Bring It On
This movie is exactly what you expect out of it, in a good sense. It is silly, fun, energetic, just like its subject matter - but it is also amusing and lacks any kind of big, Keyser Sose-style surprises. It’s a fun summer movie filled with bouncing, asexual teens, with a little romance and a little across-the-tracks competition. In this summer of empty, boring crap, it’s a tasty snack. It’s totally fun!
Kirsten Dunst is the relentlessly optimistic new head cheerleader, with a heavy mission - win win win! She actually looked older and wiser in Dracula a few years ago - now she’s so fresh-faced, I think the next movie she will be playing an amoeba! Her adorable love interest (Jesse Bradford as Cliff) has a sister, Eliza Dushku as Missy, who was definitely my favorite character. Jesse Bradford, for all you 80’s girls bemoaning the lack of a new John Cusack-type, is actually a refugee from our generation stuck in to a relatively timeless movie. Freddie Prinze Jr. is too much the pretty boy to be the accessible sweetheart, and Jason Biggs is still proving himself, but I wish I were Jesse’s girl!
Missy redeems the generally flat SoCal purity of the rest of the cast. Yes, it’s my first movie that was shot in my new home town! Of course, it looked like any other movie, except for Interstate 15, I mean, “The Fifteen.” I was also fortunate enough to attend a screening packed with cheerleaders, most of whom were also extras in the film. Let me tell you, I don’t think you can enjoy a movie such as this as much as you can when you are surrounded by its target audience. So all my cheery memories of the experience may be unfairly biased. The sponsoring radio station had some kids pyramiding up to the ceiling, and my old fogie self is thinking, “Whose insurance is going to be liable for this?” The DJ’s were passing body glitter, if that is any further indication as to the target demographic. This should not chase away older people, but you should go in expecting just some sweet innocent fun.
You know what’s going to happen, by and large, but it’s how it happens that makes the ride worth watching. The dialogue is a million times better than Center Stage (again, I cannot fault the performers for the unwatchability of the non-dance sequences) and it’s just a wee more acerbic. The cheerleading is impressive, kids being thrown up in the air and flipping around and sticking their legs in their ear. Bring It On features a personal guilty pleasure of mine, item #23.7 in the Quickie Plot Device menu (second only to the Romantic Comedy Montage), is the Disastrous Audition Sequence. Having been shunned by the people who were shunned by cheerleaders in high school, this was a world into which I only was afforded glimpses thanks to Meatballs and Revenge of the Nerds. Back in my day, we didn’t have BOY cheerleaders, either, so ladies, you can accompany your gents and be assured you’ll be impressed by some moves, too.
I’m not saying that Bring It On is a work of art, I am just saying that if you are looking for some bubbly, funny summer entertainment, and if this subject matter interests you even slightly, you will find your dollar well spent here. I mean, come on, who goes to see a movie like Bring It On without wanting exactly this? This is not Pedro Almodovar’s weird, inaccessible new masterpiece, A Cheerleader Killed Me And I Made Pudding - this is a bouncy jouncy human-Tiggers-in-short-skirts feel gooder candy film.
Bonus: You know you can’t even talk about cheerleading without “Mickey” being on the soundtrack - and, in the spirit of Something About Mary (but not as beautifully done) is a fun little cast singalong during the credits. It’s a new cover of “Mickey,” by the way. Did I mention it’s guilty fun? Don’t forget the guilt.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 8/25/00
Time in minutes 100
Director Peyton Reed
Studio Universal
