Fired Up! DVD review

Oh dear. Teen comedies manage to get even worse as Fired Up races to the bargain bucket.

Two misogynistic, yet highly popular, high school football players decide that the best way to have a fun summer is to become cheerleaders. They are that brand of smooth that only exists in movies. They do everything together, including chat up lines.

Shaun and Nick are jocks who sleep with any girl that they meet and have decided that they stand more chance of a summer of sex if they’re at cheerleader camp, instead of going to American football camp. Nobody trusts them, but everybody likes them. The only girl who seems to not like them is Carly, the head cheerleader. Deciding that life at cheerleader camp would be better than summer at football school, they worm their way into the cheerleader team, despite scepticism and objections from the various members of both teams (the objections lasted about one minute.)

So, we arrive at cheerleader camp, which seems to involve girls flexing and contorting on every surface they can find. But, this isn’t all about girls in sporty tops… there’s a message here… somewhere.

Just to show that there’s going to be tension at the camp, we have The Tigers, who are all nice and sweet. Their opponents in the cheerleader stakes are The Panthers. They’re not nice or sweet. This, like so many plot points in the film, isn’t very important at all.

Ad – content continues below

There’s a slew of two-dimensional characters: camp male cheerleader, straight acting male cheerleader who turns out to be (inexplicably) gay (despite no mention of this throughout all of his interactions with the character he fancies), pretty cheerleaders who are dumb or smart, black cheerleaders who speak in street language. Imagine a giant list of teen stereotypes and you’ve got the whole of the character list.

Whilst Shaun tries his best to get off with the wife of the coach, Nick finds himself drawn to Carly. Of course, this is where the two friends find themselves at loggerheads; Nick realises that he’s in love, whilst Shaun sees women as objects. In between all of this, there’s nudity, cheering, football, sexist innuendo and puerile humour.

Of course, as with many, many teen movies, everything is going well until the scam is revealed. It’s only when the two boys are at the football camp that the cheerleaders, Shaun and Nick, realise that they need each other. They come together, against all odds, to save the day… and bring this film to an end.

It’s coming to something when the movie shows scenes from the original Bring It On, the other (and much better) cheerleader movie. It reminds you that, whilst not the funniest film in the world, Bring It On is a formula that this film secretly aspires to improve upon, but fails miserably.

With ridiculously over-the-top dialogue, and acting that leaves a lot to be desired, Fired Up! isn’t original, but does manage to redefine un-funny.

Extras

Ad – content continues below

The Making of Fired Up! shows how the film was put together. There’s nothing ground breaking or inspiring in this, though it does look like the cast and crew had fun.

The Gag Reel – Uncensored is cringe worthy and puerile. I’m not entirely sure if this is deliberately in keeping with the film.

The commentary isn’t great, but it isn’t awful. Again, like the making of, there’s nothing particularly amazing in this, but it is, in places, actually better than the film. There’s an element of self congratulation in it that made me want to turn it off.

The Press Junket feature just seems to have been thrown in and, whilst it could have been interesting, makes you wonder why nobody asked, ‘What were you thinking when you committed to this movie?’

Fired Up is out now.

Ad – content continues below

Rating:

1 out of 5