tim@unc.UUCP (05/26/83)
Well, the Marvel comic book of the forthcoming Rock and Rule is out. Rock and Rule is an "illustrated rock fantasy". Perhaps the audio- visual effects make the movie worth seeing, but don't buy the comic book, and don't expect a real plot if you see the movie. Rock and Rule features a world populated by mutant humanoid pets (mostly dogs and cats). The civilization level is high enough for electric guitars and incredibly intelligent computers that are waxing poetic one moment and over-literalizing fatally the next. (You know, over-literalizing. Answering questions in a very literal fashion regardless of how users may misuse the answers.) The villain is Mok, a stupid and insulting caricature of Mick Jagger, who I don't like, but who deserves better than this idiocy. The good guys are a group of beginning rock and rollers from Ohmtown, especially a female cat-person called Angel. Hers, it turns out, is the only voice that can summon a big nasty demon for Mok, so he kidnaps her, puts her in bondage, and forces her to sing. A big nasty demon appears and is sent back to the pit by the combined voices of Angel and her boyfriend. The end. This movie features three henchmen of Mok who are turned against him by a Sesame-street type program called "Uncle Mikey". "Hey kids, can you tell `good' from `evil'?" The intellectual level of these henchmen is -- well, let's just say they couldn't do an effective Alan Turing imitation, all right? The whole thing reminded me very much of Scooby Doo, that Saturday morning cartoon of my youth, in that the humor was silly and pointless and the hippies were half-wit rejects from the Hair chorus line. If you read the comic (in the store, please) you'll know what I mean. "Eeeeyipe!" Overall: Unless you hear someone raving about the movie, don't go. Maybe it missed something in the adaptation, but I can't believe that any amount of SFX can save a movie with such poor plot and characters. Tim Maroney