Bring It On: Cheer Or Die (2022)

When I heard that someone had come up with the ridiculous idea of taking the Bring It On movie series into slasher territory, well, I was delighted. Having enjoyed all of the other films, to varying degrees (although I have yet to see Bring It On: Worldwide Showdown), I figured this might be a good way to reinvigorate a series that had faded away from the minds of movie fans some years ago. There's nothing wrong with a movie series creeping towards a natural end point, of course, but I just have a soft spot for the various cheerleading dramas I have been watching for almost two decades now.

Written by Rebekah McKendry and Dana Schwartz, and directed by Karen Lam, this instalment develops a story by Alyson Fouse (the main writer involved with every sequel to the 2004 original, as well as many other projects). A cheerleading team have to practice late at night in an empty building, but they soon find themselves being stalked by a mysterious killer. That's all there is to it.

Kerri Medders plays the main character, Abby, Tiera Skovbye is McKayla Miller, and Marlowe Zimmerman and Makena Zimmerman play sisters, Paige and Evee Simmons, and everyone else really blends in with the whole cheerleading squad. The one exception is Missi Pyle, making a small cameo in the role of Principal Simmons. It's not that the cast aren't given one or two characteristics supposed to help them stand out from the crowd. It's just that everyone spends a lot of time looking perky in a cheerleading uniform, or just coming in and out of the plot to do nothing more than up the potential bodycount.

While the mix of main elements should be fun, it sadly never reaches its full potential. There's no real tension, kills are disappointingly tame and bloodless affairs, and the comedy is ineffective (although works a bit better when just juxtaposing the attempts to maintain a sunny disposition in the face of a situation going from bad to worse). The expected third act reveal is fun, and far from the most ridiculous motivation that we've seen given to crazed killers, but things get a bit too silly when the writers think that using cheerleading as an integral part of the finale will help to justify branding this under the Bring It On umbrella. Maybe it was some kind of stipulation, I don't know, but it's disappointingly mishandled.

The cast all do well enough in their roles, and fair play to everyone who manages to do the kind of cheerleading moves I wouldn't have even managed when I was a teenager, but they're stuck in a film that doesn't help them. McKendry and Schwartz fail to pinpoint the exact tone they want throughout, staggering from one moment to another like a pair of drunk friends heading homeward after a big night on the town, and Lam does nothing to help, seemingly happy to present everything without any extra style or skill.

The central concept - that complete lurch into a very different subgenre - is strong enough to gain some goodwill, but it's a shame that Bring It On: Cheer Or Die wasn't allowed to lean fully into the horror. It's equally depressing that the writers couldn't do better with the comedy. I can't bring myself to hate this, but I won't cheer it.

3/10

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Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl is a good film. At times it's a very good film. It also turns out to be the weakest one yet from director David Fincher. It's as if the opportunity to direct this came along when he wanted to coast slightly, matching his style and meticulous craftmanship to material that never really seems to deserve it. This is, let's be honest here, daytime TV movie stuff, given some added spice and edge to make it more of a talking point.

Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, the husband who goes home one day to find that his wife (Amy, played by Rosamund Pike) has gone. He calls in the police, and soon finds that he is the main subject of their investigation. As the evidence starts to pile up against him, Nick begins his own investigation. And he starts to suspect that perhaps he didn't really know his wife at all.

Written by Gillian Flynn, adapting her novel for the big screen, this is a film that seems to think it's always one step ahead of the viewer. It's not. Yes, there are one or two moments that will wrong-foot those wondering whether they are watching a real version of events, or something created by either of the main characters, but even those moments are easy to dismiss if you pay close enough attention to what's going on. There are a couple of BIG shocks, I guess, but even those are so heavily signposted that their impact is sorely muted.

Thankfully, none of the weaknesses in the source material cause any problems for the cast. Pike and Affleck deliver two fantastic performances, with the former able to enjoy a real variety of roles (depending on how she is being viewed by others) and the latter making the best use yet of that certain smug quality his detractors often accuse him of having. I've never had a problem with Affleck, but even those who tend to dislike what they view as his persona may end up liking his turn here, seeing him turn on charm for the sake of cameras and crowds while constantly having a large finger of suspicion pointed in his direction. Kim Dickens is great as the cop determined to crack the case, and Patrick Fugit tries his best alongside her, despite the fact that he seems trapped in a state of perpetual adolescence. Carrie Coon is the twin sister of Affleck's character, and very good she is in her role, Tyler Perry impresses as a hotshot lawyer willing to act in defence of a man who is starting to look guilty as sin, Neil Patrick Harris is an ex-lover who may or may not have information, and both Sela Ward and Missi Pyle have fun playing two TV celebrities, both with differing approaches but the same aim.

There's also the bonus of having Fincher at the helm, even if he IS on auto-pilot (or so it seems). The cool colour palette, the music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the slow and steady camerawork, the pitch-black humour. I seem to spend half of my time saying that familiarity breeds contempt with the other half of my time appearing to be a bloody hypocrite when I say that familiarity can often be an easy, comforting layer used in movies. This movie falls in to the latter camp.

It's not often that a film can overcome weak source material. This one manages it. But there's only so much that can be done, which is why it ends up being merely a good film, as opposed to a great one.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Girl-Blu-ray-Tyler-Perry/dp/B00Q5996EQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1419685676&sr=1-2&keywords=gone+girl

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

This review is going here because, well, I wanted to start off the new year with a smile on my face.

