On the first day at his new school, Charlie (Mikey Day) is
identified by the school's "coolness rankings" as the least popular guy
in the senior class. He is befriended by the senior class's least
popular girl, Billie (Nicki Clyne), but falls for Kimberly (Brittany
Daniel), the most popular girl in school. Thinking his only chance to
win Kimberly is to one-up her jock boyfriend, Kipp, Charlie decides to
enter the school Decathlon and begins training with his elderly
Japanese gardener Yamagashi (James Hong). Meanwhile, Charlie's sister
Lori (Dominique Swain) is dismayed to discover that dancing has been
banned in her new town. She meets Gabriel (Chris Kattan), the school
janitor and former dance instructor, who invites her to attend secret
group dance lessons at his house/garage. After just a few dances, she's
in love with Gabriel and helps him come up with a plan to bring dancing
back to the school.
A reasonably imaginative idea that goes belly-up because of the insipid writing and trite performances, Awesome is a spoof on all those 80s movies – never said this was an original idea, did I? – with the narrator (Ben Stein, of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) attempting to fool us with a notion that the film was actually made in 1986, just never released – until now.
(If that weren’t indeed the case, I’d believe it. Jon Cryer’s Hiding Out
would’ve been worth the ticket of admission more than this blunder.
Alas, it is a joke; the film’s as new as Patrick Swayze’s face.)
Rather than simply taking off all the 80s movies (Granted, there are a couple of unfunny spoofs – the Teen Wolf take-off is bloody dreadful) – like Not Another Teen Movie did – like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink,
the movie threads the tried-and-true elements of the films of the era –
jocks, dorks, kids moving to a new town, the prom, dancing, the
rebellious outsider; and so on – in an effort to make an amusing
smooth-flowing feature. Thing is, they forgot the gags – there’s just
nothing funny here.
You know when Chris Kattan’s the funniest thing in a movie that something definitely hasn't gone right. DVD
Extras Surprisingly
- for a flick that did no business in the US and didn't even make it to
cinemas in Oz - there's one of the most generous helpings of extras
I've ever seen. Theres a Commentary featuring Tracy Morgan &
Writer/Director Neal Brennan, Deleted Scenes, Bloopers & Outtakes
Hosted by Neal Brennan & Joey Kern, Tracy Morgan: 7 Minutes of Ad
Libs, Joey Kern is Kipp Vanderhoff and a faeturette on Kipp Vanderhoff:
A Nightmare of Condescending Laughter. Conclusion:
Movie 20% Extras: 60% 
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