Bring It On

"Cheerleaders are dancers who have gone retarded," says Sparky, the modern dance-influenced choreographer who from $2000 dollars a pop teaches cheerleaders the mysteries of Fosse-inflected "happy fingers." Bring It On, which was a surprise hit in the fall of 2000, clearly believes that cheerleaders are far more than hoofers gone to seed. Despite the frequent jokes at their expense in the film, Bring It On shows cheerleaders are spirited, athletic, graceful, and most importantly, relevant to the 21st Century. Colorfully shot, attractively cast, and snappily written, Bring It On is hardly a great movie, but it's perfectly appealing for most people and I'd guess that the millions of cheerleaders and former cheerleaders nationwide will get a lot more out of it.

The plot is simple. It's like Rocky. Or Varsity Blues. Or any other sports movie you've ever seen. New captain of the five time national cheerleading champions Toros, Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) is shocked when the new girl on the squad (Eliza Dushka), a gymnast, tells her that all of the routines that made the squad famous were stolen from an inner city school in East Compton, two hours up the coast. Determined to prove that they can do it themselves, the Toros go through a fairly short journey to self-empowerment. There's a pounding bass line, lots of teens in short skirts, some fun flipping, and a lesson about being true to yourself and believing in others.

The film also takes on any number of myths about cheerleaders. Are male cheerleaders all gay, or do they just like grabbing girls' rears? The answer, of course is a little from column A and a little from Column B. Are cheerleaders all airheads? Well, the issue of whether or not these girls go to class is done away with in two minutes at the beginning of the film. From that point on, education, books, and homework are never mentioned. Any occasional signs of intelligence are held up to ridicule, though these "sweater puppets" are all quick with a witty retort, so they must have something going on upstairs. And finally, is cheerleading a sport? Well, this film comes out firmly on the side of yes.

For all of its verve, Jessica Bendinger's script is too reductive for the movie to be taken very seriously. The white girls are obviously upper scale and spoiled. Naturally the white girls don't have any sass at first and naturally they borrow it from their African-American neighbors. The black girls are supposed to be poor. Not that that's really depicted in this day-glo colored world.

In fact, through the wonders of Hollywood Central casting, the squad from East Compton actually looked even more racially homogenous than the "Buffys" from San Diego. This is an inner city high school that has a cheerleading squad featuring a dozen girls with identical light complexions and straight hair. The racial assumptions at work here would be offensive if the movie placed any premium on reality. Instead, as directed by Peyton Reed, everything is colorful, glossy, and easy on the eyes. The intricate cheerleading routines are mostly shot from strange angles or awkward close-ups to make it impossible to tell if the cast is actually doing any of the cheering stunts at all.

When Kirsten Dunst makes good small movies (see The Virgin Suicides or Dick), nobody goes to them. So I suppose it's fitting that this movie was a smash. She's always an entertaining screen presence and for now she's still young enough that it isn't ridiculous for her to keep playing high school characters. How her career progresses as she matures remains to be seen. The rest of the cast seems like they were picked from the set of a WB series. Now since I kind of like a number of WB series, I don't mean this as an insult in any way. The Warner Brothers network has proven a good training ground for attractive young women to read catchy dialogue and everybody in Bring It On seems very skilled with the zingers. And as the aforementioned Sparky the choreographer, Ian Roberts is just hilarious and his scene is easily the funniest part of the movie.

In the end, Bring It On is fairly satisfying. It's also amusing to note the strange directions that this movie is able to stretch the limits of the PG-13 rating in terms of language and certain forms of implied sexuality. But that's neither here nor there. Bring it On gets a not-to-be-ashamed-of 6/10 from me.

This movie was extremely enjoyable and I recommend it. The characters are not annoying for the most part, and I especially enjoyed seeing new faces Elisa Dushku (Missy) and Jesse Bradford (Cliff). They have screen presence and should be in front of the camera for many years to come, especially Elisa, who is really very beautiful. When you look at her, there's so much there, unlike most actresses whose faces do not say anything. You can tell there is alot going on in her mind just by her face.

The screenplay is intelligent and very funny and aside from a slow stretch or two, I really liked the movie. It is not like "Clueless" or anything else, which of course is a good thing.

One of my favorite scenes is when Cliff and Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) are brushing their teeth. Its probably a throw-away scene and there is no dialogue, but it was really great, for me at least.

