Movie Review: Rock of Ages

I am a HUGE fan of 80s music.  It is my absolute favorite genre!!  I had free movie passes to see Rock of Ages last weekend so I made my fiance go with me.  He is not a fan of musicals.  This is my personal opinion of the movie.

This movie was based on the musical Rock of Ages.  It starts with Sherrie and Drew, two young wannabe famous singers that have moved to the big city to find fame.  Julianne Hough plays her typical innocent, squeaky girl with her sub-par singing.  I am a fan of Julianne and she is very cute; however, I have heard much better singers and I feel like she played up the acting a bit too much.  Drew was played by Diego Boneta, who actually started to grow on me throughout the movie.  I think he will be seen in a lot new movies.  He was in some teenie bopper movies in the past and I am sure was glad to land such a lead role. 
Sherrie and Drew had great chemistry and shared a sweet innocence throughout the movie.  I am a sap for cheesy chick flicks, so I enjoyed their scenes together. 

Catherine Zeta-Jones played an annoying role of Patricia Whitmore, wife of a politician, who is anti- rock n roll.  I was not impressed with the portrayal of Christianity in this movie.  They showed many stereotypes and included scenes in a church which were less than flattering.  I was not impressed with Catherine in this movie; although she is a decent actress.  She could do with a little less botox as it was hard for her to move her eyebrows.

Tom Cruise playing Stacee Jaxx was very comical.  He did a great job with this role and showed the angst that came with being in rock bands of this decade.  His monkey side kick provided great comic relief for me as well. 

Russell Brand always annoys me in anything that he does.  He does not seem funny to me and I don't care for his singing.  That is all.

Alec Baldwin is great at playing a train wreck.  He fit role of a struggling night club owner to a T.  His role brought the whole movie full-circle by his owning and running the Bourbon club which is the main atmosphere for the movie. 

My fiance thought there was entirely too much music in this movie.  It was a little over two hours long and contained a lot of music.  I can see why he felt this way; however, I loved singing and dancing along to all of the great music of the 80s!  These were some of my favorite hits which I listen to regularly on my Ipod. :)

In closing, don't expect the best acting or surprising plot.  I felt like it had some good parts and truly enjoyed the songs!   I would give it 3.5 out of 5 stars!!!  (I would also not recommend bringing a child under 13 to this movie as it has a mature nature that most musicals share)

Survey site reviews

I have been a member of various survey sites over the years.  Some fare well, others I have not had much success.  I will review some of my current survey sites that I use on a daily/weekly basis.  I will give star ratings (1 being lowest, 5 being the best!)

First, I will discuss mypoints.com  5 out of 5 stars! 
All you have to do is check your emails and you can earn points.  Additional points may be earned from surveys, making purchases online, watching videos, completing online searches, or fulfilling other offers.  I have received great pay-outs from mypoints.com  I find this site very user-friendly and has great rewards!  I have received restaurant gift cards, gas cards, clothing store gift cards, and other awesome gifts which I have given to others (or myself!)

Next, I will talk about globaltestmarket.com.  5 out of 5 stars! 
I receive e-mails on a daily basis for these surveys.  They are often very interesting and topics that relate to my lifestyle.   I have obtained many points for these surveys.  I have received quite a few monetary rewards, which are the best!

Zoompanel.com 4 out of 5 stars.  Zoompanel is very simple to navigate.  The surveys are typically short and easy to fill out.  They often include videos and photos of different products.  I have gotten decent rewards from this site; however, there are almost too many to pick through.  Some of the rewards are low quality which is reflective of how many points you are using. 

Surveys.com.   2 out of 5 stars.  I rarely get surveys from them.  I do not think I have ever been able to obtain rewards from their site either.

Ipsos panel-  3 out of 5 stars.  This site changes regularly.  I am not a huge fan of getting points for sweepstakes.  I much prefer just getting rewards up front like the other sites offer.

Opinion Outpost-  4 out of 5 stars!  I have not had as much luck recently on qualifying for the surveys as I used to have.  Their surveys are not as enjoyable as some of the other sites, in my opinion.  However, I used to get great rewards!  I have gotten Itunes gift cards and Amazon.com gift cards.  They are some of my favorite rewards!

RecycleBank-  4 out of 5 stars.  This is a novel idea!  Recycling is an amazing concept and you get rewarded for being eco-friendly!  I just wish the rewards were a bit better; however, I learn so much from this site and have fun using it.

I will write about some of my other survey sites soon!!  Hope you enjoy the information!!