Great musicians either flame out or fade away, but remember those are the greats. And for all the greats that climbed to the pinnacle of their field, there were tens of dozens that never even got the chance to warm up in the bullpen and abandoned their ambitions for sombre realities. Well, The Rocker starts out that way, but shows what happens when a delusional drive for success meets luck and opportunity. The Rocker is a movie that’s been done a hundred times over with varying degrees of success, and due to the exuberant performance of Rainn Wilson, it manages to take things to a level above average.

Wilson plays Robert “Fish” Fishman, a modern Pete Best equivalent for the fictional heavy metal group, Vesuvius. When the band is signed in the 1980s, the offer is made with the caveat that Fish be left at the side of the road. So 20 years later, Fish is still fuming and having been once again fired from a dead end job and kicked out of his girlfriend’s apartment, Fish moves in with his sister (Jane Lynch) and her family. His nephew Matt (Josh Gad) is part of a band called A.D.D., and when their drummer can’t make the prom gig due to an unspecified suspension, Matt asks his Uncle Rob to fill the slot on the ticket. But it’s not until an iChat gone wrong, with Fish rehearsing naked, that A.D.D. starts to take off thanks to You Tube infamy.

It’s a pretty standard set-up, I admit, but it works well enough to get the job done. It’s about a small time band that finds fame and success and in the end realizes that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be; except the only thing different with this arc is the pushing-middle-age, burnt-out, former rock star that accidentally finds his wagon hitched to high schoolers. The kids are all serious about their music while Fish is the one that embraces the party hardy side of rock music with property destruction and questionable decision-making. Fortunately, in the midst of a rather staid storyline about making the band, you get the rather funny reversal of the kids taking the music more seriously than the seasoned vet over shameless partying.

But because The Rocker still relies on that “winning” formula, Fish has to grow up eventually, which includes the highly symbolic gesture of getting a haircut. Naturally, Fish forms a bond with bandmate Curtis (Teddy Geiger), the heart and soul of the group, and falls for Curtis’ hot mom played by Christina Applegate. Another obvious addition is Jason Sudeikis as A.D.D.’s overeager manager who calls people “hoss” and says hilariously perplexing things like, “John Lennon just turned over in his grave because he is trying to hide the boner you guys just gave him.” As a whole, it’s all very bland but because of the exuberance of the cast everything somehow manages to click, especially Wilson who dumps all his Dwight Schrute gusto into Fish.

And though you may try and live in the moment, and forgive the places where the story walks over the lines left by rock movies past, one can’t help but feel there isn’t a whole lot extra to The Rocker underneath. Even the heroic final seems somewhat tacked on and obvious, spoiled by the contrivance of things coming out so formulaically. But the laughs and the characters do stick out in my mind more than the fact that the script was written using the numbers system of band movie scripts. The actors are winning and are able to make you laugh on more than one occasion. The film has some great lines, and it’s easy to enjoy without being taxing on your sense of good taste. The Rocker’s not perfect, but it’s not bad.