"The Cheerleaders" is a prime example of a great sexploitation film.
It has fun, does not take itself seriously and never goes too long without the promised "action".
Despite the frequent sex, the movie is overall light and innocent. A lot of the comedy arises from the sex scenes which is sort of unique. Usually in these films the sex scenes are played straight and/or romantic and the sthick is in the rest of the film. Here, sex is part of the sthick and because of that it mixes into the movie a whole lot better.
It's also unusual to have female nudity played for laughs. The rule of thumb in these movies is that male nudity is funny (like in Porkys or Private Resort)and female nudity is sexy. In this movie, female nudity is played for laughs at least a couple times.
Slapstick, sexual slapstick, goofy premise, total reality disconnect, pre PC freedom, impossibly short cheerleader skirts, this movie has it all.
What it also has is a leading lady who's cute with a capital CUTE. Willowy Stephanie Fondue plays Jeannie, a girl who is desperate to lose her virginity but whenever she tries, something goes wrong. That's where the suspension of disbelief begins and you'll have to keep it all through the film. Especially when the cheerleaders come up with thier grand plan of helping thier team win by tiring out the opposing team in a... er... special way.
This is a classic for the Joe Bob Briggs set, of which I am a part(Yes, I love the real classics, I love the high minded films but I love these type of movies too... so shoot me).
It's also full of ephemeral details like see through water beds, shag walls and pictures of teen stars in the lockers I can't recognize. It's a trip!
The girls playing the cheerleaders did not have Oscars looming over thier heads but they were appealing and often showed decent comic timing.
You are most likely to find this film on video edited to an R(the earliest video release was not edited. I've seen both). The original version, while not pornographic, would no doubt get an NC-17 today. I don't know if it was originally released as an X rating, unrated or if it did indeed squeak by with an "R" rating because of the MPAA's looser latitude on sex in films back then.
So, for those of you that liked "American Pie" and all those other recent so called sexploitation movies, rent this movie and see how much more fun these type of movies were when they were less self conscious to getting a particular MPAA rating or to treading (but not crossing) "the line" and much more "Hey! This is going to be wild! Let's have fun with this!".
