Detroit Rock City (film)

Detroit Rock City
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam Rifkin
Produced by	Barry Levine Gene Simmons
Written by	Carl V. Dupré
Starring	Edward Furlong Sam Huntington Giuseppe Andrews James DeBello Lin Shaye Melanie Lynskey Natasha Lyonne and featuring Kiss as themselves
Music by	J. Peter Robinson Kiss Thin Lizzy The Runaways Van Halen Black Sabbath Blue Öyster Cult Pantera Cheap Trick AC/DC
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt Peter Schink
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	August 13, 1999
Running time	95 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000
Box office	$24,217,115[1]

Detroit Rock City is a 1999 film about four teenagers in a Kiss cover band who try to see their idols in Detroit in 1978. Comparable to Rock 'n' Roll High School, Dazed and Confused, The Stöned Age, and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Detroit Rock City tells a coming of age story through a filter of 1970s music and culture in the United States. Originally titled The Kiss Movie^{[citation needed]}, the movie ultimately took its title from the Kiss song of the same name. Although it bombed at the box office, grossing fewer than five million dollars domestically, it has since become a cult classic for Kiss fans^{[citation needed]}, rock music fans and metalheads in general.^{[citation needed]}

The film was shot at Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, and other Ontario locations.^[2] Other Ontario locations include Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario

Storyline

The movie opens in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 19, 1978. Hawk (Edward Furlong), Lex (Giuseppe Andrews), Trip (James DeBello), and Jam (Sam Huntington) are four rebellious teenagers who emulate and tribute Kiss to a degree in their own garage band called "Mystery." Having discovered his secret cache of Kiss albums, Jam's ultra-conservative and religiously hysterical mother, Mrs. Bruce (Lin Shaye), races up to the home and drags Jam to the car, throwing Jam's Love Gun album into a trash can.

The three remaining boys discover the next morning that their KISS concert tickets are missing, figuring that Trip's jacket carrying the tickets got swapped with Jam's. Jam is not able to retrieve the tickets from his jacket before school due to his mother watching over him as he dresses. What is worse for Jam, Mrs. Bruce makes him wear new, ugly clothes she had bought for him at KMart. Jam's mother later discovers the tickets (screaming her outrage over the school's PA system) and destroys them in front of Jam (and the others, watching around the corner) by setting them on fire.

Mrs. Bruce then drags Jam from his school and has him transferred to a Catholic boarding school upstate. This leaves the remaining boys in a state of shock. While in tech class, the three remaining boys hear a radio contest for KISS concert tickets at Cobo Hall that night.^[3] Trip leaves class, so he can call the contest line and he ends up winning the tickets. The boys then ditch school to bust Jam out of the Catholic school. They take Lex's mom's car, a Volvo 200 series. The trio arrives and Hawk disguises himself as an arriving pizza delivery guy and delivers a pizza ordered by the priest, Father McNulty (Joe Flaherty) who is currently lecturing Jam, that has been spiked with hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms. Father McNulty becomes high, allowing them to whisk Jam away (apparently, they brought some of Jam's regular clothes with them as well).

On the freeway, a Solar Gold 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, driven by Kenny (Nick Scotti) and Bobby (David Quane), two Italian-American disco fanatics, along with their girlfriends Christine (Natasha Lyonne) and Barbara (Emmanuelle Chriqui), begins tailgating them. Trip accidentally drops some pizza on his lap and throws the slice of pizza out of the window, where it hits the windshield of the Trans-Am, causing a dispute that results in the enraged Kenny pulling Hawk out of the car and rubbing his face in the pizza on the windshield. Their bullying upsets Christine, who argues with them and leaves, walking down the freeway. Kenny, still upset, sees their 8-track of the Kiss album Love Gun in their car. Stating that these "makeup-wearing fags" must be stopped, he throws the tape into the way of an oncoming fire truck, smashing it. Hawk, now enraged, knocks Kenny to the ground, knocking him out. Then the foursome gang up on Bobby. The four friends then chain Kenny, Bobby and Barbara to a guard rail, put them in Kiss makeup, and leave the Trans Am in a ditch. The boys then pick up Christine walking along the highway, who decides to accompany them to Detroit.

