Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

67 3 Idiots
47 44 Inch Chest
82 Ajami
71 American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73 Amreeka
76 Art of the Steal, The
43 Barefoot to Timbuktu
19 Bitch Slap
49 Blood Done Sign My Name
24 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76 Broken Embraces
52 Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
67 Children of Invention
xx City Island
64 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
84 Cove, The
83 Crazy Heart
21 Crazy on the Outside
51 Creation
xx Daddy Long Legs
81 Damned United, The
57 Defendor
61 Delta
68 Departures
xx Diary of a Wimpy Kid
64 District 13: Ultimatum
72 Easier with Practice
85 Education, An
61 Exploding Girl, The
70 Eyes Wide Open
24 Falling Awake
81 Fish Tank
56 For My Father
51 Formosa Betrayed
xx From Mexico with Love
43 Frozen
xx Ghost Town
77 Ghost Writer, The
69 Girl on the Train, The
47 Good Guy, The
xx Greenberg
35 Happy Tears
68 Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20 Harlem Aria
xx Killing Jar, The
52 Killing Kasztner
xx Kimjongilia
41 Last New Yorker, The
76 Last Station, The
47 Little Traitor, The
51 Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71 Lourdes
73 Me and Orson Welles
77 Messenger, The
xx Mid-August Lunch
57 Missing Person, The
76 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
77 Mother
50 My Name is Khan
xx Neil Young Trunk Show
49 Nine
67 North Face
64 October Country
67 Off and Running
52 Paranoids, The
40 Phyllis and Harold
49 Pop Star on Ice
49 Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74 Prodigal Sons
xx Promised Lands (Re-release)
89 Prophet, A
76 Red Riding Trilogy, The
xx Runaways, The
32 Saint John of Las Vegas
83 Secret of Kells, The
69 September Issue, The
36 Serious Moonlight
56 Severe Clear
63 Shinjuku Incident, The
77 Single Man, A
76 Still Bill
34 Stolen
xx Suicide Girls Must Die!
51 Tales from the Script
74 Terribly Happy
74 That Evening Sun
47 To Die for Tano
19 To Save a Life
63 Toe to Toe
69 Town Called Panic, A
54 Until the Light Takes Us
60 Videocracy
xx Vincere
66 Waiting for Armageddon
45 White on Rice
82 White Ribbon
xx White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, The
43 Women in Trouble
xx Word is Out
64 Yellow Handkerchief, The
64 Young Victoria, The

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Bandslam

EMAILPRINTSummit Entertainment

Bandslam reviews
66
5.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Drama

Written by: Josh A. Cagan
Todd Graff

Directed by: Todd Graff

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 14, 2009
DVD: March 16, 2010

Running Time: 111 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG for some thematic elements and mild language

Starring Alyson Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens, Gaelen Connell, and Lisa Kudrow

When gifted singer-songwriter Charlotte Barnes asks new kid in town Will Burton to manage her fledgling rock band, she appears to have just one goal in mind: go head-to-head against her egotistical musician ex-boyfriend, Ben, at the biggest event of the year, a battle of the bands. Against all odds, their band develops a sound all its own with a real shot at success in the contest. Meanwhile, romance brews between Will and Sa5m, who plays a mean guitar and has a voice to die for. When disaster strikes, it's time for the band to make a choice: Do they admit defeat, or face the music and stand up for what they believe in? (Summit Entertainment)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Had Cameron Crowe and the late John Hughes collaborated on a movie populated by Disney Channel superstars, the result might have looked and sounded a lot like Todd Graff's Bandslam. And that's meant as a compliment.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Rob Nelson

High school musicals have their scrappiest number in Bandslam, an awkward, earnest, almost irresistible indie.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Ruth McCann

the script's earnest intelligence and the actors' charm (Connell, Hudgens and Kudrow are especially fun to watch) make this film an entertaining ode to teenage joie de vivre.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Here’s the surprise: Bandslam may come from synthetic materials, but the characters are a little more complicated than usual.

Read Full Review >
75

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Misfit teens in the process of forming a high school band learn life lessons and raise their goblets of rock. But there's enough of a strong filmmaking backbeat in Bandslam to carry the movie's light tune.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This isn’t a breakthrough movie, but for what it is, it’s charming, and not any more innocuous than it has to be.

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Bandslam is “Camp’’ with rock ’n’ roll instead of show tunes, but its roots go back to the Busby Berkeley backstagers and Mickey-and-Judy let’s-put-on-a-show musicals of the 1930s.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The late John Hughes would have liked Bandslam, an upbeat high school musical that plays like a garage-band cover of "The Breakfast Club."

