Rock 'n' Roll High School

Rock 'n' Roll High School.
1979 New World Pictures; now distributed to DVD by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
Starring: P.J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young, Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, The Ramones (Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Marky)
Executive Producer: Roger Corman
Director(s): Allan Arkush, Joe Dante & Jerry Zucker (last two uncredited)
Amazon.com listings (all discontinued)

Vince Lombardi High School, circa 1980. The school keeps losing principals after their inevitable nervous breakdown thanks to the students' love of rock 'n' roll and a complete disregard for education. At the center of this is the absolutely kick ass Riff Randell (Soles), a Ramones fanatic who waits in line for three days for concert tickets. Riff hopes to meet Joey Ramone so she can give him a song she wrote just for the band, "Rock 'n' Roll High School".

Unfortunately, the new principal, a strict disciplinarian named Evelyn Togar (Woronov) confiscates Riff's concert ticket. She and her best friend Kate Rambeau (Young) simply find another way to meet their heroes: win a radio contest. Eventually, Ms. Togar and a group of parents decide that the best way of dealing with their kids is burning a pile of rock records. Led by Riff and the Ramones (who are made honorary students), as well as Mr. McGree (Bartel), who finally succumbed to a secret love of rock 'n' roll, the students take over Vince Lombardi High, leading to the student body blowing the school sky high at the end of the film.

Meanwhile, Kate is sweet on the school's star linebacker Tom Roberts (Van Patten), and tries to work out a deal with Eaglebauer (Howard) for a date, but Roberts has his eyes on Riff.

The Ramones weren't even the first band considered for this film, as the producers considered Todd Rundgren, Cheap Trick, Devo, and even Van Halen for the movie. Any of these acts would've made this a completely different movie, and it's hard to imagine Riff Randell fawning over Rundgren, Robin Zander, or even David Lee Roth. Todd Rundgren has admitted that he regrets turning down the role.

A fun movie that's highly, highly recommended. Too bad it seems to be completely out of print at this time!

Rat Race

Rat Race. 2001 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz, Seth Green
Director: Jerry Zucker
Buy Rat Race at Amazon.

You could consider this the It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for the new millenium.

Donald Sinclair (Cleese) is the eccentric billionaire owner of a Las Vegas hotel/casino who devises a game to entertain the gamblers who visit his hotel. He puts six special tokens in six slot machines, and the winners are gathered together and told that there's a forutune locked in a train station in Silver City, New Mexico. Everyone is given a key and sent on their way. After all deciding that this is a scam, they all promise one another that they won't be participating...which is a lie, of course. As they all hastily depart Las Vegas, Sinclair and his buddies place bets on who will reach New Mexico first.

A fun movie. Recommended.