As simple as it is gut-bustingly funny, Dodgeball is a near-perfect mix of great one-liners and physical comedy, populated by a cast all playing to their strengths and directed with sharp focus on moving from one comedy beat to the next.

Vince Vaughn plays Peter La Fleur, owner of Average Joe's gym. La Fleur is a nice guy, but a terrible businessman. When he's given a very short time in which to come up with a very large sum of money it looks like Average Joe's is about to close. Which is good news for White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the narcissistic, dense, mean owner of Globo-Gym (slogan: "We're better than you, and we know it").
There may, however, be a way to raise the money and save Average Joe's. Yep, you guessed it. Dodgeball. There's a big tournament about to happen, and the prize money is just the exact amount that La Fleur needs to save the gym.

Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who would score another big comedy hit almost ten years later with We're The Millers, this is very much a love or hate movie, and I love it. In fact, it's one of those movies that I love so much that I just hope many of my friends also love it, otherwise I start to question their taste, and then question the basis of our friendship, and then question by questioning manner, and then just collapse into a heap of paranoia and low self-esteem.

Vaughn is a fast-talking average Joe (almost literally, in this case), Stiller is the angry idiot, Justin Long is a good-hearted klutz, Stephen Root is someone who builds and builds up his anger until he explodes, Joel David Moore is a socially awkward bundle of nerves and, well, I guess you get the picture. What I'm emphasising here with my description of each character is that this is not a film to watch if you do not like any of these actors doing their usual stuff. Christine Taylor is very good as the attractive young woman who La Fleur takes a shine to, Rip Torn is hilarious as a violent dodgeball coach, and there are great cameos from the likes of David Hasslehoff, William Shatner, Hank Azaria, Lance Armstrong (although his cameo isn't as funny now as it once was) and even Chuck Norris. Gary Cole and Jason Bateman are to commentators with distinctly different styles, and Missi Pyle is the most dangerous woman in the world with a dodgeball.

Is it a modern comedy classic? Most people would probably say that it isn't, but Dodgeball has a better laugh-per-minute ratio than almost any other comedy I can think of since the turn of the 21st century. It's the perfect blend of clever and dumb, with an extra sprinkling of . . . . . . . . even more dumb, and I certainly rank it up there with many other comedy greats. It might not be perfect, but it comes close.

And the sequence that pops up during the end credits may not be big or clever, but it's yet another moment that makes me burst out laughing, ensuring that the smile stays on my face for some time after the movie has finished.

9/10

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Bringing Down The House (2003)

Written by Jason Filardi (it was his first script, or at least the first to get made into a feature anyway) and directed by Adam Shankman, Bringing Down The House is the kind of by-the-numbers comedy that nobody ever loves but everyone seems to pay to see at the cinema. Made for just over $30M, this movie ended up taking over $160M worldwide (according to boxofficemojo.com). That's a haul so impressive that I'm surprised we've not seen a sequel.

Steve Martin stars as Peter Sanderson, a tax attorney who spends more time working for his company than he does working out fun stuff to do for when he picks his children up from his ex-wife (Jean Smart). He does, however, make some time to chat online with a woman known as "lawyer-girl" and ends up arranging a date. When lawyer-girl (Queen Latifah) turns up she has to admit that she maybe isn't what Peter had in mind. Her name is Charlene, she's black and recently released from prison. She wants Peter to help clear her name and expunge her record. This all occurs while Peter is wooing a very important potential new client (Joan Plowright), looking after his kids and generally trying to keep his life on track. He does not want, or need, Charlene in his life. His friend, Howie Rottman (Eugene Levy), on the other hand, finds himself instantly enchanted.

Yes, you can check off the standard gags and plot developments that appear in this movie right now. Martin being unable to understand the slang used by Queen Latifah? Check. Martin later trying to use some slang and be "down" with some other African Americans? Check. Strained moments in which Martin tries to impress Plowright while keeping Latifah out of the picture? Check. The tough, streetsmart woman teaching the stiff, uptight tax attorney a thing or two? Check. The feelings still there between Martin and his ex-wife? Check.

It's fair to say that originality and suspense are not to be found here. It's also fair to say that none of the laughs are big laughs, but they are consistently good enough to build into something worth your time. Eugene Levy steals a few scenes, Missi Pyle is a lot of fun as a woman a lot tougher than she looks and the rest of the cast do just fine (including Michael Rosenbaum, who always seems to be ill-served by movies, and the ever-wonderful Betty White). It's Martin and Latifah, however, who really make this such an enjoyable hour and a half. While I've been a life-long fan of Martin, I've quickly warmed to Queen Latifah (real name = Dana Elaine Owens) and find her to be a welcome addition to any movie that she stars in. Even if the movie itself isn't all that good.

There are many people who will think that I shouldn't rate Bringing Down The House as highly as I do (even though I've gone for a score that's just above average), but I'm willing to bet that some of them enjoyed it more than they admit to. After all, that $160M worldwide total speaks for itself.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bringing-Down-House-Steve-Martin/dp/B0000TZ7HW/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1374361089&sr=1-1&keywords=bringing+down+the+house