Shake, Rattle and Rock!

Renee Zellweger can only take a role so far. She is cute, the movie is very colorful, and the costumes are nice, but the story and the quality of the movie aren't enough to make it very good. This movie is reminiscent of "Hairspray" starring Ricki Lake. It is a low-budget film with an underdeveloped story. I wouldn't recommend it unless you love Renee Zellweger or Hairspray.

If you love Renee Zellweger, you will love her in this film. Adorable performance, bursting with winning charm and energy. Although someone named Julianna Raye is actually performing her songs, you'd never know it; she's thoroughly convincing as a piano-poundin' rock an' roller.

I did not see this cable movie when it originally played on Showtime in 1994. I just grabbed the video off the dollar rental rack at my local supermarket's video dept. the other night, and I was pleasantly surprised. Well, I did see Allan Arkush's name listed as director, and felt if it was anywhere close to his "Rock n' Roll High School" (1979) it would be worth a look. I enjoyed the fact that Arkush cast the heroine of his 1979 film, P.J. Soles, and the actress who played her best friend in that movie, Dey Young, as two of the mothers objecting to rock and roll's influence on their kids. Mary Woronov, who played the evil principal in RnR HS, and Dick Miller, who played a policeman or fire chief in the first film, also appear under the same character names. Fans of cult actor Miller will note that he uses the name Paisley, which he first used in the Roger Corman Beatnik spoof horror movie "Bucket of Blood" in 1959. Yes, this is not up to the level of John Water's "Hairspray," but it is a fun movie with generally good performances, including one by sixties soul singer Ruth Brown, who was also in the Water's film. I generally avoid Howie Mandell like the plague, but he was OK here as the fast talking hipster DJ. Zellweger, John Doe, Gerrit Graham, Max Perlich, and (especially) Jennifer Lewis all give good performances and seem to be having fun in roles familiar from dozens of old American International drive-in movies. Makes me hope Dimension will release more of the "Rebel Highway" Showtime series, which all took their titles from AIP "classics."

Two young girls start a band and open up a nightclub in town where the local kids can hang out and stay out of trouble, but they encounter opposition from local people who think rock is the devil's music and will corrupt their kids.

Is it wrong that I found it ironic Howie Mandel was accused of allowing close dancing, when it is well known he is terrified of people touching him? In a strange way, this exists in a parallel world to "Rock and Rock High School", with Mary Woronov again as the rock-hating lady, and Dick Miller again as a cop (Officer Paisley!). Even P. J. Soles as an adult Riff Randell?

John Doe, who plays Lucky, recalls Allan Arkush being "everything you'd want in a director. He was one of those people who really got it. He knew how to have fun, how to let people cut loose... and you can feel it." He says the movie took only three days to shoot.

From the opening beat I fell in love with SR&R. A delightful little spoof on the teen years in the 50's complete with a Murray the K style announcer, a downtrodden teen queen and her garage band, 4 hysterical busybodies intent on saving the world from the evils of music [who were hysterically funny], a way too old motorcycle "Fonzie", and lots of singing and dancing. A fun movie not to be taken one bit seriously nor making a statement of any kind.