Detroit Rock City

1999 "Kiss The Rules Goodbye."
6.8| 1h35m| R| en| More Info
Released: 13 August 1999 Released
Producted By: New Line Cinema
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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In 1978, a Kiss concert was an epoch-making event. For the three teen fans in Detroit Rock City getting tickets to the sold-out show becomes the focal point of their existence. They'll do anything for tickets -- compete in a strip club's amateur-night contest, take on religious protesters, even rob a convenience store!

Genre

Comedy, Music

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Director

Adam Rifkin

Production Companies

New Line Cinema

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Detroit Rock City Audience Reviews

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!
StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
tequila101 I saw this film last night and I have to say, it is the best comedy I have seen since The Dictator.I love how everything is so simply put together. The story, characters, music score, scenes, actors and humor. It is all put together so well. Edward Furlong and all of the other actors were excellent in their roles.I laughed most of the time when the boys caused accidental trouble on the road or at the concert.There's really not much to say about this film because I love it so much. What I can say is that if you love the actors who portray the four boys, KISS, the plot where they are determined to get into a concert and never give up, and stereotypical kids getting high and drunk, having sex and loving to rock hard to KISS music, this film is definitely for you. I know it was for me! MEGA 10/10 film right here!
dunmore_ego "If you're down in the dumps - and you need sumpin that'll bring ya uuuuup... sumpin that'll bring ya uuuuup?... There's only one thing that's gonna do it for ya..." No, not this movie - go dig out your record player and spin Rock And Roll Over.Appealing to the lowest of brows, the greatest of unwashed, the saltiest of the Earth, DETROIT ROCK CITY is a quaint enough road trip Psycho Circus with a few good gags, poorly executed - yet the whole exercise is about two decades late.Named after a classic KISS song (the marauding opener from 1976's Destroyer), movie follows four shiftless teens in 1978 on their quest across the American heartland to beg, borrow or steal their way into a KISS concert in Detroit.Edward Furlong, Sam Huntington, James DeBello and Giuseppe Andrews are KISS Army members (in a KISS tribute band called Mystery), who are unconvincing as KISS fans let alone as rockers, Huntington and Furlong the only ones casually nearing the condition of "acting." They have four tickets that Huntington's Jesus freak mother burns, leaving them desperate, yet intent on making the concert.If you had Great Expectations for the film (co-produced by Gene Simmons and "authorized by KISS" - meaning authorized by Simmons and Stanley), then Love 'Em and Leave 'Em. Director Adam Rifkin seems able to construct good visual sequences, but doesn't go All The Way, opting for prosaic slapstick in place of comedy. Sounds like a case of... "rock and roll pneumonia! We're gonna have to call out... the Doctor." The opening sequence is promising, as Rifkin gives us a montage of '70's iconography that places KISS in perspective with the times. It's powerful, it's heady, it's nostalgic - and ultimately the best part of the movie, which then goes downhill like a Baby Driver.The first KISS song we hear is the first cut of 1977's Love Gun, the frenetic I Stole Your Love, a few moments later, the first song on Side Two, the title track, over the montage.How do I know all this? Full disclosure: didn't go near Google for this info; a deep, abiding knowledge of all things KISS since they decorated my bedroom walls and ceiling. But I never did scrounge up the incentive to send away for the membership paraphernalia because, as Gene's own philosophy about marriage sagely advises, if I really loved them, I didn't need a piece of paper or a jacket back-patch to Shout It Out Loud that I did.But enough about my laundry.Soundtrack is righteous '70's rock - UFO, Nugent, T-Rex, KISS, AC/DC, Bowie, Sweet, Ramones - which gives a false impression of the film's quality, because though you feel that surge of bounteous rock stardom when you hear Lizzy's Breakout or Cheap Trick's Surrender, you're still watching THIS film.Paul Stanley: "To call it a KISS movie does it a disservice, because it does a disservice to the KISS fans, which is what it's really about." KISS don't appear in the film until the final few minutes - and then in an annoying composite of the renowned KISS stage antics (blood, smoking guitars, fire-breathing) within one song performance, Detroit Rock City, apparently the one and only song they're going to perform tonight, as they do their closing shtick after this song - drums rise, smash guitars, etc.The most bemusing factor of this 1999 incarnation of the band is that (except for Frehley) they look exactly like their 1978 Hooligan selves. And they've dressed the stage show in '78 lighted-stairs period, which gives us that nostalgic twitch. That's The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes (there's a deep cut for you, fans!). We just grimace at the way director Rifkin handles the concert.I can't quite figure who this movie is aimed at. Actual fans would be turned off by the wholly unconvincing performances and naïveté of the filmmakers (film hits Rock Bottom when one of the guys sneaks in backstage by carrying a kick drum with a KISS logo amongst a group of roadies - I can't even begin to deconstruct the stupidity of this scene). Fence-sitting fans are not shown enough KISS to be convinced, just pummeled with the fanaticism of the fans (who all seem to be rednecks). On YouTube, it seems this movie's fan base are those who profess to be "not into KISS, but like the movie anyway." There are chicks named Beth and Christine, which would mean something to even the most peripheral were-kisser. And Shannon Tweed (Playmate of the Year 1982, and Gene's squeeze) makes a cameo as a MILF hot for guys who've been pursued by Terminators and brought their pets back to life."Well, aw yeah! We're gonna have to call out... the Firehouse!"
kirk-246 If ever there was a movie that involves a certain rock band that I like and 4 teenagers who are willing to do anything to get to the concert of their lives, 'Detroit Rock City' would be it.It is a movie that knows how to turn rock n'roll into an hour and a half of entertainment that you possibly can't miss.Let me ask you a question: Just how far would you go just to go to a concert that you think is the most important thing that can ever happen? Would you put shrooms in a priest's pizza just to break your friend out of a Christain school? Would you beat up a little kid for his tickets for the concert that you really wanted to go to? I didn't think so.The fact that the main characters in this movie do these exact things makes 'Detroit Rock City' a really fun surprise.This movie will pull the trigger on your.....Love Gun!
SHB_73 Detroit Rock City is a fun adventure comedy that tells the story of 4 friends who will stop at nothing to get into a KISS concert. Trip, Lex, Hawk, and Jam are ready to take a trip to the concert in Detroit, but Jam's fanatically religious and chain-smoking mother (Lin Shaye in an incredible performance) discovers the tickets and burns them in front of him. Undeterred, the boys still travel to Detroit running into trouble along the way and doing whatever it takes to get tickets, from stripping to attempted mugging and so forth. Do the boys get into the concert? You'll have to see the movie to find out. Detroit Rock City is a fun movie and you don't have to be a KISS fan to enjoy it. Lets Rock!!