Director: Peyton Reed
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 0.5
What? Some people actually defend this? I don't know - perhaps I'm too "out-of-the-current-loop" to appreciate ninety minutes of dull, predicable, formulaic junk. I actually had trouble trying to figure out whether the acting and humor are intentionally bad or, due to a mostly young and novice cast, bad by default (typical comment: "She puts the 'whore' in horrific"). Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku are on the same mostly-all-white cheerleading squad (Dunst being the moral one, Dushku being the quickly converted non-conformist) and compete against a rival club from Compton with a mostly (completely?) all-black troupe (who don't have the plastic surgeon fathers to pay for them to enter any real competition and plead with an Oprah-type personality for funds). That anyone found any worthwhile subtext to the white versus black rivalry is beyond me - I can't figure out exactly how Reed and his screenwriter regard Dunst and her crew who are one-dimensional and self-obsessed (but supposed to be "good"), and can't seem to fathom where Reed thinks all the depth to the film comes from. Wait - never mind: it's all in the outfits.
