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Bring It On!
Coming to
DVD Feb. 13th. Click picture to pre-order!
The Film :
The opening scene of this film is hilarious. Head-Cheerleader-to-be
Torrance (Kirsten Dunst), along with most of the main cast, makes the
PG-13 cheers every cheerleader fan only wishes they could ever hear.
"I'm pretty, I'm cool, I dominate this school!...Who am I? Just
Guess; guys want to touch my chest!...I scream! I roar! I swear I'm not a whore!" This ribald scene
sets the mood of this don't- take- me- too- seriously comedy nicely, and
starts off a picture that may not be flawless, yet is still a heck of a
lot of fun.
Luckily, Torrance is made Captain of her team, which is no light
responsibility. Her squad consists of the defending national champions,
who have gone to the nationals and won five times in a row. With two
teammates having graduated, she must first cast the best of the best as
replacements, then use the cheer the ex-Captain showed them, to take them
right to the national trophy again.
There's a problem, however (as there usually is). One of the new
recruits, Missy (played by Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Faith,"
Eliza Dushku), storms out of the first practice session in a huff; that
routine was stolen! Missy drives Torrance to a nearby school --a
less-glitzy public school, that has never gone to the nationals due to
lack of funds-- and it turns out that, yes, the moves, cheers, and routine
were all entirely stolen from this other school. While some of Torrance's
teammates argue, "So what?" it might be a bigger problem than
they realize, when the other team's new Captain, Isis (Gabrielle Union)
makes it her prime goal to take her team to the nationals after all. It's
no use to ask either team to back down. Bring it on!
Several amusing moments ensue from this basic plot. Missy has a
brother, for example, who creates a cute love triangle between Torrance
and her college-age boyfriend. At one point --without the confidence that
she can lead the team with new moves herself-- Torrance hires a
professional choreographer, played hilariously by Ian Roberts. This
creates some serious tension, when they are right at the local
semi-finals, and it turns out this choreographer sold the exact same
routine to six other teams! The resulting conflict is excellently handled,
and isn't resolved simply by the team unrealistically going backstage and
learning a whole new routine in mere minutes. While the film never takes
itself too seriously, its moments like this one --of accurate, realistic teen angst--
that make it even more enjoyable.
The cheerleader numbers are sensational, with male cheerleaders
throwing female teammates into the air while they do acrobatic stunts, as
well as many other professional maneuvers. Without knowing for certain,
I'd say that the main cast is in the foreground, while actual,
professional, award-winning cheerleaders are in the background, doing all
these stunts. It enhances the mood of the film, and makes the final
competition that much more believable.
The end result is a fun, matinee-ticket type of film. While a few old
curmudgeons have given this flick a thumbs-down, they were probably only
peeved that the pointlessly over-violent film released the prior weekend, The
Cell, dropped like a rock in only
its second week. They must've seen Bring it On as part
of the reason why. If that is truly the case, I'm not at all surprised;
this was a cute, enjoyable film.
The DVD :
This is a nicely arranged DVD, with extras as cute as the film itself. One
of the more amusing extras are actual home movies of the car wash scene. A
behind the scenes featurette titled "Spotlight On Location: The
Making of Bring it On," is 14 minutes of mostly how hard they worked
on the cheerleading sequences, with numerous clips from the movie. Though
it may seem a bit sexist to include on the DVD of a "chick's
movie," additional behind the scenes clips are offered, for wardrobe
and makeup tests. Actually, this is just 40 seconds of Kirsten Dunst and
Eliza Dushku mugging to the camera in different suggested character
outfits and hair styles. Whatever works for you.
One of the more unique additions to the
DVD, however, is an enhanced "How'd They Do That?" viewing
option for the film. Clicking the "anecdotes on" part of this
feature allows you to view pop-up windows during the feature, which offer
trivia and other pieces of intriguing information. Such trivia includes
lines like: "Screenwriter Jessica Bendinger wrote the opening
cheer in 20 minutes using a rhyming dictionary." Other anecdotes
involve the name "Toros" in the film, named after the Mountain
View Toros, from the high school that the producer attended. In case
you're interested, the favorite video game of Cody, who plays Kirsten
Dunst's little brother in the film, is "Perfect Dark." All told,
this feature seems a lot like those pop-up videos on VH-1, and is at least
an amusing alternate way to watch the film, for fans of that pop-up video
style.
Intriguingly --and unlike most DVDs-- two
varieties of deleted scenes are offered. One type is the "extended
scenes," which include longer, uncut versions of the locker room
scene (which, sorry boys, is still PG-13 even when uncut), the
cheerleading auditions scene, and the dream sequence where Torrance tells
how she feels she may be "cursed." As for actual deleted scenes,
they're a harder call to make. On the one hand, most are just a few
seconds long. On the other hand, there are 10 of them, and they often
include some intriguing additional moments (particularly between Torrance
and her rarely-seen parents). They also include two deleted, alternate
ending moments, including a parody of the classic, post-credits moment of
Ferris Beuller's Day Off. In this case, Torrance does a solo cheer,
asking the audience to yell the name of a body part if they want her to
show it to them. She then acts disgusted, calling the audience perverted.
Personally, I think this would've been a cute addition. Likewise for an
alternate ending, where Isis and Torrance are shown later, in college, on
the same cheerleading squad.
The only disappointment is the commentary,
though I guess I'm just spoiled by DVDs like the one for As
Good As It Gets and Boogie Nights,
with input from so many cast and crew members. This comment track is only
by the director, Peyton Reed. I would've preferred anecdotes from the
female cast, though you take what you can get.
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