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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful: I just wanna have some kicks. I just wanna get some chicks!, 24 January 2005 Author: Twins65 from Lindenhurst, IL
93 minutes of mindless fun from 1979. So what if P.J. Soles was damn near 30 when this was made...she can rock my high school any time she wants! Now that we're down to only one original Ramone (and even he isn't in this), we have to salute the Boys by watching this movie. It's the way we want to remember 'em best, blowing up a high school.So screw you Principal Togar, and all your exploding mice! WE JUST WANNA ROCK! P.S.---R.I.P. Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, Mr. McGree, & Screamin' Steve. And if anybody knows whatever happened to Angel Dust (Lynn Farrell-who made 3 movies in 1979 and seems to have dropped off the planet since) please post it on the R&RHS message board.
10 out of 12 people found the following review useful: A barrell full of fun and laughs!, 22 February 2002 Author: wishkah7 from Brooklyn, NY. (Where I'm from originally.)
Yet, another cult movie made by B-movie great Roger Corman. Unlike those ridiculous B-Movies he made prior to this one, Rock 'n Roll High School is actually cool! In this one, the protagonist is a teen girl who is a hard-core Ramones fan, and she and her fellow classmates are up against a dictator-like principal who wants to make the school a living hell. The girl, Riff wants to write music for her favorite band as well. Rock 'n Roll High School is a really fun, edgy, tongue-in-cheek, feel good kind of movie! It's a teen movie I actually enjoy! Even today's teens can like this movie, too! The soundtrack is really enjoyable, and full of songs from The Ramones, Brownsville Station, Alice Cooper, and all those greats from the 1970's! It was cool to see Joey Ramone and the others make an appearence. Sadly, last year we lost Joey to cancer. Want to see a real teen comedy? Then see Rock 'n Roll High School! This movie puts all those pathetically unfunny teen comedies of today (i.e. American Pie) to shame! I give this 5 stars!
9 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Goofy and fun, 16 January 2002 Author: drosse67 from Virginia
I have to say that I was really surprised by this movie. It's a lot of fun, especially for fans of Eating Raoul....(Paul Bartel as an uptight music teacher who really loosens up to the Ramones and Mary Woronov as an insane principal with a real vendetta against rock n' roll, and the Ramones in particular). The movie is so high-spirited that I didn't mind its cheesy, ultra low budget look. The Ramones themselves looked pretty bewildered most of the time (especially Joey) but somehow they fit in to the high energy level of the other actors (especially P.J. Soles, who really should have made more movies) and the various shenanigans, many of which are pretty bizarre.
6 out of 6 people found the following review useful: My brief review of the film, 29 September 2005 Author: sol- from Perth, Australia
An extremely silly and overdone comedy, the film is nevertheless still reasonably entertaining, as the songs are good, the characters are relatively fun to watch, and there are some genuine laughs along the way. The film has a thing or two to say as a cultural study and an examination of teenage rebellion, but whatever messages may be there are weak, for the film does not take itself too seriously, presenting many events and ideas that are plain out ridiculous. Also, it would have been nice to get to know the characters a bit better, but then were the filmmakers really trying to do something better than a run-of-the-mill high school set film, or were they just out to have fun, like their characters are? This is not a bad film either way, and arguably it is worth checking out, but it would take a lot of guts to call this a good film.
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: A great tribute to rock'n'roll movies, 30 August 2004 Author: Mark_McD from United States
And this is a great rock'n'roll movie in itself. No matter how it evolved (at point being a movie about disco), it ended up as one of the ultimate movies in which kids want to rock out, but the principal stands in their way. Think back to those rock'n'roll movies of the 50's in which the day is saved when Alan Freed comes to town with Chuck Berry to prove that Rock & Roll Music is really cool and safe for the kids, and Tuesday Weld gets a new sweater for the dance. Forward to the 1979, repeat the same plot, but throw in DA RAMONES, whom no one then realized would become one of the most influential bands of the next quarter century (and then for the obligatory DJ guest shot, "The Real" Don Steele). Throw in, too, all the elements of a Roger Corman-produced comedy-exploitation film, except for the two-day shooting schedule, some of the familiar Corman repertory players like Clint Howard, Mary Wournow and Dick Miller (there since "Bucket of Blood"), and you've got one of the great stoopid movies of the day. One of the few films that uses deliberate cheesiness and gets away with it. I showed the new DVD to a friend who could only remember seeing parts of it through a stoner- induced haze at the drive-in, and he agreed that this is one of the great movies to be watching drunk, not the least for the lovely leading ladies and the great Ramones footage.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: "Hey Kate, I'm getting some static!"...."Not as much as you're going to get.", 21 May 2001 Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca
P.J. Soles should have become a big star after playing Riff Randall, #1 fan of the punk rock group the Ramones. She's so exuberant, you don't care that she's obviously too old to still be in high school (that fact is leveled out by having all the high schoolers look 24). It's a fast-paced frolic that doesn't cop-out; everything gets blown to smithereens at the end, and that's just as it should be. Mary Woronov, an innately kinky and funny presence as the Nazi-like principal, gets a great, one-of-a-kind bit at the beginning where Frisbees fly dangerously close to her head (how many takes did they use on that, or was it a fluke?) and Dey Young is very appealing as Soles' best, Kate Rambeau. The weakest link, ironically enough, in this "High School" chain-gang is the Ramones. They can't act, they're not funny, and their concert segment goes on too long. One Ramones song, "I Want You Around", is treated as a fantasy and is well captured; other incidental songs are good, particularly a rare Paul McCartney & Wings ballad heard near the beginning ("Did We Meet Somewhere Before?"). Good show! *** from ****
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Hey-ho! Let's go!, 27 June 2001 Author: INFOFREAKO from Perth, Australia
Rock'n'Roll High School is arguably the freshest, fastest, funniest, most ROCK AND ROLL teen movies ever. If you love The Ramones you'll love this one! And hey, if you don't love The Ramones, you're already dead, so get outta here. Halloween's P.J. Soles really hits the spot as The Ramones number one fan Riff Randell, and Clint Howard will always be Eaglebauer to me. No suprise that b-grade legend Roger Corman had a hand in this, and as an added bonus Corman cronies Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and the God-like Dick Miller round out the supporting cast. Great Ramones set and lots of other cool music featured (MC5, Devo, Eno, Todd and Eddie and the Hot Rods "Teenage Depression") puts this at the top of the Rock'n'Roll heap.Too cool for school!!
