Bring  It  On

Bring It On isn't quite the satire I first expected, instead willing to sit quite comfortably among the ranks of nineties teen movies it so easily emulates. From the very beginning, you know exactly where you are with the glossy, colourful look and the impossibly attractive teen cast. Cheerleaders are represented as mostly honourable, pleasant teens, rather than the evil, back-stabbing bitches other movies would have us believe they are. The head cheerleader, Torrance Shipman is a perky, confident young woman with no apparent negative qualities. This approach is refreshing but perhaps a little pat and condescending. Watching Bring It On, I couldn't help but think that the film would have been more entertaining had it opted for the Drop Dead Gorgeous course, i.e. sending the whole side-show up for what it really is, instead of slipping into the She's All That school of film-making. The cheerleading contest which forms the core of the movie, while looking good is found lacking when it comes to the momentum that needs to exist during the big game at the end of every sports movie. Girls dance around, are thrown into the air, judges vote: the end. Of course, there probably wasn't anything else it could have featured but as an important part of the movie it fails miserably, bringing everything to a less-than-thrilling end. Bring It On is being marketed as a teen comedy and in this category it moreorless succeeds, for the most part satisfied to stay in the safe water of predictable but fairly amusing goofball humour. However, bigger laughs exist, in the shape of edgier material, mostly notable in the hysterically bitchy yet honest opening scene in which the cheerleaders cheer some very disarming home truths. In the light of what then follows, this material is rather ill fitting but still the main highlight of the movie. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the existence of male cheerleaders, an idea other teen movies avoid like the plague. Their sexuality is of course brought into question, albeit in some fairly uninspired ways i.e. dumb taunts by their football-playing peers and I couldn't help but think that yet again opportunities have been missed for some cutting black humour. Kirsten Dunst is an immensely watchable actress, but she is hardly stretched, taking a role that is a base combination of her two trademark characteristics, the perky sweetness of Drop Dead Gorgeous and Dick and the independent, slightly acidic attitude prreviewent in Strike! and Interview with the Vampire. She is an actress with a promising future ahead of her, but first she really needs to be more selective with her script choices. Eliza Dushku, in her first big screen role since her brilliant portrayal of teen psychosis on Buffy the Vampire Slayer brings equal energy and presence. At the end of the day, Bring It On is one big missed opportunity. With so much fertile ground to cover, it plays things safely far too often. As a comedy, it could have been considerably more daring, while the surrounding drama, especially the rivalry with a black cheerleading squad is explored only in the most simplistic terms. When it all ended, I got the feeling of a barely developed movie, over too quickly, lacking anything remotely resembling substance.