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08/19/09
Bandslam (2009)
80
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:87
Fresh:70
Rotten:17
Average Rating:6.4/10
Consensus: Bandslam is an intelligent teen film that avoids teen film cliches, in an entertaining package of music and coming-of-age drama.
Theatrical Release:Aug 14, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $5,205,343
Synopsis: Disney Channel superstars Vanessa Anne Hudgens (High School Musical 1 & 2, High School Musical 3) and Alyson Michalka (Phil of the Future, pop duo Aly and AJ) join Gaelan Connell (Chocolat), Scott... [More]
Starring: Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Hudgens, Alyson Michalka, Lisa Kudrow
Director: Todd Graff
Reviews for Bandslam
My 6 year old enjoyed it. I guess I would just like a little more effort from the filmmakers. Maybe worth a DVD rental, though.
08/16/09
It feels like three years to get to a point of resolution. Bandslam should take the lead of the rock gods: keep it moving, keep it simple, and know when to get off the stage.
08/13/09
The movie is too sophisticated in its first hour for preteens, and much too tragically unhip in its second hour for the older teenage audience that might appreciate its pithier wisecracks.
08/14/09
Though predictable, it at least tries to put on a fresh face to a tiresome old feelgood story.
08/19/09
Whether your nine-year-old niece will care about that is moot – but she’ll definitely resent the poor ratio of musical numbers to clunky, contrived emotional scenes.
08/14/09
It feels like a missed opportunity, but perhaps is a blessing since Bandslam's dialogue is much more pat than Hughes's quotable writing.
08/14/09
Top CriticThe music is the movie's best feature, but even that's not much...
08/20/09
A tedious, predictable tale about following your dreams and being yourself.
08/14/09
Bandslam had potential, but it succumbed to peer pressure.
08/13/09
I would have had much more interest in this film if the cinematographer would have just handed the camera over to Vanessa Hudgens and turned her loose alone in her hotel room.
08/14/09
A bizarre tween movie vehicle for the High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens that gradually morphs into a two-hour homily on the perils of adolescence.
08/14/09
[C]alculated for sweet, feel-good blandness. And not the rock 'n' roll kind of feel-good, either, unless you think the Jonas Brothers rock hard.
08/13/09
Todd Graff's film is written with a desperate cleverness that clamors for attention over the brainless against-the-odds music-competition plot.
08/11/09
The movie's problem is the division of loyalties between these two female leads, which fatally divides and muddles the dramatic focus.
08/14/09
Watching this film is about as cutting-edge as buying a Clash T-shirt at Wal-Mart.
08/13/09
The performances in Bandslam are uniformly strong -- good enough to make you wish this bunch of charismatic, talented kids had been given better material.
08/13/09
It seems acutely unaware of how casually sick some of its themes are.
08/14/09
Lisa Kudrow interview: Following her 'Friends' fame, you now get the sense that she's splitting her time between TV work, various films and perhaps most important mothering. Work on 'Bandslam' is now much like real life for her.
08/13/09
Surprisingly tolerable teen fare with hints of the wit and warmth that the late John Hughes once brought to the genre.
08/14/09
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July 13, 2009:
Check out 8 Bandslam video clips and interviews with Alyson Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens, Gaelan Connell, and Lisa Kudrow 
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