We saw the film The Runaways on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the AMC Covina 30 in Covina. Before seeing it, we hadn’t seen a movie in a theater since seeing 17 Again at the Pacific Theaters at the Americana on Brand in May 2009 (see earlier review). The AMC Covina 30 is the second closest movie theater to our home after the Regency on Citrus Avenue in Azusa (where we saw The Soloist in April 2009, see earlier review). But we hadn’t seen a film at the AMC Covina 30 since we saw Blades of Glory there in April 2007 nearly three years ago. It seems like a long time ago now. I think I once read that at one point the AMC Covina 30 had the most screens of any multiplex in L.A. County.
I first heard of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts when I first start listening to Rock and Roll music in the early 1980’s. I remember the song “I Love Rock and Roll” that I learned much later was a cover. In the mid to late 80’s I remember songs by Lita Ford playing on the radio such as “Kiss Me Deadly” and “Close my Eyes Forever”, her duet with Ozzy Osbourne. But it wasn’t until the mid-nineties that I heard of The Runaways. My younger brother bought a book published by SPIN magazine that was an encyclopedia of alternative music. It included all the bands and artists that they classified as “alternative” and listed and rated their albums. I’ve always enjoyed browsing through encyclopedias and back then there wasn’t much on the Internet. The alternative music encyclopedia had an entry for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts that mentioned The Runaways and that Lita Ford was part of the group.
The idea of Joan Jett and Lita Ford working together seemed intriguing but I didn’t pursue this interest because the Internet wasn’t a reliable source for research, the music stores only carried the popular stuff, and my musical tastes were more current alternative. I hadn’t even heard any of The Runaways’ music. It wasn’t until late 2009 or early 2010 that I would hear of the Runaways again. I saw the early preview for The Runaways movie on imdb.com. It looked like the typical rock band biopic with young stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, a former young child star who is now a teenager. But the trailer also included a loud, rockin’, slightly silly and very catchy Runaways song “Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb!” (I think the song is actually just called “Cherry Bomb”.) Stewart plays Joan Jett and Fanning plays Cherie Currie, the lead singer of The Runaways. Scout Taylor-Compton plays Lita Ford in what turns out of be a supporting role. It was hard to get the song “Cherry Bomb” out of our heads.
We decided to see the movie because the music sounded good and the story looked interesting. The Runaways were one of the first all-girl bands. The website for the movie, www.runawaysmovie.com, has a cherry bomb burning down and exploding for an intro and a cherry bomb wick for a scroll bar. But the best part of the site is that it plays the song “Cherry Bomb” in its entirety over and over: “Hello Daddy, hello Mom! I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!” The website said that the movie would be out in theaters on March 19. This was earlier than the April release given for the film on imdb.com. It’s always difficult to catch a movie after the first few weeks that it’s out (as L.A. Downtown News would say, its “first-fun” period) because so many other movies come out to take its place. After March 19, we learned that The Runaways had only been released in a limited number of theaters and wouldn’t be released widely until April 9.
We figured we would wait until after April 9 to see the film since March was a busy month for us. But then the weekend of March 27-28 opened up. We looked up online to see what select theaters were playing the film and found that one of them was the AMC Covina 30. I guess they have so many screens that they can include limited release movies. We looked up the best times and prices and found that the evening shows cost $11, the afternoon shows cost $9, and the one morning showtime at 11:45 am cost only $6 per person. That was our choice.
On Saturday, March 27 we left home at 11:35 am and got to the AMC Covina 30 less than ten minutes later. There were other people there; many kids possibly there to see How to Train Your Dragon. The tickets really did only cost $6 each. We arrived at theater number 6 where the movie was showing. It looked like the previews had already started but they were actually just ads. I guess now they show motion ads rather than still ads that they used to show before the film started. It’s almost like watching TV commercials. There were ads for the Marines, the TV show “V”, Coca-Cola, the UFC, and a Black-Eyed Peas concert. Then they showed a scrolling ad for the AMC Movie Watchers’ Network before the previews. There were four previews, two of which I had seen before. The first was the screwball comedy Get Him to the Greek starring Jonah Hill. The next was the more sophisticated comedy, “Cyrus” also with Jonah Hill. The third was expected: the latest Twilight movie, “Eclipse”, starring Kristen Stewart and with Dakota Fanning in a cameo appearance. That one didn’t look very different from the other Twilights. The fourth preview was for The Joneses, another silly movie. So the previews consisted of three silly movies and a blockbuster.
Now to review the feature presentation itself: it begins by giving the year: 1975 and the entire film really captures that time period through the costumes, setting, attitudes, and the music. It takes place in the L.A area except for the parts where the group is on tour. The cars all look retro, the phones have dials (though the pay phones are touch-tone. Did they have touch tone back then?) My wife loved the costumes: the leather and polyester, and some of the space-age looking costumes the band wears while performing. Then there’s the resistance to all-girl rock and roll bands at the time. Even the Runaways have a male record producer calling their shots in the beginning.