3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: One of the best cult classics ever!, 1 January 2004 Author: Nick from Dallas, TX
A must for any punk rocker, this is the movie that made The Ramones a household name back in the early 1980's (when it first appeared on premium cable stations). This was one of the first and best of the American Punk Rock movies, with a cult classic status up there with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Originally the producers wanted Cheap Trick as the stars, but the release of the "Live At Budakon" album had just made them superstars and too hot an item to be in a low budget movie. Very good luck for the Ramones who were looking to break out of the underground punk rock world and into the mainstream market (which sadly never happened until after the bands demise). The band, Dee Dee especially, always disliked the movie through the 80's but the fans always loved and could recite most of the movie while waiting to get into Ramones shows. This movie, like most classics, is stupid fun with some classic Ramones footage in their heyday. Don't expect more, you won't find it. It's great fun, so enjoy it. Another Allan Arkush classic movie in a similar vein is Get Crazy, featuring Lee Ving from the legendary hardcore punk band Fear.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: "Do your parents know you're Ramones?", 23 July 2009 Author: Scott LeBrun from Winnipeg, Canada
Marvelous cult film from 1979 in which the students of Vince Lombardi High School are confronted with a new, dictatorial principal named Miss Togar (Mary Woronov). Togar is a music hater and blames the musical tastes of the students for their transgressions. Leading the charge against her is fun-loving Riff Randell (P.J. Soles), the #1 Ramones fan who, more than anything, wants the rock group to record her songs.Now *this* is an impossible movie to resist. First and foremost, the soundtrack is incredible, with songs by such artists as Alice Cooper and the Velvet Underground in addition to the infectious non-stop assortment of Ramones songs. "Teenage Lobotomy", "Sheena is a Punk Rocker", and "Blitzkrieg Bop" are just a few of them. Next, the cast truly gives it their all, with Soles an ideal choice for the role of Riff; she is a true delight. Vincent Van Patten and Dey Young are earnest as Tom and Kate, Woronov is well cast against type as the snooty and disdainful Togar, Clint Howard has one of his best ever parts as washroom-occupying entrepreneur Eaglebauer, and New World regulars such as Dick Miller, Paul Bartel (particularly fun as music teacher Mr. McGree) and The Real Don Steele are fun as always. And, of course, it's a treat to see The Ramones playing themselves.The movie has true spirit. The energy level is high, with co-story author and director Allan Arkush bringing a great deal of flair to the proceedings. There's also a great sense of humor. The paper airplane gag is a superb example of this. This extends right to the "wipe" style of scene transitions. There are even hilarious giant mice created by future makeup effects notable Rob Bottin, in one of his earliest gigs.About as good as an authority-defying, defend-one's-right-to-party film can get. "Rock 'n' Roll High School" is, quite simply, a wonderful cult film.8/10
Hilarious 70s cult classic., 10 May 2009 Author: sonya90028 from United States
This film is a jolt of punk rock fun, from start to finish. The Ramones, reigning princes of late-70s Punk rock, appear as themselves. PJ Soles stars as Riff Randle, the rebellious high school girl who lives and breathes rock 'n roll. Riff is obsessed with writing songs for the Ramones, her favorite rock band. She keeps the school rockin', and encourages her fellow-students to join her in her jubilant antics.Meanwhile the school that Riff attends, has just hired a brand-new Principal, named Ms. Togar. She's a tall, intimidating Amazon of a woman. And she vows to make the students 'toe-the-line'. She even has a couple of the students act as monitors, who report back to her with dirt on their classmates. Ms. Togar is especially determined to nab Riff, and put a stop to Riff's anarchic shenanigans. But Riff has clever ways to foil Togar, at every turn.Kudos to the superb performance of Mary Woronov, in her role as Principal Togar. Mary is a legendary B movie actress. And in this film, she plays the fascist Ms. Togar, with sneering relish. PJ Soles as Riff, turns in an electrifying performance. Clint Howard as the duplicitous Eaglebauer, has lots of fun with his role.The Ramones perform many of their hit songs in this film. And so the viewer sees why the Ramones were so influential, in the 70s Punk rock scene. Certainly, this is a good film for Ramones fans. But even if you're not into the Ramones, or Punk rock, this movie is a terrific blast (literally) of energetic fun.
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