Standing Ovation

Standing Ovation is an American musical film written and directed by Stewart Raffill, starring Kayla Jackson, Alanna Palombo, Alexis Biesiada, Najee Wilson, Pilar Martin, Kayla Raparelli, Austin Powell, Erika Corvette, Sal Dupree & Joei DeCarlo.

The film had a limited theatrical release on July 16, 2010 and was produced by Kenilworth Film Productions.

Plot
The film is about the 5 Ovations, a pre-teen singing group consisting of Brittany (Kayla Jackson), Blaze (Pilar Martin), Cameron (Kayla Raparelli, Maya (Najee Wilson) and Tatiana (Alexis Biesiada).

The movie begins with the Ovations at a talent contest. A rival group, The Wiggies' father sabotages another group's performance. In the dressing room, the Ovations encounter Alanna Wannabe, a pesky little girl who wants to desperately wants to join the Ovations and the Wiggies.

Once The Wiggies are finished with their performance, Ziggy Wiggs (London Clarke) bribes the stage manager to sabotage the Ovations' performance by putting pepper in their microphones, causing them to sneeze and lose the contest.

The next day at school, Cameron tells the rest of the group about CDS's Best Music Video Contest. Maya tells the group about the Wiggies' rehearsal at the school. At that point, they decide to make their video and submit it to the contest.

At the Wiggies' video shoot, Maya recruits Eric Bateman (William McKenna) to assist the Ovations in making their video. At a show in a retirement home, the Ovations' manager, Joei Battalucci (Joei DeCarlo) and Brittany confront a man who has information about money stolen from an account run by Mr. Battalucci.

At the show, Alanna Wannabe (Alanna Palombe) decides to make her own video.

Once the Ovations arrive at the recording, they start recording a cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" by Tina and Ike Turner. They later watch the video with Eric and his brother. Because the Wiggies ruined their video, Joei pays the chef to put frogs in the Wiggies' soup.

Joei finds the "Snuffer Guy" and books a trip to Philadelphia to find him while having Brittany, Cameron and Maya are doing a commercial. They shoot their final entry titled "Scream" & later, one of the Wiggies re-edits the video.

At school the next day, the Wiggies are admitted into the finals but the Ovations are not. Later, Tatiana calls Brittany saying that the group who was admitted instead of the Ovations has been disqualified and the Ovations are next in line for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Alanna Wannabe was also admitted into the semi-finals. The Wiggies' plan backfires on them. While the re-edit was too comedic, the Ovations move onto the finals. While auditioning dancers for the finals, Alanna announces that she manages all the dancers. She strikes a deals with the Ovations & the dancers and Alanna join the number. During a Wiggies' party, the Ovations put fleas in the Wiggies' wigs.

While the Wiggies are at the show, the Ovations and their dancers are stuck on the road due to sabotage from the Wiggies. While the Wiggies receive positive reaction from the audience, only a few people give them a standing ovation.

After the 5 Ovations' performance, they receive a standing ovation from the whole audience (except Mr. and Mrs. Wiggs). Backstage, Joei tells Brittany that she found the thief that they've been chasing down.

The 5 Ovations end up winning the contest with the Wiggies in second place. When Joei and Brittany go to confront the thief, Brittany discovers that he is her father & becomes upset with Joei and Joei has an asthma attack.

Brittany's father makes things right between them by buying a house for Joei, presents for the neighborhood & hosting a party for the people in the competition.

Cast

 * Kayla Jackson as Brittany O'Brien
 * Alanna Polombo as Alanna Wannabe
 * Pilar Martin as Blaze
 * Kayla Raparelli as Cameron
 * Najee Wilson as Maya
 * Alexis Biesiada as Tatiana
 * Joei deCarlo as Joei Battaluci
 * Rocco Fiorentino as Rocco
 * Bobby Harper as Mr. Wannabe
 * Austin Powell as Mark O'Brien
 * P. Brendan Mulvey as Gramps
 * William McKenna as Eric Bateman
 * Brooke Feldman as Duet Girl
 * Joann Reagan as Nursing Home Dance Captain
 * Mario Macaluso as Kenny Rich
 * Dexter Darden as MC John/'Diverse' Male Singing Group member
 * Sal Dupree as Mr. Wiggs
 * Jeana Zettler as Zoey Wiggs
 * London Clark as Ziggy Wiggs
 * Erika Corvette as Angel Wiggs
 * Devon Jordan as Twiggy Wiggs
 * Susie Newstadter as Ms. Wiggs
 * Ashley Cutrona as Zita Wiggs
 * Paula Tramutolo as Jasmine
 * Mikey P. as Charity Dance Group member/'Dancing Girl' Rapper
 * Brian Jenkins as Charity Dance Group member
 * Michael Henriquez as Charity Dance Group member
 * Kristen Ferry as Charity Dance Group member

Box Office
"Standing Ovation" was a box office bomb, opening at #18 at the box office and grossing only $343,125 during its opening weekend. Domestically, it grossed $531,806.

The film closed in theaters on July 29, 2010 after 2 weeks.

Critical Reception
"Standing Ovation" received mixed to positive reviews from family-centric critics.

It received the Dove Seal of Approval for the family audience. Dove said, “''This is a comical musical about a group of young singers and dancers as they try to make their dreams come true. It’s an upbeat film geared towards the tween set''.”

Roger Moore in Paradise Post said, “Director Stewart Raffill (The New Swiss Family Robinson) is an old pro who at least makes the laughs work.”

Scholastic News Magazine Kids Press Corps said, “Standing Ovation is a rocking and colorful movie about musical competitions, friendship, loyalty, and dreams—BIG DREAMS!“

However, the movie was heavily panned by mainstream critics.

Joe Leydon of Variety Magazinecalled it “at once annoyingly hyper and underwhelmingly dull.”

Rotten Tomatoes has an audience score of 47% that liked it; 6% on the Tomatometer and reports no consensus.

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "Standing Ovation is an innovative film in the sense that every minute or so it comes up with a different way of being annoying."

Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News said, "Standing Ovation will have its work cut out for it at the viciously competitive box office, but the film may serve as a springboard for the eager and able talent on display.”

It has a score of 22 on Metacritic by the critics but a user score with mixed and average reviews.

Chris Hewitt of the St. Paul Pioneer Press said that he “had never heard of the people in Standing Ovation and I hope to never hear of any of them again.”

Despite the negative reviews, some critics have claimed that the film's cast was considered a stand-out.

Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer said “''the cast is full of fresh-faced unknowns ready for their close-ups. Most likely to succeed is Kayla Jackson, an almond-eyed dreamer''.”

William Bibbiani of Geekscape says, “''Standing Ovation is film that received a small theatrical run in the middle of the summer. You were probably too busy watching Inception to notice. The film was written and directed by Stewart Raffill, who also helmed the wonderful 1980s sci-fi action romp The Ice Pirates, and features a cast of dozens of youngsters competing in a music video contest..." "...in theaters around the country audiences are slowly beginning to discover Standing Ovation, one of the must-see movies of the year''.”

Jack Fitcher of the Cape May County Herald said, “''The movie is rich in dance numbers set to music that will be loved by teens and pre-teens which is the target audience. Even though this reporter is about 30 years older than the targeted demographic, I got caught up in the plot and enjoyed seeing so much local talent on the screen''.”

The Punch Bahamas Newspaper said, “It has been called a history making tween musical movie; a combination of high energy of High School Musical and the pace of A Minute To Win It.”