Review of Rock 'n' Roll High School

Rock n Roll High School sounds like my kinda place!

It probably is. The students are mad and wacky rock 'n' roller types, but they've suddenly been put under the gun by the new Nazi-esque principal. I smell a music-themed rebellion coming on.

Interesting. Anything else I should know?

It's a Roger Corman production, which, strangely for something with his name attached, isn't awfully, painfully terrible. In fact it's a minor cult favourite, due in part to the rockin' 70s soundtrack, much of it provided by era punksters The Ramones. Which automatically makes it the best soundtrack ever. The band also star as themselves, which is really rather cool. They also made a sequel-cum-remake in 1990 starring Corey Feldman, which is also included in the set, but seriously, the less said about that, the better.

Technical specs, please.

Alas, it's another set of single-layer DVD-Rs sent my way, so there's more digital artefacting than there are high-school aged extras and the letterboxed transfer does the film no justice. It wouldn't even let me access the extras that are supposed to be on the disc. Therefore, no comment. Hopefully the retail release won't suffer the same fate.

What did you think?

Normally these sort of cult phenomenon totally miss the mark with you if you weren't around the first time, but I, T-minus 3-years from being launched down the birth canal in 1979, loved 'Rock 'n' Roll High School'. It's silly, wacky, zany nonsense, with a surprisingly decent script and bountiful enthusiasm, even if the acting is verging on atrocious for most of its running time. But that's part of its undeniable charm. Corman was probably trying to capitalise on the success of 'Grease' by melding high-school drama and music, but this brand of surreal comedy mixed with rock 'n' roll can outplay John Travolta and his 'cut me out of these, please' leathers any day.