Upon arrival, they find out that Trip did not stay on the phone long enough to give the radio station his information, forcing the station to give the tickets to the next caller. When coming back outside, Lex notices that the car has been stolen, and they suspect Christine, who they left sleeping in the car. Lex initially wants to call the police until Hawk points out that they are in Detroit and it is unlikely the police will spend city money looking for a foreign-made car. Hawk then states that the boys go their separate ways in order to find Kiss tickets, and agree to meet in the same place later.

Hawk finds a scalper (Richard Hillman) who suggests that he enter a strip contest at a nearby stip club to raise money for tickets. Hawk does just that, although he gets extremely drunk beforehand. He doesn't win, but is offered payment for his company by Amanda Finch, an amorous older woman present (Shannon Tweed). They go to her car and she takes his virginity. Afterwards, Hawk declines the money she offered, but she insists, telling him to use it for whatever he wanted to begin with. As Hawk locates the scalper again, however, he runs off, indicating he's all sold out, much to Hawk's dismay.

Trip goes to a local convenience store in the hopes of mugging a younger child to get tickets. He grabs a kid (Cody Jones) in Ace Frehley makeup, but the kid has an older brother, Chongo (Matthew G. Taylor), a giant jock athlete who, with his gang of thugs (Kevin Corrigan and Steve Schirripa), threaten to beat him up unless Trip pay them $200.00 for their trouble. Asking them to wait outside, Trip illogically plans to rob the convenience store with a fake gun (in reality a Stretch Armstrong toy) against his better judgement, but ends up thwarting a real robbery attempt at the store, earning him a $150.00 reward and a passionate kiss from the lady cashier (Kristin Booth). Trip meets the thugs in an alleyway behind the store, but the kid decides that Trip didn't meet their demands and has Chango punch Trip in the stomach while taking his wallet.

Lex sneaks into the backstage area with the Kiss loading crew to help set up the concert, but is soon discovered and found, causing him to flee from arena security and manages to get to the area where the band's trailer is located. Lex is eventually caught and tossed over a fence by the guards. At first he is menaced by a group of vicious dogs, but earns their trust when he plays frisbee with them. In a nearby building he finds a chained-up Christine and his car in a chop shop with two workers who plan to rape her. Lex then uses his newly befriended dogs to chase the two thugs into a back office room, saving Christine and his mom's car. Lex and Christine share a passionate kiss.

Jam encounters his mother who is leading an anti-Kiss rally. The furious Mrs. Bruce grabs him and drags him to a church across the street for confession, taking away his drumsticks. He is seen by Beth (Melanie Lynskey), a girl from his school who is in the presence of moving with her parents. She rushes into the church and into the confessional booth where Jam is, finally revealing to him that she's been in love with him since freshman year, but never had the courage to tell him. Jam and Beth then make love right then and there, losing their virginity to one another before the priest returns. Beth promises to contact him one she and her family are settled. Jam, now imbued with new confidence, goes back to the rally, determined this time to take a stand. Jam finally stands up for himself, getting revenge at his mother for her controlling and domineering ways by yelling at her before the assembled crowd, telling her that forcing religion and morality down his throat are the reasons that he has been rebelling lately, that she has been so blindsided by her fanaticism she's forgotten what's really important, making her a lousy parent and how he just had sex in the church confessional. Jam then demands that she return his drumsticks, only receiving one of them as the other is broken in the trash.

When the boys meet up again, none of them have had any luck getting tickets, so in a last-ditch effort, Jam suggests that they beat each other up and say that muggers took their tickets. They do so, unleashing all their angers and frustrations out on one another and, upon arrival at the concert, they tell the guards that they were mugged by four people. The guards do not believe them, but suddenly Trip points out to the guards the kid, Chango and the thugs from the store, who are just entering the concert hall. The guards finds Trip's wallet (with his Kiss Army picture ID and the $150.00 he got as reward for thwarting the robbery) in their pockets, and hand him the tickets, ejecting the others outside.

Astonished and elated, the boys enter the concert hall and KISS plays the title song of the movie, "Detroit Rock City". Jam catches a drum stick thrown by drummer Peter Criss as the film ends.^[4]

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics and Kiss fans. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Detroit Rock City has a "rotten" score of 47%, although the user section on the site was much more positive with a "Fresh" score of 80% (C on boxofficemojo.com) and a 33 out of 100 rating, which indicates "Generally unfavorable reviews", at Metacritic.

