The only reason I got into this whole film criticism thing is because the magazine I do some video work for needed somebody to fill in, with the plus being that I got into the movies for free. That was cool for a while, but soon after seeing bad movie after bad movie, the process of looking for my keys, grabbing my coat, driving through inclimate weather and trying to find a parking spot started making doing this quite the chore. And I don’t know if you know any real film critics, but I do from going to these movie screeners and though we do hate to generalize, they are some of the most unsavory people on the planet earth to be around, and I think this is the reason why. To stop my soul from being eaten away as theirs have been I stopped going to every screener that popped up and now only go every once a while, preferring to focus on DVD mainly because I’m a lazy ass and they get delivered to my doorstep. This brings us to ‘Fired Up’. Why oh why did I opt to go to this screening? Because I was bored and had nothing else to do, that’s why. I remember seeing the trailer for this and thinking that ‘Bring it On’ and its endless cavalcade of Straight to DVD sequels probably had closed the book on cheerleading movies, but yet here goes another one. While waiting for this movie to start I was contemplating ducking out of the theater and sneaking into something I wanted to see, but I’m not much of a risk taker so I sat there. If I were a real film critic I would be embarrassed at making this next statement, but I’m not a real film critic so I will suffer no such recrimination. This movie was freaking hilarious and I had a great time at the show with this one.

Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) are a couple of thirty year old high school football studs who like to play with the ladies. If this were reality, this pair would probably be heading towards NFL retirement but thanks to the magic of movies they are in the midst of a glorious high school gridiron career. This duo has pretty much run through all the girls at Gerald Ford High who pause long enough to

listen to their game, when Nick gets wind that the schools gawdawful cheerleading squad is going to be spending the summer at a regional cheerleading camp. Before you can say ‘brainstorm’ the boys get an idea. Quit football, join the cheerleading squad, get to the camp and have unfettered access to over 300 of the most beautiful, tightest 25 year old high school chicks that Hollywood has to offer. Outstanding.

There are issues to sort out before our heroes can make it to Nirvana with the number issue being Carly (Sarah Roemer), the squads head cheerleader who’s all too aware of this duos game. But partly because Sarah and Shawn have a little thing building up and partly because the team is awful and needs all the help they can get, our boys are on the squad.

Once they get to the camp the mayhem and hijinx kick into overdrive as they meet all kinds of wacky characters such as Coach Keith (John Michael Higgins) the over zealous director of the camp, his hot wife Diora (Molly Simms) who Nick really has the hots for and all kinds odd characters and situation. Of course you know the team has to bond, Shawn falls for Carly, our boys have to get exposed as frauds, feelings get hurt, redemption is sought and all must be right in time for the big cheerleading competition.

Now if you watch ‘Fired Up’ and observe that this is just more moronic, sophomoric nonsense, I’m really in no position to argue with you because that’s what it is, but if you listen to ‘Fired Up’ you are going to here some of the funniest, humorous most clever witticisms spew out of characters mouths that I’ve heard in movie in a very long time. Despite the obvious visual eye candy in the movie, and I’m guessing the casting call for this one was one HELL of a party, this nonsense is dialog driven and actors Olsen and Agostino are behind the wheel of this dialog shooting it out of their mouths like machine guns. To be honest with you there were times that I was the only in the theater laughing, which would be quite embarrassing if I actually gave a damn. Now this was either because I’m dumber than everybody else and the humor went to depths that only us stupid people could understand… OR… I am of SUPERIOR intellect and me and the credited writer of ‘Fired Up’, someone calling his or herself Freedom Jones, exist at a higher conscious level that others simply can’t get with. I’m rolling with the latter on that one baby.

There was even a little ‘Bring it On’ joke in this movie that was funny. And actress Hayley Marie Norman is the spitting image of my cousin Heather, when cousin Heather was younger and hotter, which is another reason this movie may have endeared itself to me. The only thing this flick needed to make it an all-time classic was nudity and better marketing. Seriously. Nudity because the opportunity for it was there and it would have completed the inherent circle of exploitation that was already embedded in the narrative, for as it was they ended up half-stepping… I’m talking shower scenes, dream sequences, wardrobe malfunctions… whatever needed to be done. I mention marketing because this movie was sold basically as a cheerleading rom-com type movie and not as the tasteless, absurdist, over-the-top comedy that it actually is.

Don’t be ashamed people, this movie is funny, clever and witty and you know it. At the very least give it a chance on DVD when it comes out in about a week or two because I’m pretty sure nobody is going to go to the theaters to see it. And quite honestly, that’s too bad because ‘Fired Up’ is one of the funniest flicks I’ve seen in a long time.