Star flounders as Fish in 'Rocker'

Marlon Brando's famous line "I could have been a contender" isn't cited anywhere in

The Rocker

, but its sentiment - rueful and profound - is all over this rock-and-roll comedy about second chances.

OK, maybe not all over, but stuck to it here and there like a piece of gum on the underside of a chair.

A slight, silly comedy in the vein of Jack Black's School of Rock (but for the earlier film, Black might have been in this), The Rocker stars Rainn Wilson as Robert "Fish" Fishman, a total loser from Cleveland. Well, he's a loser now, but 20 years ago, when he was the drummer of the up-and-coming power band Vesuvius (big hair, tight pants, inane lyrics), Fish and buddies were on their way. Clubs, groupies and the promise of a record deal.

Just one problem: The record company wanted the band to jettison its drummer. Well, two problems: The record company said get rid of Fish, and his bandmates did. Outta here - and Vesuvius goes on to become as big as Black Sabbath.

And Fish goes on to a life of middle-aged gloom and regret.

Redemption, in The Rocker, comes in the form of Fish's nephew, a dweeby high schooler by the name of Matt (Josh Gad). His band, A.D.D., is playing the prom, but its drummer has been grounded. Would Uncle Fish care to take his place?

And so, reluctantly, he does. And then a rehearsal video gets posted on YouTube, and the band with the "Naked Drummer" - yep, that would be Fish - becomes an Internet hit.

Written by Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, and directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), The Rocker can be amusingly dopey, with its Spinal Tap-ish lampooning of rock idioms - and idiots. And the generation gap between Fish and his bandmates (nephew Matt; a sensitive emo guy played by Teddy Geiger; and the ironic post-punkette played by Emma Stone) makes for a few smarty-pants jokes.

But while Wilson mugs and broods, purses his lips and puffs his chest, the character actor - the strange Dwight Schrute of TV's The Office, the even stranger Arthur on HBO's Six Feet Under - doesn't have the heft to carry an entire film. Jack Black's fearless, foolish ferocity is missing.

With a flimsy kind of romance going on between Fish and an A.D.D. kid's mom (Christina Applegate), the film takes to the tour bus for the band's inaugural road trip, and for an inevitable crossing-of-the-paths with Fish's ex-mates in the still mega-huge Vesuvius.

The Rocker makes use of Cleveland's landmark Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Pete Best, the real-life drummer who was kicked out of a band just before it broke big - an outfit called the Beatles - makes a cameo as himself. Which can be interpreted as ironic, or pathetic, depending on your mood.