"Bring It On" (2000)

Rating: PG-13  

Genre: Comedy

Directed By: Peyton Reed

Written By: Jessica Bendinger

Released: August 25^th, 2000

Runtime: 99 minutes

Studio: Universal Pictures

Summary:

The Toro cheerleading squad from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego has got spirit, spunk, sass and a killer routine that's sure to land them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But for newly-elected team captain Torrance, the Toros' road to total cheer glory takes a shady turn when she discovers that their perfectly-choreographed routines were in fact stolen from the Clovers, a hip-hop squad from East Compton, by the Toro's former captain.

 

Review:

I enjoyed this movie. I think I would have loved it in my pre-teen years had I heard of it back then. It’s incredibly light-hearted and surprisingly feel-good. There’s no badness to it whatsoever. For sure something to throw on at the end of a long day you can just have a laugh and smile at.

The little romance thrown in there between Kirsten Dunst’s character and brother of the new edition to their cheer leading team, Cliff, is very sweet. There’s no major emphasis put on it which is refreshing compared to many more films like this. It kind of creeps up on the characters as they busy themselves with the cheerleading drama. It comes into play a little later on, but it’s not heavy-handed or overly-clichéd. Well...maybe a little clichéd. But it's so slight, it's easily forgivable. 

The whole moral of the story is done in a refreshing way. It’s not all about winning; honesty and doing your best and enjoying the route to get to success is more important at the end of the day. A concept that’s possibly done so many times before and after but here is presented in a different way yet again. The pace is quite fast as well, there’s nary a lull in the proceedings and the audience can be thankful for how much more entertaining it is because of this.

I can understand why it might not be everybody’s cup of tea, if even a slightly more forgettable teen-flick, but it is very likable and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from giving it a go.

TRAILER: