College Rock Stars

This high school musical movie actually contains one of HSM's stars, Vanessa Hudgens, plus Lisa Kudrow as the single mother of the protag, Will Burton (Gaelen Connell), who is delighted when his mom finds a way to take them to live in a new place, Lodi, New Jersey. He was more then ready for a change. In one of the chatty emails to David Bowie that provide the narration, he calls his old high school "Guantanamo with lunch breaks." What happens at the new school? Will gets lucky. Real lucky. He gets paired off with Vanessa Hudgens in a class, and they become a couple. A former Alpha Female called Charlotte (junior prom queen, head cheerleader), played by Alyson Michalka, finds out Will has an encyclopedic musical knowledge and recruits him to meld her garage band into one that can beat the high school's reigning Glory Dogs and win the tri-state (NY, NY, CN) "bandslam." One obvious motive is that she wants to beat the Glory Dogs to trounce its lead singer, Ben Wheatly (Scott Porter), because he is her snotty former boyfriend. Aside from Ben, a generic model of testosterone overconfidence, Graff (mostly) steers clear of high school stereotypes.

This sets up a trajectory for the film that's like an older kids' version of Richard Linklater's 'School of Rock,' but Gaelen Connell is no Jack Black and the pathway to the big event isn't as cute -- or as climactic. That was one of Black's triumphs, but on the other hand Connell himself is way cuter than Jack Black, whose closest lookalike is the base guitarist, a Flea imitator who calls himself Bug (Charlie Saxton). Resembling young Tom Hanks or maybe John Cusack, with a weak chin, a sweet little smile, a mini Afro and a wrinkled brow, you can almost believe Connell's Will might actually be in the constant company of the school's hottest chicks. Not quite. He's not as articulate and soulful as Cusack, and not as edgey and dark as Christian Slater was in 'Heathers' or 'Pump Up the Volume.' But then Hudgens isn't the shiny, prefab girlfriend of Zac Efron this time. Au contraire. She gets to be the dark one. She calls herself Sa5m ("the 5 is silent"), wears dark clothes, and she reads all the time, even when Will's trying to kiss her.

When you think of Eighties youth classics like those two Slater was in, Bandslam looks generic. We'll just never relive that great Eighties youth movie moment or see the likes of the late, great John Hughes again. But when you compare Bandslam to 'High School Musical,' you realize this is not the kind of movie that you pan. It deserves encouragement. The screenplay by Graff and Josh A. Cagan is packed with inessential cuteness and never takes its dark moments seriously enough -- even though it pushes them too hard. The music Will leads the band into is bland -- and loud. There's none of the joy in rock frenzy that Jack Black comically evokes. Maybe Wil's expertise -- his celebratory (and still pretty touching) visit to the ruins of CGMG, where punk began -- may seem more a reflection of the 50ish director than a teenager. But none of that matters enough to maul this movie, unless you're desperate to show how musically hip you are. The cast is just too appealing and the action is just too much fun to write them off.

When Will reshapes the band by adding brass and an Asian girl classical keyboardist (Lisa Chung) and an elphin-spouting nerdy girl cellist (Elvy Yost) and a boy drummer called Basher (Ryan Donowho) whose majors are machine shop and anger management, if feels like he's bringing something to life (however silly the music), and Jack Black was just a puppet master. It's also good that Kudrow really seems like a single mom trying not to get too much in the way of her son's new life but still protective and sometimes forgetting herself and making him a friend, or as he says "doing that thing of talking to me like I'm Oprah." Sometimes Todd Graff's perky cuteness seems pretty real. Connell has been compared to a Michael Cera "without the sweetness." "Thank you Shia LaBeouf and Michael Cera" is something Connell has actually said, "for paving the way for someone like me to be the leading guy in a movie." But Connell is Connell. LaBeouf would be a lead weight here, and Cera would swamp the movie with his indie quirkiness. The best thing about Connell is he's not a scene stealer: he's a catalyst. He makes this movie built around him an ensemble picture, and everybody looks pretty good.

Bandslam, in spite of the irritating Lisa Kudrow's character(who screams throughout with no reason), is a pure gem of the youth films. Great actors, great director and good story. Music-superb.Melodic rock is back, surviving (c)rap garbage taking the radio and mind-waves all over. Bandslam is simply an irresistible film which must be seen at any cost to be charges with the emotions and urban agenda gone long ago, so we all thought. DVD. Video.If you haven't seen it yet, rush to your closest DVD rental and you will experience two finest hours of high-end entertainment. Some tears too. David Bowie, eventually, does have an artistic touch himself, even when selecting of the feature films he will appear in. All compliments to the crew!!! Above and down the line! 'Dear David,...'

It's a shame this movie didn't have the hype it so rightfully deserves. It's a great teen movie with a real storyline not an unrealistic, sugar coded, made up tale. It depicts real situations. Teens do go thru all these heartaches, disappointments and hardships. It's worth to go see it. It has absolutely nothing inappropriate. It's clean and again, great. Vanesssa Hudgens and Aly Michalka are great in it. Gaelan Connell in a very natural and sincere actor. These are all very talented actors and shouldn't be type-casted. You see genuine acting with a lot of heart. The musicians were incredibly good. Better than a lot of famous bands out there. Very entertaining and funny at times. It deserved much more than it got, not to mention that theaters only gave this movie, (at least here in Georgia), two viewings on weekends maximum and where I actually live only one at 9:35 PM in it's first week. They give awful movies more than that, but a clean movie like this one, nothing. I truly recommend this movie to every parent and teen, especially if they like music and I guarantee you, you'll be very surprised. This isn't just another teen movie, it's pure gold.

This is not a real review, it should be taken more as a collection of impressions on the film.

Very classic film for kids with the usual band of losers who have to put on a big show, and up to this point this is a very normal film of very normal sufficiency but this film has a little something that raises it slightly making it worthy of something more than six and this thing is an unusual depth with which the film is approached especially in the first part even if this depth is then lost a little becoming strangely hasty as if it had to end quickly due to lack of time. So the film deserves a seven because it is a little deep as well as being a good film for teenagers.

The premise of this movie is not extraordinary. I say it's pretty common.

The ingredients are: (1) a boy (of the unpopular type) who has a charisma (understands music, although he doesn't seem to play an instrument) moves to a new town because his mom got a new job (2) a single mom (of the teenage boy) (3) a girl (of the cheerleader type) who likes boy 1 (4) another boy (of the popular type this time) who use to be the boyfriend of popular girl 3 and learns to hate boy 1 (5) A public contest of some sort...

...(wait this is exactly like the ingredients of ...The Karate Kid!)...except for Mr. Miyagi! ...

and (6) Vanessa Hudgens playing a good girl (!) of the lonely type who also happens to like boy 1.

Anyway. This doesn't look or feels nothing like The Karate Kid despite my comparison! It's basically a teen dramedy. Young hopes. Young love. Friendship.

It's enjoyable enough. It has music and some (not very good) teeny songs. It may attract the younger audience but this movie is far from deep or interesting. Pretty standard stuff really.

If it's on TV or something, check it out