Bring It On

Not another high school comedy I hear you say? Well don’t run away too quickly, because Bring It On actually does deliver some good quality, but corny laughs. Considering that cheerleader movies generally haven’t made much of a recent appearance at the box office (outside of those dirty XXX titles that we need not mention in this review) I was actually surprised by Bring It On and its refreshing and almost new and original approach to the overly cliche arena of modern teen angst movies.

Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst) is the new cheerleading captain of Rancho Carne High (Rancho Carne meaning Meat Ranch in Spanish), who after attempting to do “the most difficult pyramid known to cheerleading, and mankind" broke the leg of one of her team members. Finding a replacement for the hospitalised cheerleader is easier said then done, and when bad girl Missy Patone (Eliza Dushku) applies, more than heads were turned. Her gymnastics experience makes her perfect for the role, and after a few catty exchanges and heated words, she lands the role as the newest member of the prestigious ‘Toros’.

Only to make matters worse Missy later alerts Torrance to the fact that all their dance routines are stolen from the East Compton Clovers, who also plan on using them for the upcoming National Championships. Now faced with a moral dilemma and the pressure of winning the Toro’s their 6th straight national championship Torrance must come up with a plan and a new routine to inspire her fellow cheerleaders to victory one more time.

The choreography for these dance movements were extreme and a real nightmare for the cast and crew, especially the professional actors, some of whom had never experienced being cheerleaders before. The months of training required (as explained in the featurette and audio commentary) were well worth it as the key competition scenes come out looking spectacular. Director Peyton Reed really did do some amazing work putting this film together.

"Cheerleaders are dancers... who have gone retarded."

The video transfer on this disc is quite spectacular. It is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16:9 enhanced. There is an abundance of colourful scenes in this movie and all come out looking fresh and vibrant. The colours are amazing and bright, the depth to each colour, especially the reds and blacks, look absolutely stunning.

The uniforms on the cheerleaders look brilliant, even the reds come up looking amazing with absolutely no over-saturation or bleeding. Shadow detail in this transfer is excellent and isn’t even a problem during the several very dark scenes.

The detail in this transfer is also superb, showing off separate blades of grass as a cheerleader plummets to the ground and individual strands of blonde hair roughly sticking out of Kirsten Dunst’s piggy tails.

There is a lot of rapid movement and panning during this film, and even with the extremely high detail of this transfer there is still basically no aliasing to be seen at all.

The only major flaws with this transfer are the very rare film artefacts (only seen in one or two scenes), and a layer change that really does stick out like a sore thumb. Apparently the region 1 disc has slightly better placement of the change, but I am yet to see that for myself.

Apart from these small annoyances, this disc comes up looking trumps with no major flaws. An excellent transfer by Village Roadshow, another superb effort on their behalf.

The audio on this disc also gets the big thumbs up. There are two audio streams on this disc, a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, and a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio commentary. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack to Bring it On is amazing. The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand and there are no audio sync problems.

For a movie of this genre the surrounds actually get a great work out, and are almost constantly flittering around with active sound. The subwoofer is also put to good use through the music and other sound effects, but is never overbearing or annoying.

The musical score by Christophe Beck consists mainly of modern pop, rock, and techno songs. Considering this is a movie about cheerleaders, who have to cheer to music, these songs are put to great use and add a lot of atmosphere to the movie. The choice of music during the main dance routines is also great and makes it look and sound as good as the real thing, if not better.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio commentary is also clear and easy to understand, which is good considering director Peyton Reed is constantly blabbering for basically the entire length of the film.

Overall the soundtrack on this disc is superb and sounds amazing when turned up to the volume that it really should be played at.

There is quite a long list of special features that are included on this disc. They are a pretty good collection and are shown off nicely in some very fancy looking animated menus.

The director’s commentary is a nice addition to this disc. Peyton Reed tries his best to keep things light and entertaining, including the occasional joke that could almost go undetected if he wasn’t trying so hard to be funny. He keeps going the whole way through and makes it one of the more interesting audio commentaries around. Even during the credits he keeps on going, pointlessly of course, trying his best to be humorous. Might not be appreciated by all, but definitely worth checking out.

The ‘Spotlight on Location’ featurette is not a bad watch, consisting of some footage from the movie, and some behind the scenes shots, as well as interviews from the cast and crew. Running for 14 minutes this is well worth watching, possibly more so after you’ve seen the movie.

The deleted scenes are presented on this disc as one long sequence lasting over 13 minutes. Luckily though, the ten individual scenes are split into separate chapters so that they are easy to skip through. The quality of these scenes is not good, and they are not widescreen enhanced. Each deleted scene has an introduction by director Peyton Reed and are all quite interesting to watch.

The extended scenes are similar to the deleted scenes, but contain the uncut versions of sections that actually did make it to film. There are three in total and are all introduced by the director. Another reasonable, although nothing special addition to the disc.

The ‘Wardrobe & Makeup Tests’ is another interesting addition, containing 42seconds of Eliza Dushku and Kirsten Dunst dancing around in different clothes and makeup. A pretty pointless addition, but pleasing and entertaining to watch.

There’s also the apparently ‘Never Before-Seen Home Movie of the Car Wash Scene’. Although the title pretty much speaks for itself, this little extra contains almost 3 minutes of hand-held video camera footage taken during the car wash scene of the movie. Nothing terribly special here, but will probably be well appreciated by the male fans of this movie.

There is also a music video of ‘As If’ by Blaque. Not my type of music but a tidy addition all the same. Also note that the three young ladies from Blaque are also three of the cheerleaders from the Clovers; a nice but pointless piece of trivia there for you all.

The cast and crew bios are just another run of the mill type static pages of bio’s for Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, and Peyton Reed. Nothing new here.

The theatrical trailer is another nice touch, and is reasonably entertaining to watch. It is presented with an anamorphic aspect ration of 1.85:1 and comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Unfortunately the video quality of the trailer is a couple steps below that of the actual movie.

Added to all this is a hidden easter egg. Found on the second page of extras. Press the left arrow and a tattoo of the Rancho Carne High School logo appears on Kirsten’s arm. If you press enter there you’ll be thrown to an intro by Peyton Reed and then shown a little gallery of 11 pictures from the movie and behind the scenes.

Overall ‘Bring it On’ delivers something to the screens that we haven’t seen in a while. Although it did include more corny moments than I could normally handle, these were easily forgiven thanks to the pure sex appeal of the movie as a whole. Don’t be mistaken, this movie will never be a classic, but it has enough momentum of action and laughs to keep you stuck to your chair, even during repeated viewings.

The dance routines in the movie were nothing short of awesome, and the performances by the cast were convincing, if nothing else. The small touch of romance will probably help the ladies enjoy this movie, where as the male viewers need only worry about the drool coming from their own mouths. It is a cheerleading movie after all.

The transfer this film received was amazing and extras are enough to make this disc well worth considering. Check the movie out first, it might not be to everyone’s liking, but if you’ve seen it, and loved it, then this is must own DVD that will stand very proud in your collection. Bring it On!