Cast

• Giuseppe Andrews as Lex
• James DeBello as Trip Verudie
• Edward Furlong as Hawk
• Sam Huntington as Jeremiah 'Jam' Bruce
• Lin Shaye as Mrs. Bruce
• Melanie Lynskey as Beth Bumstein
• Natasha Lyonne as Christine (The stella)
• Miles Dougal as Elvis The School Hall Monitor
• Nick Scotti as Kenny (The guido)
• Emmanuelle Chriqui as Barbara (The stella)
• David Quane as Bobby (The guido)
• Rodger Barton as Mr. Stewart Bumstein
• Kathryn Haggis as Mrs. Stewart Bumstein
• David Gardner as Detroit Priest
• Shannon Tweed as Amanda Finch
• Kristin Booth as Cashier
• Joe Flaherty as Father McNulty
• Cody Jones as Little Kid
• Matthew G. Taylor as Chongo
• Joan Heney as Study Hall Teacher
• Robert Smith as Simple Simon
• Aaron Berg as Bartender
• Paul Brogren as Roadie #1
• Allan Clow as Man with Coat
• Chris Benson as Mr. Johansen
• Colleen Williams as Nun
• Richard Hillman as Scalper
• Stephen Joffe as Six Year Old #1
• Ryan Letriard as Six Year Old #2
• Joseph Haase as Security Guard
• Ron Jeremy as Strip Club MC
• Kevin Corrigan as Beefy Jerk #1
• Steve Schirripa as Beefy Jerk #2
• Lindy Booth as Girl #1
• Christina Sicoli as Foxy Girl
• Michael Barry as Nerd
• Vic Rigler as Pizza Boy
• Eileen Flood as Female Parishioner
• Pamela Bowen as Matmok Lieutenant
• Johnie Chase as Cop #1
• Julian Richings as Ticket Taker
• Members of Kiss:
  • Paul Stanley as The Starchild
  • Gene Simmons as The Demon
  • Peter Criss as The Cat
  • Ace Frehley as The Spaceman
    • Note: The KISS Tribute band Hotter Than Hell claims on their website to have been personally selected by Gene Simmons to double for KISS - they were used to appear as KISS in technical rehearsals. The real band appears in the film.
• Dave Fessler as man eating Michigan hot dog

DVD

The DVD is on Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4, although the special features differ.

Region 1 special features

• Commentary by Gene Simmons and Director Cole Remple
• Commentary by all four original Kiss members
• Commentary by Adam Rifkin
• Commentary by Cast and crew
• Multi-Angle Views of the Kiss Concert
• An instructional segment featuring a step-by-step guitar lesson by SongXpress on how to play the Kiss song "Rock -N' Roll All Night"
• Over 15 Minutes of Deleted Scenes
• 2 Music Videos "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear & "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
• Original Screen Test Footage
• DVD-ROM Features: Script-to-Scene Access, website access, email-able trading cards featuring characters from the film, M.A.T.M.O.K. (Mothers Against the Music of Kiss) spoof newsletters, updated cast and crew biographies and filmographies, productions notes

Region 2 special features

• Commentary by Gene Simmons and Director Adam Rifkin
• Commentary by all four original Kiss members
• Commentary by Rifkin and the cast and crew
• Cutting Room Floor
• Behind The Scenes
• 2 Music Videos "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear & "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
• Theatrical trailer
• Cast and crew
• Angle shots on Kiss concert only

Region 4 special features

• Commentary by director Adam Rifkin
• Individual commentary by all four original Kiss members conducted in interview form by Director, Adam Rifkin
• Multi-angle views of the Kiss Concert
• Over 15 minutes of deleted scenes
• 2 music videos "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear & "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
• Original screen test footage

KISSology Volume Three

In December 2007, the film was re-released on DVD as an exclusive bonus fifth disc contained within Kissology Volume Three: 1992–2000. This disc was only available with initial pre-orders sold during VH1 Classic's 24 Hours of KISSmas weekend marathon.

