What makes it different from others?

Too much of everything

Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I had heard of and seen the poster for this film in the past, I knew it was a teen targeted movie with singing, I assumed it was going to be similar to High School Musical, so I watched to see what I would think. Basically Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) is a teenage outcast and a music enthusiast, he always writes to singer David Bowie with his thoughts, like a journal, although Bowie never answers. Will's mother Karen (Lisa Kudrow) has found a new job, so he has switched high schools and escaped bullying at his previous one, he soon makes with friends with a girl who writes her name as "Sa5m" (High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens), pronounced Sam, the 5 is silent. Sa5m tells him about Bandslam, an annual music competition in which the winning band gets a recording contract, Will then meets another girl named Charlotte Barnes (Aly Michalka), she is impressed with his eclectic knowledge of music. Charlotte is a talented singer/songwriter, she is forming a band to compete against her egocentric musician ex-boyfriend Ben Wheatley (Scott Porter) in Bandslam, Will agrees to help Charlotte's band, later named I Can't Go On, I'll Go On, which includes members Bug (Charlie Saxton) and Omar (Tim Jo), also outcasts, slowly they create good music, and Will loses his "loser-status". But Will helping with the band gets in the way of helping Sa5m with a project, she teaches him how to kiss at one point, but he stands her up to go with Charlotte to a concert, Sa5m starts ignoring him, but he makes a touching documentary, with the song "Young Folks", about her for a Human Studies project as a way of apology, she forgives him. Will accidentally ruins an Ben's attempt to get Charlotte back, so Ben researches and finds out his father went to prison for killing a child while drink driving, just like his previous bullies Ben and others start calling Will "Dewey", which stands for "DWI" ("Driving While Intoxicated"). Then it gets worse when Charlotte's father dies and she quits the band, she explains that she changed her image and attitude for her father, and be nicer to outcasts, the band members find out this and are hurt, as it means she did not genuinely like them, but they go on, and Sa5m joins as the new lead singer. On the night of Bandslam, Charlotte arrives to apologise to Will, he eventually accepts, before they are due to go on stage, Ben and his band "Glory Dogs" sing the song I Can't Go On, I'll Go On were originally going to perform, forcing them to change their act at the last minute. While the band get their act together, getting the lyrics to the song "Everything I Own", Will buys some time for them going out on stage, the students chant "Dewey! Dewey! Dewey!", he initially walks off, but uses this chanting to make the phrase "Do we wanna ROCK?!", then the band shows up and excite the crowd with an upbeat ska version of "Everything I Own". Although they do not win the Bandslam competition, a YouTube video of their performance goes viral, even David Bowie sees it, he emails Will explaining that he is starting an indie music label and is interested in having the band as one of their first artists, Will is excited, and he and Sa5m are confirmed as dating. Also starring Ryan Donowho as Basher Martin and Lisa Chung as Kim Lee. Connell is convincing as the unaccepted teen, Hudgens is pretty and has a good voice, and Kudrow gets her time as the nerd's mother, the story is simple, I agree with critics there are the odd duff notes in the performances, but there is good music, a familiar but fun music-based romantic comedy. Worth watching!

Clever right? But I'm serious, this movie is a slam dunk. Almost impossible to resist. People may think that you age out of teen movies but that is not true. How do you age out of good movies? You don't. I still watch "Angus" once a year and replay the ending at least three times. Which begs the question: Who's better movie mom? Kathy Bates in "Angus" or Lisa Kudrow in "Bandslam"? (That may be impossible to answer.)"Bandslam" is a "Put on a show" movie that has a climax like a "Rocky" movie. The cast is dead on. Maybe there is some corn but corn is important to any balanced diet. By the way, I just watched "Bandslam" and watched the ending four times.

Parts of this film were good...and kept you interested in what was coming next...but then part of it was so predictable you could leave the room and still know what was going on when you came back 20 minutes later...as it drags along so slowly. The new kid...Will..moves into town with his rather odd mother...and tries to start fitting in somehow. Right away...he meets two girls...one is a dark brooding emo chick...who is overly serious..about what we aren't too sure...and the other girl is a blonde who is trying to be overly mature for her age with witty comments and attitude to match. She once was a cheerleader...but that was..as she puts it "in another life"....how deep can you get? She has left all the trappings of being a silly high school girl..including a jock boyfriend...(who looks way too old to be in high school to begin with). She is also the lead singer for a band trying really hard to stand out but cannot find a real way to do it...they simply attempt to do covers of rock songs..and do it pretty badly...but...of course..they think they are THE BEST at it. The band is made up an odd assortment of kids...the kind that don't fit into the mainstream...and they plan to win BIG at BANDSLAM...which is THE EVENT of every year. The problem is though...they will be up against another band with more or less the same name....GLORY DOGS...I guess finding an original name was just too hard to do. Will..being the cool kid he really is...(and he doesn't know it...)gets the band to re-think everything...their style, their music..etc..etc...and POOF...they suddenly the PERFECT BAND! While all this is going on...Will is also trying to decide which girl he truly likes the most...and which one truly likes him in return. Neither girl is the "girl next door"...and we wonder what will become of them after high school...when the real world comes knocking. The movie is kind of a coming of age thing...kids trying to find their identities while trying to survive high school at the same time. None of the characters have any real depth...as if what they are doing at that moment is all they ever will do in life. No one will peak any farther than they have already...mundane lives for everyone...with the only highlight being BANDSLAM..which they will talk about over and over to anyone who might listen. The director was trying to cash in on using Vanessa Hudgens...the cute girl from High School Musical...and she tries to do the exact opposite of what she did for Disney...tries a little too much really. And...the other girl is very overly sexy with pouty lips and smoldering facial expressions that are way too old for her to be doing. Both girls are going to attract the attention of men way too old for either of them. Gross. Anyway...it is a decent film....for the most part. I am not sure if it is suppose to be a cutting edge indie type film...or just a film that was made on a low budget. Either way...it is one most teens would enjoy...even though they might not have a clue who David Bowie or Cheap Trick is.

I was expecting something stupid but in fact that was good. As there was Vanessa Hudgens in this movie I was expecting some crap like High School musical. I hated it and Vanessa's character. I thought she can't act but just smile and show her pretty face. But in here I loved her character, that was something different and lovable! And it was at last some comedy I could actually laugh at because lately I was watching movies tagged as comedies and they are were seriously not funny you can cry. I enjoyed watching it, it wasn't cheap. The bad side was music. It wasn't that good. I was expecting that group to make some hit but the song they used for the contest was bad, it hurt my ears. It could be better if it was played differently and Vanessa's voice was out of topic, it was too weak for the song.