STARRING
Adam Ant, Deborah Harry, Ian Maynard, Chelsey Parks
DIRECTED BY
Adam Dubin
SCREENPLAY
Adam Dubin, Ric Menello
MPAA RATING
NR
RUNNING TIME
93 Mins.
DISTRIBUTED BY
MVD Visual (DVD)
DVD EXTRAS
"Vegas Honeymoon" Music Video, The Stoned
"Inseminator" Music Video, Warrior Soul
"Making of" Featurette w/Adam Dubin & Ric Menello
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"Drop Dead Rock" Review
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"Drop Dead Rock," a campy little music flick starring Adam Ant and Deborah Harry being given new life by the quirky but wonderful folks at MVD Entertainment Group, is a 1970's film actually created in 1996.
Filled with goofy charm, little logic and all the sensibility of a film like "Rock n' Roll High School," "Drop Dead Rock" is about a down-and-out rock n' roll band, Hindenburg, and their plot to kidnap their musical idol, Spazz-O (Ian Maynard), so that he will have to listen to their demo tape.
Sound Silly? Oh, it is.
Sound stupid? Well, yeah, it is.
There's nothing even remotely brilliant about what's going on in "Drop Dead Rock," but director Adam Dubin, who directed "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" and "No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn" for the Beastie Boys, somehow manages to turn it all into a surprisingly fun, energetic and goofily charming little movie.
About the time that Hindenburg plots to kidnap Spazz-O, Spazz-O's manager (rocker Adam Ant) and wife (Playboy lingerie model Chelsey Parks) hatch their own plot to off the rocker with a 'tude and run off together with the insurance money...that is until a media mogul named Thor (Blondie's Deborah Harry) offers Spazz-O a huge advance that suddenly makes the rocker worth more alive than dead once again.
Are you following all this?
It doesn't really matter, because watching "Drop Dead Rock" is much more about watching for the celebrity cameos that flash before your eyes including appearances by Rick Allen of Def Leppard, Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, Tom Araya of Slayer and none other than Joey Ramone himself.
"Drop Dead Rock" features music by Space Age Playboys, Warrior Soul, The Stoned, Bracket, L.E.S. Stitches, Suburban Sect and other hardcore bands that will leave your toes tappin' even when the story itself begins to get a bit, well, ludicrous.
While neither Ant nor Harry are likely to ever find themselves picking up a golden statuette, their comfortable, light presence here makes "Drop Dead Rock" a heck of a lot more fun than one might think it would be. Goofy and light and filled to the brim with kick ass tunes, "Drop Dead Rock" is one of those novelty flicks that is actually worth checking out. Fans of Adam Ant and Deborah Harry should consider this a must see, and diehard fans of glam rock will find much to like here.
© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
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