Last night Manhattan-media wise guy and Forbes/Daily contributor Bill McCuddy “saw what was technically the New York premiere for Rock Of Ages at the Sunshine, and not only did I love it but it played like gangbusters in the room. Some applause breaks after a few numbers. Nice round of applause at the end. Plenty of laughs in the right places all throughout the film.

“Okay, so Julianne Hough was there with her family and director Adam Shankman encouraged hooting and hollering before the screening. But this thing just really works on a ‘campy rock and roll good time’ level. Hough called it a ‘dude-sical’ because men will like it too. I don’t think my poker game will go alone, but any guy going with his wife or girlfriend won’t regret the ride.

“Publicist Peggy Siegal avoided packing the room with stuffed-shirt media types” — McCuddy means guys like me — “and had lots of aging rockers like Mick Jones and younger musical stars like Rob Thomas in the place. Good word of mouth should expand it way beyond the Smash and Glee crowd.”

Choke, gag…the Glee crowd? I’m almost certainly going to loathe this film, body and soul. I’m sorry but I can tell. I’d like to have a good time and I’m glad McCuddy and last night’s crowd enjoyed it, but we all know what it means when the stuffed shirts are kept away. I can smell obviousness and shallowness. I can smell the void.

“And two of the longest french kisses in motion picture history — one of which Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity will look away from — are effing hilarious,” McCuddy continues. “And the Tom Cruise haters can stay home because this is the most fun he’s had since Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder.”

“By the way I’ve just read that the steamy lap dance between Hough and Cruise was taken out because it was too steamy. It was not in the print we saw. I have to say I don’t know how it would have worked in the story because Hough’s character is devoted to her boyfriend at the club and that scene would have played against her loyalty. Didn’t miss it but then again it was a lap dance so of course I missed it.”