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It's hard to know what to make of The Pom Pom Girls. Though the producers of this flick clearly knew what they were doing when they cooked up that moniker to lure in their target young male audience, the title has very little to do with the movie they actually made. There are indeed cheerleaders in this film, but most of them are essentially used for set dressing while the bulk of the proceedings fixate upon the shenanigans carried out by two of the football players they're on hand to cheer for. Obviously crafted on a grindhouse budget and with that mindset, The Pom Pom Girls further confounds expectations by eschewing the anticipated exploitation elements to devote most of its run-time to a series of tepid vignettes that aren't connected with any real story to speak of, then abruptly swerving into a fairly straight teen drama in the the third act (reportedly, 80 seconds of nudity and language were excised from the original R-rated cut to earn the film a wider PG release, which is the version that most commonly circulates now). The end result is a movie that is roughly half decent and half pointless, which makes delivering a firm recommendation somewhat of a challenge.

The centerpieces of the action here are Johnny and Jesse, two best friends gearing up for their upcoming high school gridiron season. They spend most of this caper wandering from one misadventure to the next with little rhyme or reason: driving around, eating burgers at the local hangout, making out with various girls, defacing the cars at their rival school, having food fights, urinating out of their classroom windows, then stealing a fire truck and nearly murdering the town Sheriff with it (you know, normal teenage stuff). Though presented in a light-hearted way, their antics are more hm-amusing than sincerely ha-ha-humorous, which leaves the comedy quotient here severely lacking. The tenor of the film shifts for the better when the duo finally couples up with Laurie and Sally, the main Pom Pom Girls they've been casually chasing from the start. Suddenly, actual storylines begin taking shape: Johnny contends with the increasingly volatile machinations of his gal's jealous ex-boyfriend, as Jesse struggles to kick his habit of bedding a bevy of lasses in the back of his van and commit to just one while also butting heads with the team's despotic coach. From this point forward, PPG remains a far cry from the nuanced character studies in Dazed And Confused, but the narrative at least finds some sense of purpose and the last 30 minutes are a vast improvement because of it.

It's interesting to see a pre-Revenge Of The Nerds Robert Carradine tackle the leading man role, particularly because his Johnny is pretty much the same soon-to-be iconic goofball minus the glasses and few braincells. Only here, that mien results in him being a popular football player who's impressively successful with the ladies (who knew a change of clothes and a pair of spectacles could make a young man's social fortunes plummet so drastically?). TV cop show stalwart Michael Mullins does a capable job of bringing Jesse to life, while the spotlit Jennifer Ashley and Lisa Reeves are both attractive and likeable enough to distinguish themselves as the clear stand-outs among their fellow Pom Poms.

However, the most engrossing elements in this effort are an accidental product of its era. This is a thoroughly '70s film, and since it's singularly focused on youth culture a lot of the best aspects of that decade play prominent roles. The small town where the action takes place is straight out of a simpler time, while notable features like the bustling carhop, roads with no traffic, and wide open plots of waterfront sand without another beachgoer in sight offer glimpses of a world which sadly does not exist anymore. The classic cars and vintage clothes are all authentic in a way that no modern period piece could ever faithfully duplicate, and even without the benefit of a purse large enough to license popular contemporary songs for the soundtrack, all of the needfully obscure music used in the film sets the tone very well.

In the end, you can't sincerely fault The Pom Pom Girls for not being what it appears to be, since what it really is has more than enough charms to justify the 85-minutes you'll spend with it. If you're so inclined, give it a look for the beautiful girls, good tunes, and a vivid snapshot of high school in the 1970's. Anyone likely to be interested in a B-grade relic like this has undoubtedly invested much more energy for a much more meager payoff than that.

"The Pom Pom Girls" is more about the two guys on the football team (one being the great Robert Carradine, always a blast to watch) and the antics they lead the girls into, whether it's making out, stealing a fire truck, causing grief for the rival school, and other assorted tomfoolery. Unlike many other movies of the type, this one is actually interesting and fun to watch, and even the cheesy early 70's music they chose for the movie is decent and adds to the atmosphere. And the girls are rather pretty as well. And for car lovers there's a lot of cool old cars to see, especially Carradine's '55 Chevy (there always seems to be a '55 Chevy in so many of these films). Definitely a good showcase of when life was more carefree and a lot less complicated. Nice to even have it on DVD, although a widescreen release would have been better than fullscreen.

The little summary of the movie does a good job, that is basically the plot of the entire movie. You follow a group of teens, some on the cheerleading squad, some on the football team, run around and do pranks and make out. This goes on for an hour and twenty mins, and you honestly can't tell most of the teens apart or care about them, You get some nudity but it's few and far between for a "raunchy teen comedy." If that's why you're watching you'll have more luck just googling the nude scenes.

"American Graffiti" styled high school comedy-drama concerns a couple of knockabout gridion players (Carradine and Mullins) wooing the affections of a pair of lusty young cheerleaders (Ashley and Reeves), much to the chagrin of Reeve's jilted ex-boyfriend (Adler) who eventually challenges Carradine to a game of chicken (a la Harrison Ford). In between, there's plenty of sex, misdemeanors and practical joking to make up the school day.

Seemingly endless array of practical jokes is punctuated by heavy-petting with Susie Player getting the most exposure as the hamburger joint waitress, while the pretty Jennifer Ashley (who had a relatively brief but memorable filmography in the mid-70's through early-80's) has her moment or two sans blouse. She's given little else to do, and that's no different to the rest of the cast in a film that contains very little dialogue. Bill Adler is an interesting specimen, playing a tough-talking cuckold whose bravado is only skin deep. He at least manages to evoke some sympathy whereas Carradine simply comes off looking like an arrogant twerp. Film buffs might also recognise Rainbeaux Smith in a frivolous minor role as one of the cheerleaders.

Vintage cars with enhanced mufflers, obscure mid-70's soundtrack, over-the-top food fights and a couple of genuine laughs (Mullins is caught leaving Ashley's house the morning after by her dad who invites him back inside for breakfast, and, the cheerleader auditions) liven proceedings, but the pace is terminal and the content lacking. Vaguely nostalgic, but essentially it's a show about nothing.

THE POM POM GIRLS was a huge sleeper hit in it's day and it's easy to see why. Thousands of stoned kids across the land with beer in hand at the drive-in, watching this documentary-like fun fest on being a high school kid in the mid-70's. What a wonderful life these kids have! Drive around drinking or high, get the girl, have sex where ever you want, and not worry about any diseases or repercussions whatsoever. And football. You get to play a lot of football.

I love this film. If you tried to make a movie like this today, you couldn't do it without some killjoy saying you couldn't have them drinking and driving. But kids do that. Some die and a majority don't. These kids are not repressed sexually. They are free to make love to whoever they choose and don't worry about death and condoms. They seem to be having fun and enjoying life, and that's why this film really couldn't be made today, because it shows people, teens especially, enjoying life in an innocent, yet rebellious, drug-addled, highly sexual way. Nobody dies, nobody gets hurt, and they do everything they were told they shouldn't do. It's a social time capsule for an extremely fun and liberated time.