A movie made by committee

Rating: 5/10 (3 September 2000)

Here we have a great example of what happens when you let a committee determine how a film is to be made -- you wind up with a confused, contradictory, boring mess.
Not that BIO lacked potential; it had the potential to be several different kinds of movies. It could have been a hilarious satire on the rah-rah spirit behind the odd concept that cheerleading is a sport in itself, and there were flashes of this at times. It could have been a serious movie about the effort and dedication it takes to become the best at something, and there were more than a few flashes of that. It could have also been a "Rocky" or "Karate Kid" type movie where the underdog fights against all odds to come out on top, and it seems that was what the filmmakers were aiming for, but they picked the wrong characters for the leads for us to root for that. Lastly, it could have been an excellent opportunity to show how black (and to a lesser extent, Hispanic) culture is stolen and exploited by the mainstream white culture. They use it merely as a plot point and never explore it after that, almost exploitave itself if one thinks about it.
So what we get is hints of all of these and no follow-through on any consistent theme. The first thirty minutes of the film has several satirical gags about the cheerleaders but then insists that we take them seriously later on. Hey, if you start off poking fun at them, we're not going to give a damn about them after that. In fact, I spent the entire movie trying to see whether we should be rooting for the central characters or their rivals.
The acting isn't bad and the cheer routines are done well. They may be the most entertaining part of the entire movie. There are several laughs, mostly in the first part of the movie. After that it gets dull and plodding. You never get to know any of the secondary characters at all, which wouldn't be a problem in a satire but is a problem when the movie starts taking itself seriously.
I gave it a 5, a seriously mediocre movie, and the sad part is that it had the potential to be so much better if someone would have decided what the hell they wanted to do.