The immortal PJ Soles plays the equally immortal Riff Randell in Rock N Roll High School, a 1979 Roger Corman production co-written by Joe Dante (of Gremlins fame) and directed by Allan Arkush (of Caddyshack II and a ton of TV series).

Riff is obsessed with The Ramones. They're her favorite band in the universe and she wants nothing more than to experience them live when they roll through her town in the coming days. In order to score herself some tickets, Riff is going to have to camp out at the box office but seeing as she's a high school student, that might be a problem, as she's supposed to be in class all day and there's no way that the hard nosed principal, Ms. Togar (Mary Woronov of Sugar Cookies) is going to let her skip out.

Riff comes up with some interesting excuses to get out of class but things are starting to get kind of odd at the school when a new boy shows up named Tom Roberts (Vincent Van Patten of Hell Night) and is almost instantly smitten with the lovely young Riff. Tom's a bit of a dork though, and he knows he doesn't stand much of a chance with his new found heart throb. He'll need some help if he wants to win her heart and so he turns to Eaglebauer (The Ice Cream Man himself, Clint Howard), the businessman of the school in hopes of learning a few pointers on how to get in with the fairer sex.

While all this is going on, it turns out that another new student, the quiet but oh so cute Kate Rambeau (Dey Young of The Running Man) has got a huge secret crush on Tom. Riff has no problem with this whatsoever, for as we already know, her heart belongs to none other than Joey Ramone.

With concert tickets firmly in hand, Riff hopes to bring her new song, Rock N Roll High School, to Joey and the rest of the band in hopes that they'll record it but Ms. Togar soon uncovers Riff's plot to skip out on class and she confiscates her Ramones tickets. Will Riff be able to make it to the show on time? Will she get to meet Joey Ramone and ply her song on him and the rest of the band? Find out, in Rock N Roll High School!

Rock N Roll High School is goofy, hokey, really corny, and a whole lot of fun! The humor is as cheesy as it comes but it works in the context of the film. Sure, most of the characters are cliches but again, in the context of the world where the story takes place, it only makes sense. The performances suit the tone of the movie perfectly and Mary Woronov in particular really nails her part. PJ Soles has never been more likeable here, she's completely cute and you can see why Tom falls for her pretty fast. While she might be better known for her work in Halloween as it was more commercially successful, for many fans her signature performance will always be her turn as Riff Randell. Clint Howard is fantastic and while the whole concept of taking love life advice from him considering his acting work in The Ice Cram Man and Evil Speak is completely bizarre, he does do a good job with the material.

The pacing of the movie is dead on, there's never a problem where too much time passes between jokes, be they more subtle attempts at humor by way of some clever dialogue, or down right stupid slapstick pieces like a mouse who explodes when introduced to the pure rock fury of the Ramones by way of a rock-o-meter. Speaking of the Ramones, their performance here is perfectly suited to the movie. Joey's not known for his acting ability but it doesn't matter here – Riff sees him as a rock n roll God and in turn, so do we share her enthusiasm for their music.

While the production values are low and it times it might borrow a little bit from Grease, Rock N Roll High School has managed to stand the test of time because it has spirit. The movie plays around with themes of teenage rebellion and of the generation gap – two things that will never go out of style – and it does so with a playful sense of humor and it's just plain fun.

Video:

Now for the bad news – though the packaging states that the movie is presented in a 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, the movie is not enhanced for anamorphic sets and this looks like exactly the same transfer that the movie received on the previous release from New Concorde. While this is a disappointment, the video quality isn't terrible and it looks like the source materials were in pretty decent shape. There are some mild compression artifacts and some edge enhancement present but there's not much worth complaining about in terms of color reproduction or serious print damage aside from some specks here and there and a bit of grain. The black levels stay pretty strong and although some scenes are a little on the soft side.