The story covers about what’s expected in a biopic of a rock band: its formation, rise, and internal conflicts. The scene of their preparation for angry concertgoers is interesting. The story is paced very quickly, perhaps too quickly. I think Cherie Currie was in the band for a few years but it seems much shorter than that in the film. The story focuses primarily on Cherie Currie and Joan Jett. The band’s manager, Kim Fowly, played by Michael Shannon, plays a strong supporting role. He has some of the most humorous lines. The other Runaways play smaller supporting roles. I’m not even sure if the bass player has any full lines. Another strong supporting role is Cherie Currie’s twin sister, Marie Currie, played by Riley Keough. I didn’t think they looked like identical twins; sisters, maybe. Riley Keough looks more like her late grandfather, Elvis Presley, another Rock and Roll pioneer.
The movie is rated R for language, teen drug use, and sexuality and it contains all of these in abundance. There actually isn’t very much nudity, though they use strategic camera angles. Given the R rating and the rocker lifestyle, I expected some of this base activity to be portrayed but not to the extent that it was. I thought it got a bit monotonous and detracted from the story and character development. I would have liked to have learned more aspects of the characters. All the Runaways are young teens but we only see the parents of one of them. We see them playing music together, using drugs together, arguing, but very little conversation. Was there not much of that? Not much time with all the drugs, fighting, and debauchery? Perhaps so since the film was partially based on the autobiography Neon Angel but Cherie Currie and Joan Jett was an executive producer for the film. After building up to their success, the “lifestyle” gives the film a negative tone that it doesn’t quite recover from by the end.
What keeps the film going is the music. Not just The Runaways’ music but popular music of the time period such as David Bowie, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and even Don McLean. The film features a young Rodney Bingenheimer who looks and sounds a lot like the real one (who we saw at a Vines concert in 2002, I believe). Some of the music is what influenced the Runaways such as Suzi Quatro. Other songs such as “It’s a Man’s World” are a soundtrack to the story. But the best is that the song “Cherry Bomb” is featured prominently and even multiple times. We learn a story of the song’s origin. It’s such a silly-sounding song and yet they sing it so strongly and seriously. It strongly features Cherie Currie and Joan Jett but also Lita Ford with her guitar solo and the other Runaways. Kim Fowly is also involved. For me, “Cherry Bomb” is what makes the movie.
The actors all play their roles well, especially the two leads, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, along with Michael Shannon and Riley Keough. Kristen Stewart looks a lot like Joan Jett looked back then and I think the real Joan Jett couldn’t tell Stewart’s singing from her own. Speaking of Riley Keough’s family, as we exited the AMC Covina 30 we noticed an Elvis Presley pinball machine in the lobby. It had flashing squares for Elvis songs such as Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock, and All Shook Up. There was a picture of Graceland, and a little model of the “Heartbreak Hotel”. The best was one of the ball return paths that had the message “Elvis has left the building”. Maybe we’ll see a Runaways “Cherry Bomb” pinball machine someday.
I first heard of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts when I first start listening to Rock and Roll music in the early 1980’s. I remember the song “I Love Rock and Roll” that I learned much later was a cover. In the mid to late 80’s I remember songs by Lita Ford playing on the radio such as “Kiss Me Deadly” and “Close my Eyes Forever”, her duet with Ozzy Osbourne. But it wasn’t until the mid-nineties that I heard of The Runaways. My younger brother bought a book published by SPIN magazine that was an encyclopedia of alternative music. It included all the bands and artists that they classified as “alternative” and listed and rated their albums. I’ve always enjoyed browsing through encyclopedias and back then there wasn’t much on the Internet. The alternative music encyclopedia had an entry for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts that mentioned The Runaways and that Lita Ford was part of the group.
The idea of Joan Jett and Lita Ford working together seemed intriguing but I didn’t pursue this interest because the Internet wasn’t a reliable source for research, the music stores only carried the popular stuff, and my musical tastes were more current alternative. I hadn’t even heard any of The Runaways’ music. It wasn’t until late 2009 or early 2010 that I would hear of the Runaways again. I saw the early preview for The Runaways movie on imdb.com. It looked like the typical rock band biopic with young stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, a former young child star who is now a teenager. But the trailer also included a loud, rockin’, slightly silly and very catchy Runaways song “Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb!” (I think the song is actually just called “Cherry Bomb”.) Stewart plays Joan Jett and Fanning plays Cherie Currie, the lead singer of The Runaways. Scout Taylor-Compton plays Lita Ford in what turns out of be a supporting role. It was hard to get the song “Cherry Bomb” out of our heads.
We decided to see the movie because the music sounded good and the story looked interesting. The Runaways were one of the first all-girl bands. The website for the movie, www.runawaysmovie.com, has a cherry bomb burning down and exploding for an intro and a cherry bomb wick for a scroll bar. But the best part of the site is that it plays the song “Cherry Bomb” in its entirety over and over: “Hello Daddy, hello Mom! I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!” The website said that the movie would be out in theaters on March 19. This was earlier than the April release given for the film on imdb.com. It’s always difficult to catch a movie after the first few weeks that it’s out (as L.A. Downtown News would say, its “first-fun” period) because so many other movies come out to take its place. After March 19, we learned that The Runaways had only been released in a limited number of theaters and wouldn’t be released widely until April 9.