I actually only went to see it since it appeared at the time it would be the number one movie in the country. But much to my surprise it wasn't all that bad. Cheesy? Yes. Bad dialogue? Absolutely. Fun? I thought it was. It didn't take itself so seriously that it was horrible, and it took itself seriously enough that it was fun watching these kids cheerlead their little hearts out.

The plot... well the 5 time national champion cheerleaders from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego (they're the Toros) find out that all their award winning cheers were actually stolen from the cheerleaders at East Compton High (they're the Clovers). So now if they want to keep their championship dreams alive, they need to come together as a team and create their own, original cheer, and cheer like they've never cheered before. Lead by their captain Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst), the Toros make it back to the national championships, and go head to head with the Clovers to see who really is the best darn cheerleaders in the country. Yes, the plot is cheesy, but I think that was going to be a very obvious thing from the beginning. The movie is about cheerleading after all. Not that I have anything against cheerleaders, but a movie that centers around the trials and tribulations of cheerleaders is not going to have a serious and deep story. The dialogue was appropriately bad and yes, cheesy enough to make you wish that it were serious and deep. However when you have the bright, peppy and beautiful Dunst in the lead, how can you not smile and cheer right along with all of them?

Also along for the ride, one of my personal favorite actresses, the not-yet-but-soon-to-be-popular Eliza Dushku, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. In my book, she's right up there as far as looks go. She plays Missy, the hardened transfer student who joins the cheerleading squad only because the school doesn't have a gymnastics program. Making her start off as a bad-ass, then saying she was a gymnast didn't feel right to me. But she comes around pretty quickly and she and Torrance become fast friends. Also, since this is a teen dramedy, Torrance and her off to college boyfriend have problems, and Missy's brother Cliff is right there to help Torrance out with all her cheerleader angst. OK, so obviously the only reasons any guy would go see this movie is because either his girlfriend dragged him along, or because he wants to see a bunch of girls in cheerleader outfits, and tight clothing. And really, can you blame him? The girls are attractive, and putting them into various stages of dress, and undress, certainly can't hurt the grosses. Locker room scenes, bikini car wash scenes, and of course the cheerleading scenes were worth the price of admission for me (which of course was only $3.75, one of the perks of living in suburbia).

The soundtrack was pretty cool, and the dance/cheerleading sequences were actually quite well done. And the fact that the movie never wavered from its position that to these girls (and some guys) cheerleading was very important. To a majority of us who have never cheerleaded, it's easy to say that it's not anything to get worked up about, but I look at it like if you said that to a football player in a Texas high school, you'd probably be shot on sight. Cheerleading is important to the cheerleaders, and that's what this movie was about. Cheerleading. And hot girls in cheerleading outfits. Sorry, I am a guy afterall.

So overall, yes Bring It On is cheesy with some over the top dialogue. But it also has some good music, some good cheerleading scenes, and of course, it has the girls. It's not something that is going to be heard over the microphone at next years Academy Awards, but I thought it was just good summer fun.

Such a heartwarming and engaging movie! Colorful characters, and that vibe that just takes you back to the 2000s wow. I love the dynamics between the characters. Especially the two cheerleading captains, they make you cheer for both teams in the end, they make you invested in both their growth and conflicts. The soundtrack is so good too, Blaque is just my jam and honestly it's going straight to my playlist. I recommend this movie if you want to have a fun, it's such a comfort coded movie, I also watch this after seeing Ariana Grande's music videos, it's nice to see all the cool references she added, I totally understand why she loves this movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Bring It On". The film's brisk pacing was perfectly suited to its theme, thanks to director Peyton Reed, the writing smart, sharp, and consistently and authentically funny,(as well as, at times, genuinely thought-provoking)thanks to writer Jessica Bendinger, and the acting solid all around. I also liked "Bring It On" for what it didn't have-alot of tired, cliched boy-girl relationship stuff, and/or gratuitous sex/nudity. The opening dream/cheer sequence was a moment of sheer, brilliant comic/satiric movie magic, and later, when the professional choreographer shows up to help the Toros out, he almost steals the show. But what impressed me, perhaps, most of all about "Bring It On" was the wonderful chemistry between the two beautiful-and talented-young female leads, Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku.