Wonderfully offbeat film!

Overrated

Fresh and Exciting

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Poor acting. I mean awful. Even for a kids movie. The original music was pretty poor but not the worst I've seen. The overall cinematography and film quality is good but I just cannot express how absolutely horrible this is. Truly I'm shocked that the director did not attempt to take his own life during filming. Or perhaps he did and that's why turned out so bad. I'm even embarrassed my daughter wanted to watch it.

The term 'lovecraftian' typically applies to horrors beyond comprehension of which cannot be described my simple adjective phrases. Standing Ovation is quite possible the most disturbing and impossibly horrifying thing ever in the known universe.From the rancid digital photography that plagued our television sets in the mid 2000's. The disturbing affection these teenage girls have for attractive men up to 3 times their own age. The backhanded mention about the little girl who can talk to dead people. The gay stereotypes. The wigs, oh lord in heaven the wigs. The extras stood around in the background clearly looking at the camera crew. The clips from the movie obviously super-imposed onto televisions throughout. The obvious adults playing teenagers. The mercilessly long 100 minute running time. The "whoring up" of the young pre-teen actresses with make-up and piercings that makes you squirm in your own skin. The fact that every adult in the movie, is an unbelievable dick to the kids in the movie. The heavy use of autotune on the songs that ruins the authenticity of the singing scenes, this heavy a use of autotune already makes the movie feel incredibly dated. The fact that one of the characters carries around a pepper spray bottle full of perfume and uses it to harm animals. The fact that apparently an entire fire station was put out of action to film scenes in this wretched movie, and the firemen who can't stop laughing during. The sub-plot about the grandpa's gambling addiction that may lead the main characters into homelessness. The scene where the kids lock a grown man inside a claw machine with a king cobra. The atrocious green-screening, was it easier than just shooting someone getting out of a car outside?. The music video where a young boy starts talking normally but as soon as he starts singing he has a deep adult voice. The disturbing abundance of naked fat bodies. The fact that these musical numbers are absolutely unintelligible and clearly just a bunch of jumbled sentences that somehow manage to rhyme. The manager character is clearly a closet psychopath who could snap at any moment. The epilogue that goes on for 20 minutes, THEY WIN THE TALENT SHOW, why does it need to keep going, I don't care if they get a record deal or keep performing, they already won the prize money. The villain they introduce in the last 10 minutes who stole some money from a safe, but it actually belonged to one of the singers father who may have stolen it from the government. WHAT KID WILL CARE ABOUT THIS?. The voice screaming hello as a ringtone, who would want that?. The dad character just offhandedly buys someone a house, you know because that's something you give to casual acquaintances. The ceaseless butchering of classic pop songs throughout.I could spend the rest of my natural life studying the flaws in this film and still not be done.This movie is not a bad movie, it transcends the very meaning of "bad movie". This movie journeys beyond the event horizon and into the black abyss of the impossible, a movie that charts entire new regions of horror, to merely gaze upon this movie is to look into the face of the infinite.Mere mortals should stay far away from this movie, to do so is to go insane. Even Lovecrafts own Old One's shudder at the mention, the mere thought of Stewart Raffill's Standing Ovation.

I have watched a lot of movies lately that have all been predictable and boring. This movie was neither the jumping plot lines and new characters kept me guess to where the story was going. First I thought the movie was an empowering group of rag-tag underdogs rise to fame. I was mistaken when I found out it was a heart wrenching story of a girl from Jersey looking to right the wrongs of the past and get her fathers stolen money back from the man who stole it. But there was another twist that put me on the right path to a daughter who wanted to find her father who had abandoned her years ago to make it big so that he could finally buy her love and respect!! It was inspiring to see so many things come together at the end making me feel that there really is a happy ending for everyone even if you make wigs!

My friends and I have a thing called "Bad Teen Movie Night" where we get together after work and watch a marathon of bad teen movies. Upon seeing the title and description we were fully prepared for an awful film, which was what we expected going into it. What we got was one of the poorest excuses for a film I've ever seen.The two main problems were the clichés and the fact that there were too many plot lines.You've got a group of 11 year olds who are running around NYC by themselves trying to win a million dollars. The only way they are getting around is because the lead girls alcoholic/gabbling/Irish caricature Grandfather who steals rent money drives them around, leaving our poor heroine to have to act like the adult at 11 years old. Not only that but there's a pint sized Al Capone wannabe whose trying to find a man who stole 90k from her dad ten years ago. Armed with her snakes, poison and eels she gets her answers. These two stories intermingle the entire time for no reason at all while the girls do an assortment of other random things. Such as star in a commercial, battle the evil "wiggies" and compete for the million dollar prize.If that's not silly enough there are a number of things that baffle me beyond belief. There's a young character named Alana who wanders around with no supervision from her father. In one scene the girls are in a night club despite not being old enough to drive. And of course an assortment of spineless adult characters who let the little brats do as they please.During the film the girls compete against another group of older, much more talented girls named the "Wiggies" for the money. And honestly? We were all rooting for the wiggies. The sign of a truly terrible movie is one where you refuse to root for the hero. The icing on the cake is that when they find the man that stole the 90K from the little gangster wannabe, not only is he head of the contest the girls entered, he is the main girls father who ran away years ago. (Did I forget to mention her mother is dead and her dad bailed?)But it's all okay. Because in the end he brings Christmas IN JULY, I wish I was making this up, and buys her affection.I wish I could give this movie a lower rating than a 1. The songs aren't all bad, most are rather catchy. It was the plot/story itself and bad acting that made this movie cringe worthy. Arguably the worst movie i've ever seen in my life.