They don't bring it on

Rating: 2/10 (9 September 2000)

They bring the noise, they bring the boobs, they bring the blonde, they even bring the members of TLC protege-group Blaque, but, I am sad to report, they don't bring it on. Another in a long line of cheerleader features ("But I'm a...) and featured cheerleaders (American Beauty), Bring It On attempts to make the icon sweat - as in cheerleading as "sport". Instead, it bleeds. Inspired by the national battles of cheer squads on ESPN, screenwriter Jessica Bendinger takes the cliched templates of sports movies and teen movies and reduces both to the least common denominator. Dialog is, like, totally derivative -- and the plot? You don't want to know. Though there is something for the Lester Burnhams among us (Kirsten Dunst), and the moves are for real (even the actors had to live through cheerleading "camp"), Peyton Reed's attempt to humanize and valorize cheerleading falls flat on its very smiley face.