| BRING IT ON | |
 LINDA'SRATING:  RACHEL'S
RATING:
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2000 - USA
Director: Peyton Reed |
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- Reviewed by Linda and Rachel  LINDA:
I was pretty pumped in advance about seeing Bring it On. I was doing my
best kick, clap, leap, then land-on-the-ground-in-the-splits combinations in the
parking lot in preparation for this one (with whoops and hollers as
punctuation). This was after weeks of harassing Rachel by running up to her and
shrieking, "Bring it on, baby... YEAH! Bring it ON!!!" when she
least expected it. Though the movie wasn't awful, I admit I was a bit deflated
by the end... as the movie went on, my cheers dwindled gradually, until I was
silent and a tad bored.
RACHEL: The scene: posh California high school. The story: newly appointed cheerleading captain Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) struggles with politics and the sins of her forefathers (the former captain) but eventually steps into her power and repairs a relationship with a rival squad. "Silent and a tad bored"?? Great guffaws were had by all, lest ye forget. Who could forget the beautifully delivered line: "Oh, for sobbing out loud!"... or the moment when perky little Torrance flexed her captain muscles and was decried as a "cheer-tator." [Dictator, that is.] It did run longer than I expected, but it was also... dare I say it... meatier than I expected. Even the love story running in the background was surprisingly subtle. As I recall, we discussed the lack of cartoonish camp and decided the subject did not require it. Professional cheerleading competitions need no help with surreality (is that a word?). Anyway, there was plenty of teenage T & A... and that's really all that matters, isn't it? (Should we mention that the only other people in the theater were troops of adolescent boys?) LINDA: I was just waiting for the sexual tension between Torrance and her right-hand gal Missy (Eliza Dushku), the "alternative" edgy chick from LA, to be acknowledged. Fer cryin' out loud, it was as though they planted a sub-plot (her co-cheerleaders initially shrieked that Missy was so "dykey") and forgot to follow through on the punchline. During the girls' "sleepover" I was just waiting for the "oh, I thought my hand was on MY thigh!" scene. Instead, of course, Torrance has a crush on Missy's alterna-brother Cliff (Jesse Bradford), who just fills screen time by smirking at her with his crooked smile. (At this point in the movie I was thinking how fun it would be to sexually harass the boys in the theater with us, just to freak them out because we were, "like", twice their age...) I will admit that the movie had several strong laffs in it, though as it went on nothing matched the promise of the beginning of the movie ("cheerocracy" jokes and all). I did quite enjoy the cheerleading tryout scene (maybe I recognized a bit of myself in the awkward girl who kept starting over until she burst into tears?)... but for me, the movie didn't sustain that early momentum. It could have gone one... step... further. For instance, every time the rival East Compton Clovers were on screen, it was almost as if the film didn't dare make fun of them, for fear of political correctness... they were kick-ass, and you did not question it. I was hoping that Bring It On would be as edgy as the film Election (which I heard it compared to), but, alas, it just wasn't at the same level for me. |
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