this as I’m writing to let you know I found it on the Comcast archives. Its not free.
Thanks!
Since it just came out, I’m assuming it wouldn’t be free for a while.
I’ve sort of followed this film since a close encounter of the second kind with filming in Manhattan. Even though Los Angeles was always the trip’s destination, it became a “Route 66 Movie” rather late in the game and I figured it was a semi-desperate move to get some reflected glory and publicity. I suppose the publicity part worked a little (we are talking about it) but not so the glory. Spike Lee was once listed as executive producer but he seems to have walked away early and quickly — and wisely. I still want to see it for Pinetop and Hubert Sumlin and even Peter Fonda but I’m not expecting much else and definitely not much Sixty-Six.