Best movie of this year hands down!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I absolutely had to write a review on this movie. Ok, so Tara is this super shy girl, and everyone knows it right? But then, Radio Rebel announces publicly that she wants to let her voice be heard?How is it even a secret who Radio Rebel is? Also her voice isn't even changed, the pitch is the same, her tone, inflections, everything! So those two guys recording her voice and trying to match it to everyone's should match her identity to Tara's in seconds. Or at least know what her voice sounds like!Also, Principal Moreno states that anyone who knows Radio Rebel's identity, and doesn't report it to her, will be in serious trouble. Yet:-Two boys still desperately try to find who she is. (Still knowing they can be suspended for it)-Tara lets her friend Audrey know, even though she knows the dire consequences her best friend may face. (Why?)-People don't draw logical conclusions that Tara is Radio Rebel, even though their personalities and voices are the same.I have a theory that the students know Tara was Radio Rebel all along because of how obvious is was, and that they were too afraid to report her to Principal Moreno because it'd take away their only chance to dance at school.So what do we have here in terms of plot? Nothing, like I just explained, the central conflict is contrived and impossible to function as a story.Characters?None. All are cliches. The stereotypical bubbly best friend (Audrey), the mean principal who wants to shut down all the teenagers voices (Moreno), the guy who wants his music to mean something (Gavin), and the mean popular girl who is in almost every Disney movie (Stacy).And the message? Done over a million times.Pump up the Volume not only worked better as a story, but it included characters who were actual people, not caricatures. They started out and were presented as cliches, but they slowly became more nuanced. Nothing in the narrative shifts like this. Not even a little.It's not a remake of Pump up the Volume, its just a more dumbed down version of its plot. So don't watch this film, go watch an anime, much more complex than this, much more unique, more unique characters/settings etc.... I'd recommend Naruto for beginners, or perhaps My Hero Academia.

I wouldn't normally take the time to see a movie like this but I am a couple of weeks into my recuperation for foot surgery and came across this one on Netflix streaming movies.It stars Disney actress Debby Ryan, who really was a teenager during filming as Tara, and we also get to know her as Radio Rebel. Tara is very shy, sits at the back of class, rarely participates without being forced to. But she starts a web-based radio show, where she talks about topics of interest to fellow teens, and plays appropriate music.This movie is about her influence on the students and their quest to figure out who Radio Rebel is. The annual school prom gets involved, as the principal says she will cancel prom if Radio Rebel doesn't reveal her identity. The young cast has the usual, popular but snotty girl, polite and talented buy shy boy. And an assortment of every kind of typical high schooler.This is a clean movie that would be of most interest to the younger crowd, perhaps even mostly the preteen crowd.

I'm not going to deny, when I saw this film announced, first thought "sounds interesting", but then I read "Disney" at the bottom and I started regretting my first feelings and wondering if I suffered from mental insanity. But no, I'm still here, not locked in a safe room or anything.Let's start with basics. Lesson one, children, grasping the standard Disney plot - unpopular girl with big dreams, a nemesis/Queen Bee who ALSO loves that same big dream and tries to make unpopular girl's life miserable in order to get it, a "hot" guy is thrown in between the process, the guy notices Unpopular Girl but then is dragged away by Queen Bee, a failed-attempt at character development and BAM! ...there's a dance, Queen Bee becomes Queen Fail and Unpopular Girl gets the guy.While "Radio Rebel" DOES somewhat follow the basic scheme, it at least reaches a level of awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, I see the resemblance (or was it "copying of"?) "Pump Up the Volume", but what made it worthy of seeing was the fact that it adapted to what today's teens understood, lived, and would enjoy seeing. Debby Ryan (portraying main character, Tara) is a rising star that a lot of teens know and look up to - so her portraying a shy high schooler with issues of her own (the cute guy she's too afraid to talk to, the Queen Bee trying to bring her down, not being that close with her new stepfather, and have I mentioned the extreme shyness that could be mistaken for monastic silence?). It's what us average teens know and breathe. So while there's nothing sparkly in the scheme, it speaks to today's teens and that's what we like. Not to mention, there were a few giggles here and there. More to the "like" list.So what am I saying? I'm saying that this film is different from the usual "same story, same boring" pattern that Disney movies tend to follow...while it was strongly based from "Pump Up the Volume", it still had strong elements that make me want to watch it again, particularly the lessons that shy high schooler Tara teaches us - to just be ourselves...to embrace it and not just hide it away in the dark (or in Tara's case, a recording studio), to go out into the sunlight, scream, and let our uniqueness shine in the daylight.

This movie stunk. You can know the ending just by watching the beginning. It's that cheesy. Apparently I have to write ten lines. Well let's just say that the main character is basically like Demi Lovato in Camp Rock or whatever. And the other guy who she likes is just like any other Disney guy. This is basically like Geekfabulous or w/e. The girl hides her identity, has a guy she likes, guy likes her fake identity, guy has girlfriend who is "popular" and makes him do stuff, identity is found out, guy ends up with girl, girl being nice lets the girlfriend be prom queen or w/e. This is the most predictable movie in the history of life. I showered during the middle of it and I already knew all that s*** happened.