User Reviews

I'm not ashamed to admit that I love this movie even though it's a bit run down, raw/gritty and has some cringe-worthy 80's dancing not to mention the clothing .. yikes! While preparing for the annual "Sing," talent show; where the seniors compete against the juniors in a musical production; the board of education decides to close the local school & stop the kids from proceeding with their performance. Despite all odds & with the help of their teachers Bracco & LaBelle the students band together with the neighbourhood to hold "Sing" one more time.

While it is completely predictable, when you give into the music and the passion the students & teachers display while they defy the ban on their show, you become hooked.

All the characters are strong, sensitive and ultimately endearing. Peter Dobson (from TV show Lenny) stars as the bad boy turned good after Bracco takes an interest in saving him and technically blackmails him into becoming involved in the production. Dobson & Steen make their "own romance" while being forced to collaborate as the senior leaders. Patti LaBelle can certainly belt out a tune & she does with "Total Concentration" & Cuba Gooding Jr. gives a "knockout" performance! If you like 80's movies and you haven't seen this I would recommended it. The 80's music in the soundtrack is very catchy and while the movie may appear dull in parts the ending is strong. I love the senior class's performance, the choice of song fits perfectly "One more time, SING the song. There's a power in our voices hopeful and strong. Years from now, somewhere down the line, we'll remember and we'll all SING, one more time!"

This decade long high school tradition could be Central's last, that is if it goes on at all. This is an old fashioned themed musical with an 80's beat, and there's more than a passing resemblance to the "Sister Act" movies, minus the nuns. Alumni Lorraine Bracco is back at her alma matter, one of the teachers involved in putting on a high school musical as part of a contest, and the students decide on "Romeo and Juliet" as the theme for their show, how original. Bracco uses blackmail to involve troubled student Peter Dobson into getting involved, but the board of education of the city of New York is bored by the underachieving school and announces that it will be closing.

The big movie musical of 1989 that nobody saw and has been pretty much forgotten, this has all the tiresome, overused clichés. Dobson falls for pretty Jessica Steen whose struggling mother Louise Lasser seems embittered and takes it out on her daughter. Bracco's strong accent and actions doesn't make her seem very much like the model teacher, and the show within the show reminds me of many of the flop Broadway musicals I've seen with overstuffed staging and nose pinching awfulness, but that added probably added some realistic giggles for me recalling how audiences get manipulated by style over substance. A big waste Patti LaBelle fans as her one big number only has her singing mostly over action elsewhere. The best moment was the horrible singing for auditions to "Like a Virgin". They may hit the right keys in the end, but the note left me feeling flat.