Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever

My review was written in May 1991 after watching the movie on Live video cassette.

Lameduck followup to the 1979 drive-in fave is a mechanical exercise in teenage anarchy. Despite a more lavish production than usual for Concorde, "Forever" is merely a video time-killer.

A central raver and troublemaker, Corey Fleldman takes the opportunity to ham it up for the camera, breaking into sub-Michael Jackson dance moves frequently. He's out to preserve the subversive tradition of newly rebuilt Ronald Reagan High.

Feldman's arch nemesis is the school's new vice principal of discipline (Mary Woronov, not doing much with a caricature of storm trooper evil; she also appeared in the '79 film).

Filmmaker Deborah Brock keeps things moving, but her succession of gags isn't funny or original. When in doubt, she throws in a food fight.

Ostensible plot of Feldman gong to great lengts to =lang a gig for his outlawed band the Eradicators is the excuse for a mixture of oldies and new tunes performed for the soundtrack. Feldman's singing is okay, but fans will quikly ire of his posing.

Cast is acceptable but forced to assume stereotypes, such as band guitarist Liane Curtis styled in Winona Ryder mode and pretty substitute teacher Sarah Buxton a chip off Ione Skye's block.

As the school principal, Larry Linville ges lost in the shuffle; role in the original was played by Paul Bartel. Also missing form the original are the Ramones and their music.

One half of the Corey duo goes solo for this totally lame movie about a bunch of teens at R&R (Ronald Reagan) High School. The Breakfast Club this is not. Nothing in this movie is intelligent, cool, or funny. It is not even "so bad it's funny", it's just BAD.

Notice how Corey Feldman actually had some sort of respectable career going before this movie in such films as "The Goonies" and "The Lost Boys". After this film, however, we get such winners as "Last Resort". Sad to say, but even "Last Resort" is a step above this movie.

Not many people know that there was a sequel made to "Rock 'n' Roll High School", even with fans of the original movie. Seeing this sequel, it doesn't take long watching it to figure out why it isn't better known. To be fair, this looks a lot better than other Roger Corman movies of this period - it had something of a budget. And the movie is directed and acted with a great amount of enthusiasm. But I couldn't warm up to it in the end. It has a sloppy script, with the movie frequently abandoning telling the (thin) story to show us unrelated vignettes. And the music isn't very good, either doing third-rate versions of classic songs or unremarkable new songs (though the song that plays during the opening credits is okay.) Also, Corey Feldman simply can't sing that well. Still, it keeps your attention as to what new kind of craziness will happen next. If you watch it, I recommend you watch it when your expectations are low.

The only interesting thing about this movie is that the only returning actor plays a different character who is exactly the same as her original character. Feldman's Michael Jackson impersonation and his terrible band playing 40 year old pop songs was not a joke. That's their sad attempt at musical credibility. I would have rather seen Corey Haim go to real high school.

Unlike the previous reviewer, I thoroughly enjoy this movie, because it's so awful! If you appreciate bad 80's film, you have to see this! It stars Corey Feldman during his Michael Jackson (emulation) phase. He can actually sing, accept for his attempt to sound like other musicians. This movie follows Corey and his band of miscreants on their adventures trying to win a contest for their HS band, and eventually end up playing the prom. Mischief is made, and hilarity ensues.

Anyways, yeah, it's awful, awfully good! If you can find somewhere to rent it, it's worth a couple bucks.

I actually own it.

If you like over the top genre based movies like "Girl's just want to have fun" (one of my favorites) then you will like this. It's pretty campy. it includes every stereotype of it's time.

The cameo by Mojo Nixon is worth sitting through the whole thing.