Why did I want to see “Bandslam”?? Because Vanessa Hudgens stars, and I was hoping that her real-life boyfriend Zac Efron would make an appearance. I didn’t expect much from “Bandslam”, but as a fan of the “High School Musical” franchise (that’s the 13-year-old girl in me) I was hoping that it would have some of the music, dancing, and fun of those movies. Although it was set in a high school, “Bandslam” was actually nothing like the “HSM” movies, but I was very surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this movie!! It was so much better than I thought it would be.
Will Burton (Gaelen Connell) is the new kid in town. Will loves all kinds of music, but he especially loves punk rock – he even writes letters to his ‘hero’, David Bowie. The beginning of the movie was narrated by Will reading his latest letter to David Bowie, and it reminded me of “The Wonder Years”. Hey, it was cute! On his first day in the new school, Will meets Sa5m – the 5 is silent (Hudgens), who is pretty much a social outcast. Will is intrigued by their initial meeting and is happy when they are paired up together to work on a school project. Will also meets Charlotte Banks (Alyson Michalka) who is the leader of a band about to compete in Bandslam. What is Bandslam, you ask? It’s basically a higher-budget version of a talent show, with the winning band receiving a record deal. Charlotte recruits Will to be her band’s manager and together they enlist other outcasts from the school to be a part of the band – which Will names “I Won’t Go On, I’ll Go On”. Will’s mother Karen (Lisa Kudrow) is quite overprotective of her only son (she was a single mother); however, she soon becomes one of the band’s biggest supporters.
I liked the music in this movie. While it wasn’t a “musical”, there was a good amount of singing. I also thought the script was good. The story flowed well and the writing was fresh. One thing I really liked was how this film broke all the stereotypes. This wasn’t your typical popular girl turns nerdy new boy into the most popular kid in school and then they end up together movie. This also wasn’t another immature gross-out comedy. Bandslam was an entertaining, fun journey with great music and it will leave you feeling cheerful and wanting to go do some karaoke! But, please, make sure you can sing – my cat hates competition.
