Review of Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) by Stuart K — 18 Apr 2010

Produced by Roger Corman, and co-masterminded by Joe Dante. This is an infantile, silly but cheesy B-movie rock film. But, it does tap into the fantasies of alot of America's youth at that time, and what they want to see happen to authority figures and their schools.

Set at Vince Lombardi High School, a quite unruly school, which is losing teachers, mainly due to disruptive pupils. Their leader is Riff Randall (P.J. Soles), who is also a big fan of The Ramones, and she also wants to see them perform in a few days.

However, the school has just appointed a new principal for the school, Principal Togar (Mary Woronov), she wants to clean up the school, starting with Riff Randall. She starts by taking away Riff's ticket to see the Ramones, but Riff and her best friend Kate Rambeau (Dey Young), win 2 tickets over the radio, and get to see them anyways, The Ramones even offer to help them out over their over their evil principal.

It's very silly, and it does have some good jokes in it, and a good soundtrack. Plus, some support from veteran character actors Clint Howard (Ron's brother) and the late, great Paul Bartel. A regular in films like these.

A sequel followed in 1990, but no-one remembers it.