Fired Up! Cinema Review

We’ve had a handful of cheerleading movies over the last few years, but Fired Up shouldn’t be seen in the same kind of category as the likes of Bring It On. While there are a few, inevitable similarities, Fired Up! is an entirely different kind of homage to high school life and the ‘sport’ in general.

The two star players for Ford High School’s American Football team, Shawn Colfax (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Nick Brady (Eric Christian Olsen) have something of a liking for cheerleaders, as any red-blooded football player is supposed to. However, when they hear about a cheerleading camp with over 300 ‘hotties’ attending, they decide to ditch the gridiron and join up for the school cheer squad. Their motto is, “leave no girl left unturned,” and set out to do just that. In the course of their high school fornicating, the pair find themselves in some amusing situations. While the humour is somewhat low-brow, it’s very much what you expect. Scenes of the pair covering up their nakedness with pom-poms, and desperately trying to escape the morning after are aplenty.

When one of the pair, Shawn, falls for the nubile cheer captain, Carly (Sarah Roemer), things take a different turn, as the foppish D’Agosto tries to give up his tail-chasing days and focuses on the girl of his dreams. The more caricatured jock, Brady is utterly stoic in his pursuit of cheerleaders, and his regularly moronic lines make for a good few giggles. Despite the theatrical poster, brandishing it’s ‘F’ and ‘U’ somewhat provocatively, there’s little to offend anyone here. Those expecting the likes of Freddy Got Fingered, or Dude Where’s My Car wont find the level of gross-out humour present in those teen flicks. That’s probably a good thing for most moviegoers though.

Set behind this quasi-romantic narrative is the classic ‘underdog makes good’ theme, in which the cheer crew get a chance at toppling the long-time champions. This gives the rest of the cast an opportunity to get their cheerleader heads on, giving rise to some particularly entertaining episodes. Much of Fired Up! is of a tongue-in-cheek nature, with scenes parodying cheerleaders and American college life. The entire cheer squad, for example, know every line to every scene in Bring It On, and mouth it while watching it at cheer camp. Very few of the college stereotype escape unmolested as the nerds and jocks alike are savagely torn into.

While cheerleading in this country isn’t particularly popular, and there are few for whom the sport will hold interest, it’s always amusing to see such unrestrained stereotypes in action, and Fired Up! makes the best of the premise in that respect. There are plenty of amusing scenes, and the pairing of sensitive Shawn and numbskull Nick make for an experience you’ll most likely leave smiling from.