It's Movie Week: Rockafire Explosion

My father had a restaurant in the eighties that featured white linens, red leather booths, and candlelight. Two doors down, a Showbiz Pizza Place opened. It was a little Disneyland--animatronic animals singing at you while you downed your pepperoni and Coke, played Pac Man and ski-ball, and generally had a good time. While Chuck E. Cheese followed a similar format and survived, Showbiz went the way of legwarmers and Member's Only jackets.


The Rock-afire Explosion Movie Trailer from The Rock-afire Explosion on Vimeo.

But some people never forgot. Rockafire Explosion, named after Showbiz's robot band, is a documentary about Chris Thrash, whose lifelong ambition was to own Billy Bob Brockali, Fatz Geronimo, and Mitzi Mozzarella, to name a few. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, the band has gained a cult following and owners like Thrash have programed their band to perform the hits of today, like Usher's Love in This Club and Madonna's 4 Minutes. The freaky eighties footage of a factory full of dancing metal frames with smiling bear heads reminds me of fellow documentaries King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Let's hope it's as good as both of those films when it comes out this fall.