‘Bandslam’ relies on recycled ideas

The perky, hollow “Bandslam” is the latest in a long line of movies that steal liberally from the John Hughes playbook of high-school comedies, but lack the heart and insight Hughes invested in his pictures.

The fact that a lot of people have been rewatching “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink” since Hughes died unexpectedly last week won’t help “Bandslam,” a movie even tweens will find trite and old hat.

It feels uncommonly schematic, as if the movie had been conceived with a check list of high-school cliches in hand.

You get the likably nerdy, self-effacing protagonist, Will (Gaelan Connell), the new kid in school; the pretty, quiet girl (Vanessa Hudgens) with a cool quirk (she likes writing her name using a silent number, Sa5m, which must drive her teachers nuts); and the popular blonde bombshell, Charlotte (Aly Michalka), whom all the boys love.

The music-savvy Will becomes tight with Charlotte and starts unofficially managing her band. He also successfully courts Sa5m with surprising speed, his personality having overcome his dweeby looks.

Interspersed throughout are generic but lively musical numbers by Charlotte’s band and others designed to appeal to the Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana crowd. Everything in “Bandslam,” in fact, feels calculated to fill a niche, including Lisa Kudrow’s turn as Will’s amusingly eccentric mother, who is thrown in to give parental guardians something to help pass the time.

The performances are uniformly strong – good enough to make you wish this bunch of charismatic, talented kids had been given better material.