Did I waste 2 hours of my life?

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2007)

That's what this movie had me thinking at the end of it. This, even with the ending credits actually being one of this movie's best parts. It featured the cast of the movie lipsynching and dancing to the song "Hey Mickey." Bring it On could be a real pain in some points. The combined crudeness and general long length it seemed to take for the movie to reach its climax made it a bit difficult to watch.
The movie finally gets a move on it, when Torrance, shortly after becoming squad captain, discovers that the former Torros captain had been stealing the cheerleading routines of a squad from another school- the Clovers. Torrance then, overcome with guilt and shame, takes it upon herself to create a fresh routine for the team before the finals that are only a few weeks away. Torrance attributes much of her problems to "the curse." The Curse was the hilarious myth that Torrance picked up at cheer camp, that claimed that dropping the "spirit stick" caused bad fortune to follow you for the rest of your life.
The movie definitely has its quite humorous moments. The more shallow characters are clearly parodies- in fact, most of the film is indeed a parody. The movie in some ways teaches a lesson by mocking those who are proud of themselves for cheating to win.
My favorite characters were as follows- Torrance Shipman, (Kirsten Dunst) president of the Torros squad; Missy Pantone (Eliza Dushku), Torrance's closest friend and "ally" on the squad; Cliff Pantone (Jesse Bradford), Missy's electric-guitar-playing, constantly-CD-player-wearing, cheerleader-hating brother and Torrance's romantic fixation throughout the greater part of the film. I think, they in many ways save the movie by bringing it a little more down to earth.
The acting in the movie was as good as was to be desired considered the circumstances. In fact, I didn't think that it was that bad.
As for the cheer routines? Colorful, brilliant, and all around excellent for lack of more creative wording.
Despite that, if I had one word to summarize my opinion on the movie it would be; subpar. Though, perhaps we ought to cut it some slack. After all, it WAS a "teenage" movie. How many of those are actually really good? Did I waste 2 hours of my life? Maybe. But I'm definitely not screaming in agony.