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Andy Webster

Buoyant, gratifying and, yes, rocking.

Read Full Review >
70

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Best of all is newcomer Connell, the kind of charismatic kid who would have been cast in "Freaks and Geeks" ten years ago.

Read Full Review >
70

Village Voice Nicholas Rapold

Todd Graff's film is written with a desperate cleverness that clamors for attention over the brainless against-the-odds music-competition plot.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Bandslam belongs to Connell. He has the unruly 'fro and endearing shamblingness of a young Daniel Stern, and he ably brings to life that rarest of cinematic qualities: decency.

Read Full Review >
67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Throughout its first two acts, Bandslam is charming, sweet, and funny enough to merit inclusion in the upper echelon of teen comedies. Then comes a third act weighed down with arbitrary romantic conflicts, leaden melodrama, and a tiresome subplot.

Read Full Review >
67

NPR Scott Tobias

Bandslam works best when it's focused on young, adorably neurotic creative types putting on a show.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Fairly entertaining, if hardly surprising, results.

Read Full Review >
63

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

Two incompatible movies duke it out in Bandslam. Although it's the wimpy teen musical that prevails, it's the misfit coming-of-age story that leaves an impression.

Read Full Review >
60

Empire Anna Smith

Surprisingly watchable despite the formulaic teen format.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

The least offensive teen movie in ages.

Read Full Review >
50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

Lack of sparkling teen chatter prevent this movie from being a slam dunk.

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The performances in Bandslam are uniformly strong -- good enough to make you wish this bunch of charismatic, talented kids had been given better material.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

bob v gave it an8:
Ya the ending song set up should have been stronger but very funny in parts and flowed well into different modes of real life teen feelings. I know that taking my 16 year old who thought it was the summers best movie. Maybe best to not have it in high school but on the street to shed the old mattra.

Karen gave it a10:
An amazingly and wonderfully directed movie with great humour and music. The cast have performed so well and fulfilled their characters perfectly. Cannot wait to get to see it again. Truly recommended, you do not want to miss such a great movie.

Chris J. gave it a5:
A pleasant surprise? Not too pleasant, of course, it's typical teen fare. At least it's short and it's got a few good tunes.

Xavier E. gave it a10:
A funny, emotional and very enjoyable film!

Melodi M. gave it a10:
I thought this move was great!!! A movie every generation will love!!!! I not only thought best kid film of the yea, but easily one of my favorites of the year.

Chad S. gave it a9:
The fact that "Bandslam" rocks at all is a miracle, but it does, in spite of its need to corner the teen girls market. It's a charming indie that allow itself to be hijacked by a Disney sensibility, culminating in the decidedly unrocking song that Can't Go On, I Will Go On plays at the Bandslam competition. It sounds completely dislocated from the sort of music that Will(Gaelen Connell) would endorse. The movie feels compromised, as if a deal was struck. In exchange for a wider release, the songs had to suck. The songs don't always suck though, and that's the tragedy of it all. If the filmmaker stayed true to his indie roots(he has the cred; he made "Camp"), the Sa5m-led nonet(a 9-piece band) would have tried to top the truly galvanizing indie-rocker which Charlotte(Alyson Michalka), the head cheerleader gone riot grrl, fronts after Will assembles the band in its most indelible incarnation. Musically, that was the film's last hurrah. To win the competition, the band's brainchild tells Charlotte they need to find the right song. What the pom-pom girl comes back to Will with seems straight out of "High School Musical", but he loves it, inexplicably, a song that no respectable David Bowie devotee would ever own up to loving. Although the music stops making sense, "Bandslam" survives the encroaching blandness of market-driven teen pop, because the three principal leads never stop making sense. "Bandslam" plays like a loving tribute to John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club", in which the utopia created in that library, lives on through the next day in the school hallways and beyond. In "Bandslam", the cheerleader and the nerd become friends. (Vanessa Hudgens could be an update of the Ally Sheedy character.) What if Claire(Molly Ringwald) didn't forget about Brian(Anthony Michael Hall)? Like the beloved 1985 film, Charlotte tells Will that their friendship is an experiment, but unlike that classic of the teen movie genre, it never panders. And still, "Bandslam" is an enormously appealing "let's put on a show" sort of movie that actually feels, to quote another Simple Minds song, "alive and kicking".

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | March Madness | TV | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use