Shake, Rattle and Rock! (TV 1994)

Two young girls start a band and open up a nightclub in town where the local kids can hang out and stay out of trouble, but they encounter opposition from local people who think rock is the... See full summary »

Director:

Allan Arkush

Writer:

Trish Soodik

Stars:

Renée Zellweger, Howie Mandel, Patricia Childress

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Renée Zellweger	...	Susan
Howie Mandel	...	Danny Klay
Patricia Childress	...	Cookie
Max Perlich	...	Tony
Latanyia Baldwin	...	Sireena
Necia Bray	...	The Sirens
Josina Elder	...	The Sirens
Wendi Williams	...	The Sirens
Gerrit Graham	...	Lipsky
John Doe	...	Lucky
James Intveld	...	Bubber
Riki Rachtman	...	Eddie Cochran
Danny Boy	...	Cochran's Drummer Boy
Nora Dunn	...	Margo
Mary Woronov	...	E. Joyce Togar

Storyline

Two young girls start a band and open up a nightclub in town where the local kids can hang out and stay out of trouble, but they encounter opposition from local people who think rock is the devil's music and will corrupt their kids.

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Plot Keywords:

1950s | punctuation in title | comma in title | exclamation point in title

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Taglines:

If rock'n'roll is bad ... she doesn't want to be good!

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 August 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Glory Days

Company Credits

Production Co:

Spelling Films International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The line "We're desperate - get used to it," heard twice, is a reference to the song "We're Desperate" by John Doe 's band X.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits Sireena's aunt discusses the publishing rights of their songs with their new label head.

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Connections

Follows Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

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Soundtracks

"C'MON EVERYBODY"
Written by Eddie Cochran & Jerry Capehart
Performed by Eddie Cochran

User Reviews

Shake, Rattle and Pitch (As In, Out The Window)

Shake, Rattle and Rock was a 1994 effort made by Renee Zellweger before she was famous, so I suppose she can be forgiven for this film (and I use that word loosely). Renee does at least try to make the best of a hackneyed plot, about kids who just want to rock 'n' roll in 1950's America, while looking adorable as a redhead in the process.

However, even her cuteness cannot save this blatantly cheap looking movie. I have no problem with a movie being low budget (a lot of my favourite movies are of the independent variety) but a movie should never look this cheap. Also it's kind of hard to have a period piece when it looked like there was very little money, talent or competence to work with. I didn't see one classic car, and isn't that a prerequisite of a movie that's supposed to take place in past (especially the 50's or 60's)? Another bad sign that I noticed right away was that the opening credits were done in the same style of font that is often favoured by cheap porn. Now I'm not a porn connoisseur mind you, but I have seen a few with this same style of (hilariously cheap looking) opening credits.

Zellweger plays a chick named Susan whose parents just don't get her, so she unleashes her frustrations by dancing it up as a regular on an American Bandstand rip off show called The 3 O'clock Bop (or something like that) that is hosted by Howie Mandel! That should be a red light right from the start; that Howie Mandel is making an attempt to act! This movie was so pathetically bad that I found it hysterical. There are some comments on this site that say this film was a satire, and hence was trying to be horrible on purpose, but I really and honestly think that it took itself seriously. And THAT made me laugh my ass off! How did I come to watch such a train wreck? I'm visiting my parents for a few days and I woke up about two hours ago and couldn't get back to sleep, and I actually found Shake, Rattle and Rock on my parents DVD shelf. What possessed my mother to buy this is beyond me, so I will have to investigate when she gets up. I'm betting five bucks that she came across it in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart...wait a minute, I can't make a bet with myself! Anyway, I have to make fun when she gets up none the less. Most likely this DVD was purchased for five bucks or less, but it's still a gip.

I can't really review this movie because I only watched about 45 minutes of it before I had to turn it off! It's pretty bad that I couldn't force myself to sit through the entire 83 minutes, but maybe I'll torture myself and watch the remainder of it later if I'm really and truly bored (and I would have to be).

I just really couldn't stomach watching Renee be attracted to the token bad boy of the movie, because it's obvious this teenage motorcycle hoodlum is at least 40! Wait, I have the IMDb page open for this piece of junk, let me check out the motorcycle hoods filmography. YES, I was right! The actor's name is John Doe (of all names) and he WAS 40 when this movie was made! I was jovial before, but now I'm cracking up! The make-up in Shake, Rattle and Rock was obviously one of the films many other oversights, and was probably done by the directors little sister. I say this because 40-year-old teenage motorcycle punk has a noticeable black eye that pops up (not long before I turned the movie off) that isn't explained, and it looks like an attempt to conceal it was made with a dollop of cheap foundation. I'm guessing that someone on set punched him because of his lousy acting, and that fact that he was 20 years too old for this damn part.

The breaking point for me came when the cast started doing a montage/dance sequence in slow motion while getting ready for the big concert. Ugh, I must have looked bi-polar at that moment because I was both disgusted and laughing so hard that my stomach muscles hurt. Only watch this movie if you are in the mood to see what parts an A-list actress like Renee Zellweger had to reduce herself to back when she was slumming it in Hollywood.