Radio Rebel (2012)
High school senior Tara is so painfully shy that she dreads speaking to anyone in the hallways or getting called on in class. But in the privacy of her bedroom with her iPod in hand, she rocks out -- doing mock broadcasts for Miami's hottest FM radio station, which happens to be owned by her stepfather. When a slot opens up at The SLAM, Tara surprises herself by blossoming behind the mike into confident, "Radio Rebel" -- and to everyone's shock, she's a hit!
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That was an excellent one.
Don't Believe the Hype
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Radio Rebel is about the cliché shy girl that doesn't have many friends, with of course. The predictable twist. She's a beloved anonymous DJ, looked up to by all her school peeps. But they don't know its her. Obviously. It has all the characters and persona's to make the ultimate cringe-worthy teen movie, the mean girl, the crush, the outspoken and slightly over-enthusiastic best friend and most of all: cringe- worthy acting and bad plot.There was, yes some touching and heart-spoken parts of this movie. But nearly every single teen movie has something about "empowering yourself" and "not letting anyone bring you down". Its pretty obvious that this movie tried hard, maybe even too hard. And no doubt Debby Ryan is a good actress, because she wouldn't be where she is now without some good acting chops. But this movie does not make her shine, quite frankly. It does the opposite.I'm sorry to say it myself but I can only be brutally honest in a review, not sugarcoat everything and make you think this movie is good. Because, its not. It's quite cliché, predictable and badly acted. Sorry Debby.
I'm not going to deny, when I saw this film announced, first thought "sounds interesting", but then I read "Disney" at the bottom and I started regretting my first feelings and wondering if I suffered from mental insanity. But no, I'm still here, not locked in a safe room or anything.Let's start with basics. Lesson one, children, grasping the standard Disney plot - unpopular girl with big dreams, a nemesis/Queen Bee who ALSO loves that same big dream and tries to make unpopular girl's life miserable in order to get it, a "hot" guy is thrown in between the process, the guy notices Unpopular Girl but then is dragged away by Queen Bee, a failed-attempt at character development and BAM! ...there's a dance, Queen Bee becomes Queen Fail and Unpopular Girl gets the guy.While "Radio Rebel" DOES somewhat follow the basic scheme, it at least reaches a level of awesomeness. Don't get me wrong, I see the resemblance (or was it "copying of"?) "Pump Up the Volume", but what made it worthy of seeing was the fact that it adapted to what today's teens understood, lived, and would enjoy seeing. Debby Ryan (portraying main character, Tara) is a rising star that a lot of teens know and look up to - so her portraying a shy high schooler with issues of her own (the cute guy she's too afraid to talk to, the Queen Bee trying to bring her down, not being that close with her new stepfather, and have I mentioned the extreme shyness that could be mistaken for monastic silence?). It's what us average teens know and breathe. So while there's nothing sparkly in the scheme, it speaks to today's teens and that's what we like. Not to mention, there were a few giggles here and there. More to the "like" list.So what am I saying? I'm saying that this film is different from the usual "same story, same boring" pattern that Disney movies tend to follow...while it was strongly based from "Pump Up the Volume", it still had strong elements that make me want to watch it again, particularly the lessons that shy high schooler Tara teaches us - to just be ourselves...to embrace it and not just hide it away in the dark (or in Tara's case, a recording studio), to go out into the sunlight, scream, and let our uniqueness shine in the daylight.
This movie is an awful ripoff of the movie "Pump up the volume" staring Christian Slater(1990). I just can"t believe this. I have no words for this. Or maybe I do. Although the original is not a motion picture masterpiece, it conveys the reality of our educational system with a flare of comedy and reality. The Movie "Radio Rebel" Is an absolute stupid ripoff of the movie "Pump Up The Volume". What a lame ass attempt at a remake without remake permission. What really sucks is that I have to wright 10 lines to get this review to show up. I have to fill up two more lines up yet, so I will say the movie called Radio Rebel (2012)Absolutely sucks. Don't watch Radio Rebel. Pump up the volume is much better.
One of the best Disney movies out. Not a bad message to the viewers and it doesn't seem fake, like most of Disney's stuff. The message of being yourself, letting your voice be heard is something a lot of kids in the viewing audience needs to see and hear. Debby Ryan is amazing. I loved her in Jessie but she really shines in this movie. The Stacey character is bit annoying, and each "group" has an airhead best friend, that is getting really old but Disney has to have those ditsy characters to make it funny I guess. The story line goes along well with what is going in the world, with the protests. It really makes a stand on the whole 'fight the power' and 'sticj it to the man' concept. Let your voice be heard, right?