Rock 'n' Roll High School - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Rock 'N' Roll High School: 45th Anniversary Edition



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
Shout Factory is once again bringing out a special edition for a previously released film, but this time it’s one of their own releases as well....or really, a re-release of a re-release. 2010 had Shout Factory releasing a mediocre edition of 1979’s punk rock musical Rock ‘N’ Roll High School with great special features but a middling video encode that was taken from an aging master. Then, 10 years later, they went back to the original negative for a 4K scan for a massively upgraded picture, a slight boost on the audio, and even some new extras to fill out the already fantastic array that the 2010 sported (including a nifty steelbook packaging for collectors). NOW, 5 years after that, we get even more extras (included the much wanted Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever ...albeit on SD only) a spiffy new remaster, and brand new artwork to enjoy (though some fans may really miss the old theatrical cover).

Ah yeas, the late 1970s, when comedies were all about over sexed teenagers, the evils of rock ‘n’ roll music, and a rebellious attitude towards authority. 1979’s Rock ‘N’ Roll High School decided to tackle the age old rebellion comedy with an influx of punk rock, even including the band who started the entire genre into the main cast. It’s raw, goofy, fairly light on plot, but has become a cult classic for many fans of the Ramones and teen comedies in general.

At Vince Lombardi High, winning is better than losing, and the kids are about to run full tilt into the teachers with rabid glee. School rebel Riff Randell (horror queen, P.J. Soles) is a rebel with a cause, and her cause is The Ramones. She lives her life for punk rock and the desire to maybe, just maybe, get Joey Ramone to look at her and use one of her songs. However, a new principal comes to town in the form of Evelyn Togar (Mary Woronov), and Miss Togar is not going to stand for the ills and evils that is rock music in her school! When Riff and her best friend Kate Rambeau (Dey Young) get tickets for all the students to go to the upcoming Ramones concert it’s all out war, with Miss Togar trying her best to squash their childhood dreams, while Riff and Kate just wanna party.

There’s some mild sub plots with a dorky football player named Tom Roberts (Vincent Van Patten) trying to get into Riff’s pants (only for Kate to have the hots for Tom), but this is really just a 95 minute commercial for The Ramones. The band members participated in the movie for about 30% of the time, and even spent the last act giving a full on concert for the teens, with quite a few songs actually thrown in. Even when they’re not on stage as themselves Riff is fantasizing about Joey, their songs infuse every musical note of the score, and the subject matter is all about going to their concert. I mean, using a movie to promote a band isn’t anything big, but it’s pretty obvious early on that the entire premise of the movie was to act as a cross promotion to the legendary punk rock band’s peak in their career. The story takes second place, and when it is IS put in the forefront, it comes across like a mix between 1970s National Lampoon films, and Wet, Hot, American Summer.

There’s some degree of filmic structure to the venture, but the movie plays out as a stream of concsiousness experiment with 90% of the non Ramones portions being Tom trying to get in Riff’s pants, and Kate trying to get Tom to look at her, or Principal Togar trying to burn the “evil” rock ‘n’ roll music before the rebellious teens get any more wise ideas. The movie is one one of those love it or “meh” it type of movies that has garnered a very ardent cult following over the last 40 years. It tries to take the Rebel Without a Cause teen rebellion of James Deen and transform it to a late 70s punk rock comedy, and I happen to be one of the people who “meh” the film. The loose structure of the plot, and the obviously blatant Ramones promoting kept it from really being that great in my eyes, but I know that my opinion on that is NOT shared by a lot of cult comedy fans. It’s a strange film, but one that has stuck a chord with many for sure.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Shout’s AVC encode for the 40th anniversary was fantastic, and boasted being taken from a 4K remaster from the original camera negative, and this release boasts the same claim. Now I don’t know whether they made a NEW new remaster, or just used the same master from the OCN from 2019 or not and just added Dolby Vision, but either way the end result is great. Print damage and source anomalies are still gone, and the fine details and color saturation is jaw dropping. The film has always had a mildly soft look with some heavy grain, but it looks REALLY nice in comparison even to the Blu-ray from 5 years ago (the old 2010 disc is another story...ugg) and colors really pop with the Dolby Vision. It’s not enough to look cartoonish and goofy, but Rock ‘n’ Roll High School has always had an overly saturated color palate that overly pops more than expected. Cherry res and bright blues and pastel’s equally. All in all, this is an IMPRESSIVE upgrade over the Blu-ray, which was already a great looking disc.








