ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979)

The students of Vince Lombardi High School love rock music and (for whatever illogical movie logic reason) this love of rocking out keeps driving their principals insane.  Like literally.  So before the last principal can even be shipped off to the nuthouse, the school board brings in the new principal: Miss Togar.  Miss Togar (Mary Woronov) hates rock music, so it's only natural that on her first day as principal she butts heads with "Number 1 Ramones fan" Riff Randell (P.J. Soles).  And to make matters even worse: Riff has to miss three days of school in order to wait in line to buy everybody at school tickets to the upcoming Ramones concert.

That's about as deep as the story gets, but it fits the playful mood of the movie perfectly.  I've watched ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL dozens times since I was a teenager and watching it again just a few minutes ago I still got lost in the energy of the movie.  It's entertaining as hell right from the opening scene but then when the Ramones show up in person about halfway through...the excitement level goes right off the charts!  I loved the Ramones concert scenes so much that I watched them like four or five times.

Without even having a way to know it, the filmmakers captured the Ramones at the height of their post-Tommy Ramone power and because of that alone ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL is a one-of-a-kind treasure of American culture.  They couldn't act for shit, but goddamn their screen presence was amazing.

Human-sized rats, great cast (a few of them probably giving the best performances of their careers), the fakest-looking TV camera in movie history, The Real Don Steele, off-screen birds chirping out "cheap...cheap" when the New World Picture copyright shows up in the opening credits, lightening-fast pace that never lets up for a moment, the promise to give Mr. McGlup a visit, a van with a badass paint job, somebody looking for Carbona, awesome 70's hairstyles on the girls, uncredited Joe Dante direction when director Allan Arkush was hospitalized for exhaustion, tons of great quotable lines, Dee Dee smiling.

ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL is mandatory viewing for all lovers of stuff that was awesome in the late 1970's. Double-feature with A HARD DAY'S NIGHT.

If you need me, I'll be in my room tossing slices of pizza at my Mick Jagger poster.

Tommy

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986)

Some icky slug creatures from outer space land on Earth near a college and start jumping into people's mouths and turning them into zombies...right in time for the big formal dance.  "The good news is your dates are here."  "What's the bad news?"  "They're dead." 

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS should have made a buttload of money, since it's a highly entertaining and fun 80's alien invasion/zombie movie, but for whatever stupid reason, it only opened in a handful of screens (Box Office Mojo says 70) on a brutal weekend where it went head-to-head against ALIENS, THE FLY, STAND BY ME, TOP GUN, TCM2, THE KARATE KID II, BACK TO SCHOOL, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF and more!  It never had a chance, but luckily for us horror nerds it managed to avoid falling into obscurity and nowadays we can enjoy this clever 80's classic whenever we want.

Steady pace, imaginative and engaging story, likeable characters and a bad guy (the Bradster) who's really not so dislikable, good special effects, Dick Miller, funny script, a few topless scenes, a flamethrower, Stryper graffiti, MONSTER SQUAD graffiti, attractive girls all over the place, but none as attractive as Jill Whitlow.  Holy skydiving sloth testicles she was ridiculously hot in this film.  Quite possibly the hottest chick in any 80' horror movie ever!

Modern audiences will probably find the whole thing dated, but fans of 80's horror will enjoy it.  Recommended.

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE