Fired Up! Unrated Edition

Likely pitched as a discreet satire of Bring it On and American Pie, Fired Up! plays much like the straight-to-DVD sequels of those releases, with a bit of self-reflexive Kevin Williamson pap thrown in along the way. To clarify, Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) and Shawn (Nicholas D'Agostino), a couple of football-playing potential rapists, decide to give up the pigskin for a while to follow hordes of tail to a cheerleading camp. Inevitably the boys, er, men (they're playing teenagers but are both older than me) find the requisite love interests (Sarah Roemer, Molly Sims) who don't fall for the usual pick-up lines, which they feel compelled to point out, repeatedly, quite literally. This latter spelling out of subtext is what distinguishes the film from others of the genre, given that Shawn and Nick will occasionally point out, in exposition, their modes of character development while treating their environment in a manner that suggests that they know they're in a film. It's moderately clever but certainly not enough to recommend watching a feature-length comedy that's never funny. There are moments of adjacent humour, such as a Polo-clad douche bag that wears Crocs and listens to Chumbawamba, but mostly it's just Eric Christian Olsen doing his best Matthew Lillard. Why anyone would do their best Matthew Lillard isn't answered in the commentary track, which features Olsen, D'Agostino and director Will Gluck. They joke about the box office failure of the film and remark on the spreading of illness on set via the many make out scenes, in addition to addressing the whole PG-13 thing when the film was clearly an R-rated affair. The DVD is unrated, however, so in the gag reel and mock press junket they drop the F-bomb about 80 times. Also included are "Making of" and "Double Duty" featurettes, which outline the fun had on set and the annoyance of actually having to learn the cheerleading stunts.