Fired Up! (2009)

Shawn Colfax (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Nick Brady (Eric Christian Olsen) are high school best friends football players, and players with the girls. Football camp is going to be moved to El Paso. It's two weeks with no girls and lots of hard work. After overhearing the girls talk about cheer camp, the guys decide join. The captain Carly (Sarah Roemer) is suspicious. With sister Poppy (Juliette Goglia)'s help, the girls Bianca (Danneel Ackles), Sylvia (Margo Harshman) and Angela (Hayley Marie Norman) convince the coach that they need the boys to win over Carly's objection. The camp is run by husband and wife couple Diora (Molly Sims) and Keith (John Michael Higgins). The big competition is the Panthers captained by bitchy Gwyneth (AnnaLynne McCord).Writer/director Will Gluck puts up a good effort that is better than most cheerleading teen movies. It's filled with fast talking jokes and the guys do the buddy comedy well. Naked cheerleading in front of John Michael Higgins is hilarious. However it never gets beyond the genre. It's not deeper than a simple uninspired teen raunchy comedy.

Honestly, this movie's promos and advertisements don't inspire very high expectations but I was pleasantly surprised about how much I honestly enjoyed this movie. I think the difference between this teen comedy and other more run of the mill teen comedies is the actual love and sincerity behind this one.The cast also brings the script to life with excellent chemistry, especially between the two mains and the main girl. If not for the good chemistry a lot of the comedy would have been lost in teen movie clichés. They all have great comedic timing and it really makes this movie. This is a serious 'don't knock it til you try it' movie.

This is one of the more disappointing movies I've seen in my entire life. I don't know what's more offensive, the portrayal of gay and lesbian teens or the fact that they expect us to believe that a 30 year old Eric Christian Olsen and a 27 year old Nicholas D'Agosto are high school students. All this plus a poorly misplaced John Michael Higgins who is given absolutely nothing to work with. This movie is virtually plot less until the last 40 minutes and it's not even a good plot then. The ending is boring, anticlimactic and, in some aspects, downright insulting to the audience.The worst part is the message: there is none. There's no clear theme or lesson in this story. Every character ended pretty much the same way as they started with almost nothing to gain from the experience.On the bright side, I do have to congratulate the one million monkeys for successfully banging on one million typewriters for one million years to produce this textbook raunchy teen movie. You all have truly earned your one million bananas.

Giving the movie a 7 and the DVD a 9 for an 8 average. This is how you make a predictable teen comedy work - keep your foot on the gas at all times, even through the end credits. There's about 120 minutes worth of script packed in to 90 minutes here and most of that is carried well by the capable (if playing well beyond age) leading men. At least one repeat viewing is necessary.Most of the failings of the film are addressed openly in the DVD commentary, hence my higher rating. Everything from poor location scouting to keeping large nostrils tilted down gets discussed (and banana pants is the secret phrase). The biggest mistake brought up being the push to get a PG-13 rating for a movie almost exclusively about sex. Some of that works for laughs, though, as the substitute swear words are always more entertaining than their standard counterparts.In the end everyone wins and everyone is a better person. Did I mention it was predictable? But the jokes are funny and not overworked, and the women are beautiful. A great movie to have running in the background when you can't decide what to watch.