We figured we would wait until after April 9 to see the film since March was a busy month for us. But then the weekend of March 27-28 opened up. We looked up online to see what select theaters were playing the film and found that one of them was the AMC Covina 30. I guess they have so many screens that they can include limited release movies. We looked up the best times and prices and found that the evening shows cost $11, the afternoon shows cost $9, and the one morning showtime at 11:45 am cost only $6 per person. That was our choice.
On Saturday, March 27 we left home at 11:35 am and got to the AMC Covina 30 less than ten minutes later. There were other people there; many kids possibly there to see How to Train Your Dragon. The tickets really did only cost $6 each. We arrived at theater number 6 where the movie was showing. It looked like the previews had already started but they were actually just ads. I guess now they show motion ads rather than still ads that they used to show before the film started. It’s almost like watching TV commercials. There were ads for the Marines, the TV show “V”, Coca-Cola, the UFC, and a Black-Eyed Peas concert. Then they showed a scrolling ad for the AMC Movie Watchers’ Network before the previews. There were four previews, two of which I had seen before. The first was the screwball comedy Get Him to the Greek starring Jonah Hill. The next was the more sophisticated comedy, “Cyrus” also with Jonah Hill. The third was expected: the latest Twilight movie, “Eclipse”, starring Kristen Stewart and with Dakota Fanning in a cameo appearance. That one didn’t look very different from the other Twilights. The fourth preview was for The Joneses, another silly movie. So the previews consisted of three silly movies and a blockbuster.
Now to review the feature presentation itself: it begins by giving the year: 1975 and the entire film really captures that time period through the costumes, setting, attitudes, and the music. It takes place in the L.A area except for the parts where the group is on tour. The cars all look retro, the phones have dials (though the pay phones are touch-tone. Did they have touch tone back then?) My wife loved the costumes: the leather and polyester, and some of the space-age looking costumes the band wears while performing. Then there’s the resistance to all-girl rock and roll bands at the time. Even the Runaways have a male record producer calling their shots in the beginning.
The story covers about what’s expected in a biopic of a rock band: its formation, rise, and internal conflicts. The scene of their preparation for angry concertgoers is interesting. The story is paced very quickly, perhaps too quickly. I think Cherie Currie was in the band for a few years but it seems much shorter than that in the film. The story focuses primarily on Cherie Currie and Joan Jett. The band’s manager, Kim Fowly, played by Michael Shannon, plays a strong supporting role. He has some of the most humorous lines. The other Runaways play smaller supporting roles. I’m not even sure if the bass player has any full lines. Another strong supporting role is Cherie Currie’s twin sister, Marie Currie, played by Riley Keough. I didn’t think they looked like identical twins; sisters, maybe. Riley Keough looks more like her late grandfather, Elvis Presley, another Rock and Roll pioneer.
The movie is rated R for language, teen drug use, and sexuality and it contains all of these in abundance. There actually isn’t very much nudity, though they use strategic camera angles. Given the R rating and the rocker lifestyle, I expected some of this base activity to be portrayed but not to the extent that it was. I thought it got a bit monotonous and detracted from the story and character development. I would have liked to have learned more aspects of the characters. All the Runaways are young teens but we only see the parents of one of them. We see them playing music together, using drugs together, arguing, but very little conversation. Was there not much of that? Not much time with all the drugs, fighting, and debauchery? Perhaps so since the film was partially based on the autobiography Neon Angel but Cherie Currie and Joan Jett was an executive producer for the film. After building up to their success, the “lifestyle” gives the film a negative tone that it doesn’t quite recover from by the end.
What keeps the film going is the music. Not just The Runaways’ music but popular music of the time period such as David Bowie, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and even Don McLean. The film features a young Rodney Bingenheimer who looks and sounds a lot like the real one (who we saw at a Vines concert in 2002, I believe). Some of the music is what influenced the Runaways such as Suzi Quatro. Other songs such as “It’s a Man’s World” are a soundtrack to the story. But the best is that the song “Cherry Bomb” is featured prominently and even multiple times. We learn a story of the song’s origin. It’s such a silly-sounding song and yet they sing it so strongly and seriously. It strongly features Cherie Currie and Joan Jett but also Lita Ford with her guitar solo and the other Runaways. Kim Fowly is also involved. For me, “Cherry Bomb” is what makes the movie.
The actors all play their roles well, especially the two leads, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, along with Michael Shannon and Riley Keough. Kristen Stewart looks a lot like Joan Jett looked back then and I think the real Joan Jett couldn’t tell Stewart’s singing from her own. Speaking of Riley Keough’s family, as we exited the AMC Covina 30 we noticed an Elvis Presley pinball machine in the lobby. It had flashing squares for Elvis songs such as Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock, and All Shook Up. There was a picture of Graceland, and a little model of the “Heartbreak Hotel”. The best was one of the ball return paths that had the message “Elvis has left the building”. Maybe we’ll see a Runaways “Cherry Bomb” pinball machine someday.
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