Reviews & Ratings for
The Zoo Gang More at IMDbPro »

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Dance Hall Days (minor spoilers), 18 February 2007

Author: Pepper Anne from Orlando, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Nostalgics should enjoy this mid-80s cheese fest, as far as spying familiar faces of the decade: Jason Gedrick (who routinely played the troubled, but well-meaning defender teen), Bobby Jacoby, Marc Price, and Jackie Earle Haley.

But as a movie geared for older kids (given that the young characters have no problem letting the expletives fly and hence the PG-13 rating), it is indeed, as another viewer wrote, predictable. A bunch of trouble teens invest themselves in putting together a rock club they once thought was owned by the bum (because of squatter's rights) who granted them permission to use the club. So when the feud with their rivals get out of hand, they rivals take advantage of the lack of property claims and so the Zoo Gang (named for their rock club) as the underdogs, have to do what they can to save the club.

It's terribly dated. With its predictability, there is plenty of 80s corniness: the work-out montage, the bad haircuts (get a load of Jackie Earle Haley's mullet-tude), and dialog. Granted, the filmmakers could only be sophisticated to a certain point in a movie that primarily stars and is primarily geared towards teens and pre-teens.

4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Injustice, 14 May 2003

Author: helfeleather

This is the sad story of the Donnely brothers. They want to be accepted by their peers but they can't because of bourgeois prejudices. The local rich kids use their parents' money to convert a deserted warehouse into a club. The boys want to help out, but their poor single father can't spare any money. So the boys offer to work at the club. They even throw out a troublemaker to show their good intentions. However, the rich kids don't want them around. The boys are expelled from the club, teased about their clothes and hair, ostracised from the community and even assaulted.

4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Troubled teens have trouble with other troubled teens, 25 April 2000

Author: helpless_dancer from Broken Bow, Oklahoma

Another in a long line of low budget, predictable teen movies. A group of nice kids rent a building from a skid row bum who claims to be in possession of the domicile. Of course, he lied. They work hard to turn it into a rock club, but are ousted by a local repo company run by a smarmy thug and his imbecile boys. Things come to a head when the teens learn they can have the property back if they re-install the bum into his living quarters on the place before a certain date. This film should appeal to young teens, but me, I thought it was a total waste of time.

Watched the movie being filmed, 30 December 2008

Author: m_trevillyan from United States

I was living in Prescott when The Zoo Gang was being filmed. I lived right down the street from the main filming site. The club that the Donnelly's tried to take over was an old Checker Auto Parts Store before they closed it down. The Hotel that was across from that was the Hassayampa Hotel. That is where the other kids got on top of the roof and cheered everyone on. Across the street from the Hassayampa was the old Library, I used to go to that Library when I was a little girl before they built the new one. Down the street from there was the Marina Movie Theater. I watched many movies in that Theater. The hill that they take the motor home down on is Elk's Hill, we used to sled down that hill when we were kids in the winter when it snowed. We used to skate in the Plaza by Bucky O'Neal in the square. My fondest memories in Prescott are around the time that this movie was being filmed. I had a couple of friend's that were extras in the movie. So, I know this movie personally, I am a native of Prescott. I thought it was cool to actually know people that got to be extras in it.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
A great movie for its time., 9 April 2002

Author: (stupidones) from Lincoln, NE USA

I first saw The Zoo Gang when I was a child of about five. The story itself is the cliche'd 80's movie where a group of kids beat the odds to fight for the club that they have, the place that gives them meaning. They fight an incoming developer and his hick family by training with Ben Vereen, otherwise known as Chicken George from Roots. When their training is finished, they realize that they've had the power the whole time to defend themselves and their friendships are made even stronger.

1 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Hollywood Brats, 1 February 2008
Author: jorvik1 from United States

I was bouncing a bar in nearby Prescott Valley where the film the Zoo Gang was being filmed at was once our competitors's club that had gone under due to whatever, so anyways, an under age Jackie Earle Haley wanted in the club and was stopped at the door, and was refused entry,about 15 minutes pass when i noticed sitting in a booth in back was Haley (had somehow got by the girl on the back door) well i asked him to kindly leave at which point he went into a rage, saying do i know who i am? and i said yes just another under age kid wanting to get drunk.So i booted his ass out. Still haven't seen the movie yet and i don't think it ever even made it past editing.

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