KISS isn't known to be the most giving band in the world. Sure, you get your money's worth, but don't expect anything more or something like a free autograph or a "hi, how are u doing" from the last remaining original members without taking out your wallet first. That seems particularly true these days, where the band still produces tours and albums on the sole premise that most fans are completists, who cannot suffer holes in their collections. So, "Detroit Rock City" was one of the last few cases where the fan had the feeling that this was produced by band & fans for fans and not only for cash.Sure, I had rooted for this film when it came out and sure, as a kid I had my room plastered with KISS-posters, wore KISS-Make-Up during Halloween and religiously bought most things that bore the distinct logo (despite the design being altered in Germany, because it resembled the SS-Runes a little too close, suggesting that Mr. Chaim Wietz and Mr. Stanley Eisen were Nazis). Got my dad to smuggle me into "Runaway", despite being a few years short of admission (and I didn't want to go see this film because I'm fond of Tom Selleck). Thinking of it, my parents probably bought Gene Simmons a new Cadillac, despite nowadays I'd hope that this money went into the pockets of either Ace Frehley or Peter Criss.By the time "Detroit Rock City" hit the cinema, it had pretty much been clear to even the hardened fan, that 90 percent apart from the music was hype and that the two founding members had begun to view their band more of a cash-milking-cow rather than a vehicle to transport good music. But why drop a lifelong habit? Like Richard Linklaters "Dazed and Confused", Adam Rifkin was able to capture the feel and air of the time "When KISS ruled the world", which is only one aspect that makes the film work. Though by the time I was old enough to get into the concerts KISS had already taken off their iconic make-up, one could really get a feel of what the great KISSteria must have been like. Then there is the humour: I'm not easily moved to laugh tears at slapstick, but I have to admit that a heartily laughed more than once. The priest and the mushroom-pizza, the clash between KISS-Fans and Disco-Guidos or the Hawk stripping for cash, it all made me crack up. As a bonus, there are plenty of KISS Insider-jokes, from the names of the protagonists to the dialogue; it should be abundantly clear: Adam Rifkin knows his KISS.When talking to the fans, the issue of a sequel would invariably come up. Despite still being a fan-boy deep inside, rationality keeps saying that this just wouldn't work – as little as KISS worked after 1982. What would people like to see? Our four protagonists being in college and moaning the fact that KISS has degenerated into a run-of-the-mill Glam band during the 80's? Having settled down to a blue-collar-existence and taking their kids to see the KISS-reunion in the 90's or having to witness the gold-digging sham that KISS has degenerated to in recent years? No, it's good that "Detroit Rock City" is (and will likely remain) a one-time-thing – could be a lesson there for Simmons and Stanley.7/10

I wrote this with the least amount of spoilers possible.This movie is one of the funniest I've seen and breaks most of the clichés in this type of films. The story is about 4 friends who have a tribute band of KISS and the tickets to the best show in their young lives: Detroit Rock City. But the main villain, the mother of the drummer burns the precious tickets and the guys have their world destroyed. Every time they have an opportunity to get the tickets something goes wrong and everything in this movie gets wrong for the guys. In the final act of the movie the guys are desperate for the tickets and they have one epic showdown to get them. IThe music is great, the jokes and scenes are hilarious and the conflicts gives you the chills (If you're a fan of KISS).This one's a must see for Rock fans and those who like films like Bill & Ted or Superbad.

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!

To really like this I need to work at it. The walls of the girls' Jericho did not fall until the third session of filming that particular scene, some things take work. There are also two rather special historic commentaries on my DVD and I assume that proper late 70's rock fans are likely to know of those. This is from a time that was not too good from my view, personal disaster, but there was some good rock and roll on the radio. Buying a few, very few, LPs, USA speak albums?, KISS was there. Not the best but among those that stood out as among the best. The classical music that stood out for me included Carmina Burana and I would have interpreted its influence on me in a different way to how this feature uses that piece, for me I was more waving a red rag at bulls that did not appear to be bulls. There is a lot of violence in this story, but other facets too. Round our way most seemed to use more subtle forms of violence on big babies but this does give some variations of that, sort of. I found it easy to get ground down, those years. Some get trouble from all sides. * The commentaries point to KISS having been targeted by some fundamentalist Christians who considered the band to be agents of the devil, their music something that these fun C felt a need to attack. My difficulty is with how the feature interprets that. The feature shows Catholic mothers and priests as agents of the anti KISS. They are very much in parody form. As an ex Catholic I do find the expression to be not in tune with the wide variety in that church. The bits with priests are mostly too way out for me to be able to take, I need to jump over those. The exception as the bit where Beth notices her love going into the church. Inside the church a problem, despite Beth's acting. There are several features where I would really need a personalised copy and this is one of them. I need deletions. The Catholic mothers, particularly the mum of Jeremiah, a different thing. First time round that felt way too bad but that reaction soon calmed. More viewings also allowed me to notice how her idea of child care appeared to be influenced by ways of dealing with a pet dog. Not a warm sort of way as with Hermione and her Crookshanks, more a Ron with Pig as shown in the novels. Pig expected to do things on a Must Do basis, otherwise no love. This is parody, but it could be noticing something rather relevant in some of the fundamentalist Christian worlds. I find that it is there in other worlds too but maybe one only notices if one is a big baby. I would expect Harry and Ron to not survive well in the modern world and JK Rowling and Warner do have ways of saying that. The ending of HP7 novel is very modern speak. So, some fundamentalists attack and this feature shows a response by the Rockies, them attacking back, but doing that in an upside down way. By going with the flow of trying to sound evil? By these four fans waving goodbye to most any sort of sense? The world moves away from fundamentalist understandings about such as the ten commandments and this shows everyone diving into disease as the alternative way? So, this is just a feature, one that took me some getting used to. It is not about reality in the fullest sense? Could be that in any type of fundamentalist belief there is a failure mode of there being no leeway. Believe, no other option, no freedom to think. If one feels a longing to drop out there can be no good way to do so. Most characters in this story remind me of that sort of thing. There will be different interpretations, though. * This feature has lots of good music on the soundtrack. I play it because of that. Just I do experience a problem with the foreground, most scenes that include priests, and deletions are the only solution that would be liable to work for me. This is a story about the walking dead, KISS as a setting for that.