Audio:

Here comes the one point where I have to say “I know it’s not great, but there’s a reason” for the lackluster audio quality that’s been found on both releases of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School. If you listen to the commentaries Director Allan Arkush admits that the equipment used to record the film’s audio was not the best, and the source material really never sounded good even back in 1979. There’s some hissing and crackling in the background, and the thinness of the mix is very obvious. Loud vocals and signing tend to distort a bit in the higher decibel levels, but still remain intelligible. The music is mostly well done, though there’s some moments where it lacks the punch it really should have had, even for a 2.0 track. The reality of the situation is, the movie has NEVER sounded great, and the audio mix seems to fall in line with the quality of the audio master’s condition from what we’ve been told. It may not be great, but this is not a movie that’s going to benefit from someone else tackling the sound issue.

EDIT: It appears that there was a line of dialog missing from 9:48 in the Shout! Studios Blu-ray, but it is now reinserted for this track, so while it's NEARLY identical, it's been corrected










Extras:

Disc One - 4K UHD
• NEW 4K Scan From the Original Camera Negative
• Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Dual Mono
• NEW Audio Commentary With Stephen B. Armstrong, Author Of “I Want You Around: The Ramones And The Making Of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”
• Audio Commentary With Allan Arkush, Mike Finnell And Richard Whitley
• Audio Commentary With Allan Arkush And Actors P.J. Soles And Clint Howard
• Audio Commentary With Richard Whitley And Russ Dvonch
• Audio Commentary With Executive Producer Roger Corman And Actress Dey Young

Disc Two - Blu-ray
• NEW 4K Scan From the Original Camera Negative
• NEW Audio Commentary With Stephen B. Armstrong, Author Of “I Want You Around: The Ramones And The Making Of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”
• Audio Commentary With Allan Arkush, Mike Finnell And Richard Whitley
• Audio Commentary With Allan Arkush And Actors P.J. Soles And Clint Howard
• Audio Commentary With Richard Whitley And Russ Dvonch
• Audio Commentary With Executive Producer Roger Corman And Actress Dey Young

Disc Three - Blu-ray Special Features
• NEW Interview with Musician and Actor Marky Ramone
• Class of '79: 40 Years of Rock 'n' Roll High School - Expanded Edition
• Back to School: A Retrospective
• Staying After Class: Interview with Actors P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten and Dey Young
• Inverview with Roger Corman Conducted by Leonard Maltin
• Audio Outtakes from the Roxy
• Original Radio Ads
• Theatrical Trailer
• Tv Spot
• NEW Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever (in standard def)
• NEW Trailers from Hell - Filmmaker Eli Roth on Rock 'n' Roll High School
• NEW Happy Birthday Joey!
• NEW The Real Riff Randell
• NEW Who Wrote Rock 'n' Roll High School?

Final Score: ​

Rock ‘N’ Roll High School is a fun movie, but a fractured cult classic for sure. I’m not overly wild about it, but I do recognize the cult status of the film as well as really appreciate hearing that much of The Ramones in one movie (huge Ramones fan here). Shout Factory really spruced this edition up as well too. Like usual, Shout! Studio’s 4K UHD release features 2 new extras and a new 4K encode (which claims to be a new 4K scan from the OCN, but the Blu-ray from 5 years ago stated the same thing, so I’m not sure if they’re using that one, or a NEW new one for this release). Video is good, the added extras are great (especially Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever, which fans have been begging for for years, even if it's only in SD) but it’s a subtle upgrade over the great Blu-ray so those wanting to upgrade may have some pondering to do. For everyone else, this is naturally the best version out there for a cult classic. Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: P.J. Soles, Vincent Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young, Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone
Directed by: Allan Arkush, Joe Dante (Uncredited)
Written by: Richard Whitley, Russ Dvonch, Joseph McBride
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: PG
Runtime: 94 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: December 10th, 2024

Recommendation: Must Buy for Fans

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never saw this. Will check it out.