You honestly don't turn on the Disney
Channel expecting anything worthwhile let alone a program with
substance that is thought provoking and or in this case, original.
The case in point, 2012's Disney Channel “Original” Movie, Radio
Rebel. The movie in question is practically a remake of the stellar
and totally awesome 1990 Christian Slater vehicle, Pump Up The
Volume; his opus in my opinion. Besides sharing plot and character similarities with Pump Up The Volume, Radio Rebel goes as far as sharing a similar tag line. In turn, makes it the very definition of the word rehash.
Radio Rebel
“Can the
girl who never speaks... Become the voice of a generation? “
Pump Up The Volume!
“The Voice of a Generation.”
...Excuse me while I load my .357!
Now before I give my final thoughts on
the piece of dog shit that is Radio Rebel, allow me to compare and
contrast both films to let you be the judge.
The Typical School Loner
Future porn starlet, Debby Ryan, plays shy outsider Tara Adams and
Christian Slater plays shy outsider Mark Hunter. Both don't have any
friends and even have trouble answering questions when called on upon
during class. They both keep their frustrations, emotions, ideas and
what not to themselves. But only if they had a forum to vent said
frustrations and angst.
Oh, man...
Alter Ego
In
the privacy of his parents' basement, Mark builds an FM pirate radio
and begins deejaying as Hard Harry, sometimes Happy Harry Hard-on
when he's feeling frisky. Mark as Hard Harry begins dishing out his
thoughts ranging from taste in music, jackin' off to pressures of
being a teenager and motivational speeches set to the smooth sounds
of Punk Rock. Of course you know Tara isn't going to follow that Punk Rock Credo, DIY Culture(Do It Yourself) by building her own pirate radio in this day and age. She starts her very own Podcast. Of course it's a fuckin' Podcast. She gives up the movie's plot by taking the name Radio Rebel and starts jamming out to stuff youngsters call music nowadays. Eventually Tara receives help from her stepfather after he finds out she's in fact Radio Rebel. The scene has some sexual undertones, but not as bad as Marky Mark in Transformers 4. It's definitely borderline Burger King Creepy, but not as bad. Conveniently her stepfather runs the popular radio station in all of Seattle and hires her at his radio station where she fails at being a certain famous Seattle radio personality. Regardless, both Tara and Mark find solace while performing as their
alter egos. Moving along...
"The doctor is in."
The Love Interest
I'd love to compare love interests in both films, I'm kidding, but
I'm just going to post this picture of Samantha Mathis from Pump Up
The Volume.
She's like the hot rocker chick that I've always wanted. Complete
with a smokin' bod and a bitchen personality.
Yummmy!
Evil Principal
Both films main protagonist is the school principal. Principal
Moreno(Rebel Radio) and Principal Creswood(Pump Up The Volume) are
essentially the same character. Only differences between the two is
what they do to punish the students. Moreno decides to
cancel the school prom in spite of Radio Rebel. Creswood on the
other hand is expelling students with low SAT scores just to keep the
school's average high. Which effectively places Creswood above Moreno
on the Bitch Scale. Easily a 9 for sure.
Inspiring The Masses
That's not a troll, that's Seth Green!
Eventually, Radio Rebel and Hard Harry encourage, inspire and
motivate their listeners(which only seems like their graduating
class) to handle their assorted pressures associated with being a teenager head-on by starting a quasi-revolution. I can understand the
pressures that are associated with Generation-X, but I can't
understand why the Everyone Gets a Trophy Generation would feel
pressured to the point they needed to rebel and be oneself. But that's a story for a different day.
But if you wanna talk pressure, imagine being twelve years old
calling your crush Leanne Gibson on a CORDED telephone and having her
father pick up. Now that's pressure.
The Martyr
In the climax of both films, the heroes' alter egos are revealed by
sacrificing their identities. In both cases, everybody shits a brick
and for the most part are generally stunned. However, in Radio Rebel,
when the Principal threatens to expel Tara is in fact the rebel, her fellow
students step up to the plate and do the typical “No, I'm the
person you're looking for” thing. Unfortunately for Mark, unlike
Tara who gets off easy from Principal Moreno and decides she wants
some dick on MORP night(Prom spelled backwards), he's arrested and
carried away. Mark's classmates are so inspired from the act they
witness that they start their own pirate radio programs al la Hard
Harry. Funny thing about Tara's classmates, after they find out about her secret identity and
step up, they act as if nothing fuckin' happened in the last
ten minutes.
A Few Major Differences
Radio Rebel barely strays away from the Pump Up The Volume plot with
the prom being canceled rather than the whole SAT conspiracy.
Obviously Pump Up The Volume is darker in tone and edgier than
anything Disney has pumped out since Down and Out In Beverley Hills.
Complete with flashes of Generation-X, teenagers going ape
shit and the most dreaded thing in movies aimed towards the young and
restless, teen suicide. Oh, no. .
Final Thoughts
I think it's safe to say that both Erik
Patterson and Jessica Scott(Rebel Radio's screenwriters) knew exactly
what they were doing when they opened FinalDraft and commenced work.
It's either a failed homage to a highly underrated film or they were
both that lazy and didn't give a fuck knowing they were going to get paid
the big bucks whether people knew it was a rehash or not. I'm leaning
towards the latter. Same shit, different shovel as never rung so
true. I'm surprised somebody green-lit this. On second thought, it's Disney. They make We Don't Give a Fuck money. Long story short, Rehash Rebel... um... Radio Rebel is and always will be the Disney rehash of Pump Up The Volume minus the grit, tits,
substance and balls!
Just watch Slater's opus.
-Matthew Allen
-Matthew Allen
Not gonna say I disagree with your analysis, but I think that the lowering of the stakes has less to do with a different generation, and more to do with who made it. I certainly think that Radio Rebel is a rip off of Pump Up the Volume, which I see as much superior. But I think that the focus on seeing tits in one and not in the other is kinda missing the point.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that Radio Rebel fails to live up to the film it's ripping off is that it's aimed at a younger audience. I think the film is simply aimed at middle schoolers and high school freshmen rather than at high school seniors. And I think that this shift is what results in them telling the same story but with lower stakes, a less compelling villain, and a lot more acceptance of the power structures that we live under.
And of course this happened. This movie should never have been made.
However, I think your focus on the fact that the romantic interest in the better movie is more fuckable is very uncomfortable (as is the complete nonsequator that is metioning that the main actress went on to work in porn). And I don't think that RR should have had a plot about a gay kid committing suicide, because this isn't a movie for young adults, it's fundamentally and obviously aimed at kids. I don't think that a sex scene, or suicide should have a place in a movie aimed at 12 year olds.
If the movie were to still exist and I had to improve it, I think keeping the higher stakes of kids being kicked out would be necessary to make the movie have meaning.
In the end, whatever, go off. I just thought that I might add to the discourse with a similar position with a different perspective.
OFC it's a ripp off. Disney has barley any original content. A lot of their best sellers are European fairy tales.Which they have just bought the rights to.
ReplyDeleteBut as the other guy pointed out.They have to PC wash it, in order to aim it at a different audience.Just like with all the other remakes that's been done lately Heather's Red Dawn etc.
Makes me wonder...We who lived in the 80s were we less impressionable, or more?
With all the information out there now,shouldn't it be harder to affect kids?