Detroit Rock City

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Detroit Rock City
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam Rifkin
Produced by	Barry Levine Gene Simmons
Written by	Carl V. Dupré
Starring	Edward Furlong Sam Huntington Giuseppe Andrews James DeBello Lin Shaye Melanie Lynskey Natasha Lyonne and featuring Kiss as themselves
Music by	J. Peter Robinson Kiss Thin Lizzy Van Halen Black Sabbath Pantera Cheap Trick AC/DC
Cinematography	John R. Leonetti
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt Peter Schink
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	August 13, 1999
Running time	95 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000
Gross revenue	$2,005,512

Detroit Rock City is a 1999 cult film about four teenagers in a Kiss cover band who try to see their idols in Detroit in 1978. It takes its title from the Kiss song of the same name. The movie bombed at the box office, grossing fewer than five million dollars domestically, and it disappeared from theaters somewhat a month and a half after its release. It has since become a cult classic for Kiss fans, rock music fans and metalheads in general. The movie was originally to be called The Kiss Movie. It has been often compared to the 1993 film Dazed and Confused.

The film was shot at Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, and other Ontario locations.^[1]

Plot

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The movie starts in Cleveland, Ohio 1978 Mrs. Bruce (Lin Shaye) is relaxing at home when she plays a LP record but it turns out to be a Kiss record. While reading a book and sipping on red wine "I Stole your Love" blares loudly. Managing to stop the record Mrs. Bruce shakes the cabinet making every glass fall as well as making the needle skip to the end, then looking at the record & exclaims... (Kiss! The Devils Music).

Three blocks away in a basement, four teenagers are playing "Rock n' Roll all Night Long". Hawk, Lex, Trip, and Jam are four rebellious teenagers whom emulate Kiss live in concert. Jam's ultra-conservative mother, races up to the home and drags Jam to the car yelling at him stating that KISS stands for "Knights In Satan's Service."

The three remaining boys discover that their KISS concert tickets are missing in the morning figuring that Trip's jacket got swapped with Jam's. Hawk calls Jam to tell him to have them with him when he comes to school. They head off to school and Jam's mom does not allow him to take his normal clothes and forces him to wear what she bought him. The trio sees Jam arrive in some outlandish throw back to the "Brady Bunch". Unfortunately Jam could not get his hands on the concert tickets but Hawk assures them that they will leave early, get the tickets and take the train to the concert later that night. All of them head in to their respective classes. Jam is in a silent study hall. While in the silent study he has an awkward moment with a fellow student named Beth who seems to be very interested in Jam. She is trying to tell something important and then the P.A. system comes alive with the principal requesting Jam to come down to the office. Then Mrs. Bruce jumps in and demands as his mother he come down to the office because he "spent her hard earned money on Kiss tickets". He leaves with everyone laughing at him. He arrives and is made to sit while he watches in silence as Jam's mom lights the tickets on fire and uses them to light her cigarette. With the other three watching in the distance watching in horror as their concert experience to be shattered.

Beth gives a worried look while Mrs. Bruce rips Jam out of school and speeds off. This leaves the remaining boys in a state of shock but are shortly brought out of it by the schools security guard that looks like an older greaser nicknamed "Elvis" threatening to give all of them detention. They quickly run off in a montage of evading and eventual escape. Jam's mom then places Jam in a Catholic boarding school upstate that same day.

While in workshop three remaining boys hear a radio contest for KISS concert tickets at Cobo hall that night. Forming a plan they get Trip out of class, so he can call a contest line. He wins the tickets, and then they ditch school to bust Jam out of the Catholic school again evading Elvis. Lex manages to take his mother's Volvo while she is away at a conference so they can drive up to the boarding school. Jam's mom leaves him to head master and he quickly realizes that he is very strict. The trio arrives but doesn't have a plan to actually get him out but then as by chance a pizza delivery guy shows up and they were able to borrow his hat, jacket, and said pizza. Hawk delivers the pizza acting like he doesn't know Jam, the priest doesn't share and then it is revealed that the pizza is spiked with hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms and the father is too high to notice that Jam is gone.

With the band reunited they head to Cobo Hall in the Volvo eating the remaining unspiked pizza. On the two-lane freeway a Solar Gold 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am) is riding their bumper. Trip drops some pizza on his lap and Lex demands he get rid of it, Trip then throws the slice of pizza out of the window. It hits the windshield of the car Trans-Am carrying some disco-loving "guidos" and their "stellas". The Trans Am regains control and then pulls beside the Volvo demanding that they pull over and begin to ram the boys. Pulling in front and stopping them, pulls out Hawk and rubs his face in the pizza on the windshield upsetting one of the Stellas and she leave, walking down the freeway.

Discovering that they listen KISS, the Guido rips a 8-track of the Kiss album Love Gun and tosses it into the way of an oncoming truck, smashing it. After a quick discussion Hawk knocks the guy to the ground (by kneeing him in the groin and then the face). The other Guido guy tries to negotiate a compromise, but they beat him down and leave the car that the guides were driving in a ditch. The Guides and remaining Stella awake from a daze and find that they are chained to a guard rail, and their faces are painted to look like Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. Christine, one of the steles who walked away from the fight between Hawk and the Guido, is walking down the road and the boys decide to give her a ride. While in the car, she and Hawk have an argument. After they stop fighting, Trip lights up a joint and passes it to Christine, who later passes out and is left in the car when they reach Detroit. the freeway.