Soundtrack

Detroit Rock City Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	August 3, 1999
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	55:48
Label	Mercury

Track listing

1. "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear
2. "Shout It Out Loud" performed by Kiss
3. "Runnin' with the Devil" performed by Van Halen
4. "Cat Scratch Fever" performed by Pantera
5. "Iron Man" performed by Black Sabbath
6. "Highway To Hell" performed by Marilyn Manson
7. "20th Century Boy" performed by Drain
8. "Detroit Rock City" performed by Kiss
9. "Jailbreak" performed by Thin Lizzy
10. "Surrender (Live)" performed by Cheap Trick
11. "Rebel Rebel" performed by David Bowie
12. "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
13. "School Days" performed by The Runaways
14. "Little Willy" performed by Sweet
15. "Nothing Can Keep Me From You" performed by Kiss

The soundtrack album however contains some covers of the original songs, some of which were not in the movie itself. The following originals were played in the movie...

1. "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Thin Lizzy
2. "20th Century Boy" performed by T. Rex
3. "Highway To Hell" performed by AC/DC
4. "Cat Scratch Fever" performed by Ted Nugent
5. "Strutter" performed by Kiss

Other songs performed in the movie but not featured on the soundtrack are:

1. "Come Sail Away" performed by Styx
2. "Frankenstein" performed by The Edgar Winter Group
3. "Fox on The Run" performed by Sweet
4. "Ladies Room" performed by Kiss
5. "Radar Love" performed by Golden Earring
6. "Love Gun" performed by Kiss
7. "Christine Sixteen" performed by Kiss
8. "I Wanna Be Sedated" performed by The Ramones
9. "Shock Me" performed by Kiss
10. "Godzilla" performed by Blue Öyster Cult
11. "Strutter" performed by Kiss
12. "Blitzkrieg Bop" performed by The Ramones
13. "Popcorn" performed by Hot Butter
14. "Beth" performed by Kiss
15. "Love Hurts" performed by Nazareth
16. "I Stole Your Love" performed by Kiss
17. "Cat Scratch Fever" performed by Ted Nugent
18. "Funk No. 49" performed by James Gang
19. "Conjunction Junction" performed by Bob Dorough
20. "Good Old Days" performed by The Beau Hunks
21. "Lights Out" performed by UFO
22. "Making It" performed by David Naughton
23. "Wild and Hot" performed by Angel
24. "Problem Child" performed by AC/DC
25. "Turn to Stone" performed by Electric Light Orchestra
26. "Black Superman (Mohammed Ali)" performed by The Kinshasa Band
27. "Monster Attacks" performed by Hans Salter
28. "Escape" performed by Rupert Holmes
29. "Black Magic Woman" performed by Santana
30. "Every 1's a Winner" performed by Hot Chocolate
31. "Convoy" performed by CW McCall
32. "Boogie Shoes" performed by KC & The Sunshine Band
33. "Fire" performed by Ohio Players
34. "Muskrat Love" performed by Captain & Tennille
35. "Calling Dr. Love" performed by Kiss
36. "Rock Your Baby" performed by George McCrae
37. "Whole Lotta Rosie" performed by AC/DC
38. "Love to Love" performed by UFO

Some songs in the movie were not released until later periods of times, such as David Naughton's "Makin' It" (the disco song the "guidos" and the "stellas" on the highway were listening to) which was released early 1979, and the AC/DC song "Highway To Hell", which was also released in 1979. However, the latter served only as ironic background music and was most likely not intended to be diegetic.

See also

• List of American films of 1999
• Culture of Detroit
• Kiss
• Almost Famous
• Dazed and Confused
• I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Footnotes and references

1. ^ "Detroit Rock City (1999) - Box office / business". The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165710/business. Retrieved 14 November 2009. 
2. ^ "Detroit Rock City (1999) - Filming locations". The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165710/locations. 
3. ^ During the 1978 "Alive II Tour", KISS did not perform at Cobo Hall. They did two shows at Olympia Stadium on January 20 and 21 that year.
4. ^ Stephenson, Cliff (30 November 1999). "Detroit Rock City Review". DVDfile.com. http://www.dvdfile.com/reviews/review/detroit-rock-city-6237. Retrieved 14 November 2009. 

External links

• Detroit Rock City at the Internet Movie Database
• Detroit Rock City at AllRovi
• Detroit Rock City at Rotten Tomatoes
• Detroit Rock City at Metacritic
• Detroit Rock City at Box Office Mojo