John Chard

Maybe we should join the team. Torrance is the newly appointed captain of cheerleader champions the Toros. After one of the team suffers an accident, the Toros recruit gymnastics star Missy Pantone, but upon witnessing the Toros first routine Missy is disgusted and points out that it has been stolen from another team called The East Compton Clovers. This opens up a whole can of worms that not only brings the Toros into conflict with the Clovers, but also means that they must come up with an original routine if they are to win the American championship honestly. Spirited picture about cheer leading? Well yes it is, it's witty, smart and ever so amiable. Tho the film loses some of its sharpness in the final quarter (a brave ending would have made all the difference), Bring It On clearly touches on race and class issues whilst bringing to the fore the competitiveness of cheerleader teams. The usual formula's of bitching and back stabbing are naturally in here, and of course no film of this type would be complete without some strand of treacle plot love, but the mix is fine and the exuberance of the routines is hugely enjoyable cinema. Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union and Jesse Bradford fill out the cast and all offer something in the way of watch ability. It could have been so much better for sure, but Bring It On is very entertaining film about a subject that until this picture came out (subsequent sequels would follow) was hardly tackled with this sort of vigour and intelligence before. 7/10