When they get to Detroit, they find out that Trip did not stay on the phone long enough to give the radio station his information, forcing the station to give the tickets to the next caller. Hawk breaks down in the elevator and attacks Trip. When coming back outside Lex notices that the car has been stolen, and they suspect Christine, who they left in the car. Hawk states that the boys go their separate ways in order to find Kiss tickets, and agree to meet in the same place later.

Lex sneaks into backstage area with the loading crew to help set up the concert, but is soon discovered and found running away from hall security and manages to get where the band's trailer is located but is caught and tossed over a fence. A group of junkyard dogs almost attack him when he finds a Frisbee to throw. In a nearby building he finds Christine and his car in a chop shop, using his newly befriended dogs, chases the thugs into a back room, saving Christine and his mom's car. Meanwhile, Hawk (whom suffered from severe stage fright) can buy scalped tickets if he can get the money and winds up dancing at a strip club to win the money for the tickets and meeting a MILF who is played by Shannon Tweed. Trip goes into a gas station to find a small kid to mug for his tickets and is confronted by the boy's older brother. Trip tries to pay them so they don't mug him, but they take his wallet and threaten him to come up with more. Trip decides to rob the store to get the money to pay the kid, but another man beats him to it. Trip manages to get the robber on the floor and saves the store. Even though he had the money his is again assaulted and robbed.

Jam's mother finds him walking in front of her anti-Kiss rally, and drags him to a church across the street. Beth is sitting at dinner with her parents and sees Jam being pulled into church and follows him. They confess their feelings for each other (which they could never get the courage up to act on in school, and Beth is now moving away), and lose their virginity in the confessional booth. They share one last kiss, and Jam goes back to the rally, determined this time to take a stand.

Jam finally stands up for himself against his mother for her controlling and domineering ways by yelling at her before the assembled crowd, telling her that forcing religion and morality down his throat are the reasons that he has been rebelling lately and demands his drumsticks be given to him, only to get one of them back (the other one being broken in half, most definitely by his mother in protest). As Jam walks away with his remaining drumstick, his mother watches him with pride and a smile eventually stating that "They grow up fast, don't they?".

When the boys meet up again, none of them have had any luck getting tickets, so in a last-ditch effort, Jam decides that they should beat each other up and say that muggers took their tickets. They do so, and upon arrival at the concert, they tell the guards that they were mugged by four people. The guards don't believe them, so Trip points out to the guards the thugs from the store, who are just entering the concert hall. The guard finds Trip's wallet (with his Kiss Army picture ID) in one of the guy's pockets, and hands him the tickets, ejecting the others outside. In the concert, Gene Simmons blows fire and spits blood, Paul Stanley sings his heart out and smashes his guitar, Ace Frehley's guitar smokes and Peter Criss throws his drumstick into the crowd; Jam, jumping up, catches it, making up for the one that his mother broke. The song KISS plays is the title song of the movie, "Detroit Rock City".

Cast

• Edward Furlong as Hawk
• Sam Huntington as Jeremiah 'Jam' Bruce
• Giuseppe Andrews as Lex
• James DeBello as Trip Verudie
• Lin Shaye as Mrs. Bruce
• Melanie Lynskey as Beth Bumstein
• Natasha Lyonne as Christine
• Miles Dougal as Elvis The School Hall Monitor
• Nick Scotti as Kenny
• Emmanuelle Chriqui as Barbara
• David Quane as Bobby
• Rodger Barton as Mr. Stewart Bumstein
• Kathryn Haggis as Mrs. Stewart Bumstein
• David Gardner as Detroit Priest
• Shannon Tweed as Amanda Finch
• Ron Jeremy as Strip Club MC
• Kevin Corrigan as chop shop mechanic
• Members of Kiss:
  • Gene Simmons as The Demon
  • Ace Frehley as The Spaceman
  • Peter Criss as The Catman
  • Paul Stanley as The Starchild
    • Note: The KISS Tribute band Hotter Than Hell claims on their website to have been personally selected by Gene Simmons to double for KISS - they were used to appear as KISS in technical rehearsals. The real band appears in the film.

DVD

The DVD is on Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4, although the special features differ.

