Bring it on! I will defend this semi-dumb comedy film about the world of competitive cheerleading, any-day. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. It's pretty good for what it is.

Rating: 6/10 (26 October 2017)

Yes, I know, a lot of critics might dislike this movie for its conventional and formulaic mid/late 1990s comedy sport film's plot of two rival school teams going head to head in the national championship, but I found this movie directed by Peyton Reed & written by Jessica Bendinger to be, unique enough to stand out on its own. One of the big changes, they did, was, not make the rival team, into stereotypical ruthless bully jocks. No, the team led by the Isis (Gabrielle Union), are mostly kind to their competitors, and don't really take, any short-cuts, in ruining the protagonist's chances of winning, even after they find out, that Torrance Shipman (Kristen Durst)'s team, stole their routine. It's kinda of a relief, because this movie could had gone badly, with the generic, 'good vs evil' clichÃ©s sport flick route. Nevertheless, I could do, without the rich vs poor class warfare, this movie was going for. In truth, San Diego & Los Angeles are surprising, not that far apart, both in numbers of the wealthy and the poor. Another thing, I would love to see, more diversity in both teams. Yes, there was a number of Hispanics & Asian-American in the Toro team, but the Clovers should had been more diverse than what we got. After all, East Compton has a surprising number of white people & plus, Hispanics make up, the majority of that city, based off the 2000 United States Census. Making the team, all African-Americans seem a bit stereotypical. Despite that, another thing, this film does so well, is have, all the actresses really trained for cheering, in order to avoid, the use of stunt doubles. They really do take, lot of difficult and risky move sets, so mad props to them, even if 80% of the dangerous dance/choreography, pyramids, stunting, and tumbling moves in this film are technically illegal & would end in disqualification, due to safety issues. I also love, how the filmmakers even involve physically mistakes in the film performance. It made the film kinda genuine, to see, our heroes still do mistakes, even in their greatest. I also like how charisma, humor, and personality shine through, with all the actresses. All of them, does a great job, both in acting and comedy chops. Lots of funny moments, throughout the film, such as 'Spirit Fingers' sequence & blooper reel, with actresses dancing and lip-sync to B*Witched's cover version of Toni Basil's "Mickey". Nevertheless, one thing, I had concern with this film, was the way, the filmmakers push the sexual aspects of cheerleading over the competition nature, a little too much. They should had ease up on the fanservice, a little bit. After all, they are still, underaged high school girls, and the high flying dance sequences should be compelling, enough. No need to make them, into sex symbols with the way too revealing outfits & men in horny little bastards. While, I didn't mind, the romantic subplot of Torrance getting co-captain, Missy Pantone (Eliza Dushku)'s brother, Cliff (Jesse Bradford). It wasn't really needed for a film, like this. Still, it's surprising, a sport film like this, was even made. It really could had turn into a really bad in sexual objectification to the point, 'Bring it on' could be, like R-rated sex comedy like 1984's 'Gimme an 'F', or worst, adult film driven film like 1978's 'Debbie Does Dallas'. Far below, what I call, entertaining films. Nevertheless, the popularity of the first film, did allow sequels to be made, none of which contain any of the original cast members, nor any good with 2004's 'Bring It On Again', 2006's 'Bring It On: All or Nothing', 2007's 'Bring It On: In It to Win It', 2009's 'Bring It On: Fight to the Finish' and 2017's 'Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack'. For better or for worst, another thing, worth highlighting about 'Bring It On', is the exposure, it had, into bringing back street dance to the mainstream, after being, nearly forgotten, after flops like 1984's 'Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo' & 1985's 'Fast Forward'. It seems like, everybody in Hollywood was producing urban dance movies after this film. Not only that, but this film help inspire, other in-field, sport movie like- music competition such as 2002's 'Drumline' & 2006's 'Stick it'. If that isn't enough to lay claim, why this PG-13 movie is good. To a certain extent, 'Bring it on', also help increase the popularity in recent years to the point, that there is now an estimated 100,000 school team participants in cheerleading national competitions, throughout worldwide. That's really crazy! That's not counting the number of junior varsity teams, which some school has. Overall: 'Bring it on' deserve more credit than it got. It's a wonderful film. While, it's not the best sport comedy, out there. It's one worth cheering for!