Region 1 Special Features

• Commentary by Gene Simmons and Director Adam Rifkin
• Commentary by all four original Kiss members
• Commentary by Rifkin and the cast and crew
• Multi-Angle Views of the Kiss Concert
• An instructional segment featuring a step-by-step guitar lesson by SongXpress on how to play the Kiss song "Rock -N' Roll All Night"
• Over 15 Minutes of Deleted Scenes
• 2 Music Videos "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear & "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
• Original Screen Test Footage
• DVD-ROM Features: Script-to-Scene Access, website access, email-able trading cards featuring characters from the film, M.A.T.M.O.K. (Mothers Against the Music of Kiss) spoof newsletters, updated cast and crew biographies and filmographies, productions notes

Region 2 Special Features

• Commentary by Gene Simmons and Director Adam Rifkin
• Commentary by all four original Kiss members
• Commentary by Rifkin and the cast and crew
• Cutting Room Floor
• Behind The Scenes
• 2 Music Videos "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear & "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
• Theatrical trailer
• Cast and crew
• Angle shots on Kiss concert only

Region 4 Special Features

• Commentary by Director Adam Rifkin
• Individual commentary by all four original Kiss members conducted in interview form by Director, Adam Rifkin
• Multi-Angle Views of the Kiss Concert
• Over 15 Minutes of Deleted Scenes
• 2 Music Videos "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear & "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
• Original Screen Test Footage

KISSology Volume Three

In December 2007, the film was re-released on DVD as an exclusive bonus fifth disc contained within Kissology Volume Three: 1992–2000. This disc was only available with initial pre-orders sold during VH1 Classic's 24 Hours of KISSmas weekend marathon.

Factual inaccuracies

Some songs in the movie were not released until later periods of times, such as David Naughton's "Makin' It" (the disco song the "guidos" and the "stellas" on the highway were listening to) which was released early 1979, and the AC/DC song "Highway To Hell", which was also released in 1979. However, the latter served only as ironic background music and was most likely not intended to be diegetic. Another inaccuracy was that when on the phone with the radio station to win the kiss tickets, trip says gene simmons original name was gene klien but it was actually chaim witz he changed it to gene klien much later and then to gene simmons.

During the 1978 "Alive II Tour", KISS didn't perform at Cobo Hall. They did two shows at Olympia Stadium on January 20 and 21 that year.

Soundtrack

Front Cover

Track listing

1. "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Everclear
2. "Shout It Out Loud" performed by Kiss
3. "Runnin' With The Devil" performed by Van Halen
4. "Cat Scratch Fever" performed by Pantera
5. "Iron Man" performed by Black Sabbath
6. "Highway To Hell" performed by Marilyn Manson
7. "20th Century Boy" performed by Drain STH
8. "Detroit Rock City" performed by Kiss
9. "Jailbreak" performed by Thin Lizzy
10. "Surrender (Live)" performed by Cheap Trick
11. "Rebel Rebel" performed by David Bowie
12. "Strutter" performed by The Donnas
13. "School Days" performed by The Runaways
14. "Little Willy" performed by Sweet
15. "Nothing Can Keep Me From You" performed by Kiss

The soundtrack album however contains some covers of the original songs, some of which were not in the movie itself. The following originals were played in the movie...

1. "The Boys Are Back in Town" performed by Thin Lizzy
2. "20th Century Boy" performed by T. Rex
3. "Highway To Hell" performed by AC/DC
4. "Cat Scratch Fever" performed by Ted Nugent
5. "Strutter" performed by Kiss

Other songs performed in the movie but not featured on the soundtrack are:

1. "Come Sail Away" performed by Styx
2. "Frankenstein" performed by The Edgar Winter Group
3. "Fox On The Run" performed by Sweet
4. "Ladies Room" performed by Kiss
5. "Radar Love" performed by Golden Earring
6. "Love Gun" performed by Kiss
7. "Christine Sixteen" performed by Kiss
8. "I Wanna Be Sedated" performed by The Ramones
9. "Shock Me" performed by Kiss
10. "Godzilla" performed by Blue Öyster Cult
11. "Strutter" performed by Kiss
12. "Blitzkrieg Bop" performed by The Ramones
13. "Popcorn" performed by Hot Butter
14. "Beth" performed by Kiss
15. "Love Hurts" performed by Nazareth
16. "I Stole Your Love" performed by Kiss
17. "Cat Scratch Fever" performed by Ted Nugent
18. "Funk No. 49" performed by James Gang
19. "Conjunction Junction" performed by Bob Dorough
20. "Good Old Days" performed by The Beau Hunks
21. "Lights Out" performed by UFO
22. "Making It" performed by David Naughton
23. "Wild and Hot" performed by Angel
24. "Problem Child" performed by AC/DC
25. "Turn to Stone" performed by Electric Light Orchestra
26. "Black Superman (Mohammed Ali)" performed by The Kinshasa Band
27. "Monster Attacks" performed by Hans Salter
28. "Escape" performed by Rupert Holmes
29. "Black Magic Woman" performed by Santana
30. "Every 1's a Winner" performed by Hot Chocolate
31. "Convoy" performed by CW McCall
32. "Boogie Shoes" performed by KC & The Sunshine Band
33. "Fire" performed by Ohio Players
34. "Muskrat Love" performed by Captain & Tennille
35. "Calling Dr. Love" performed by Kiss
36. "Rock Your Baby" performed by George McCrae
37. "Whole Lotta Rosie" performed by AC/DC
38. "Love to Love" performed by UFO

See also

• List of American films of 1999
• Culture of Detroit
• Kiss
• Almost Famous
• Dazed and Confused
• I Wanna Hold Your Hand

References

External links

• Detroit Rock City at the Internet Movie Database
• Detroit Rock City at Allmovie