Stick It
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C-
Jessica
Bendinger wrote the still-talked about Bring
It On, already spawning a video sequel, but she wrote and directed the
not-as-interesting Stick It, a 2006
exercise (pun intended) in mixing comedy, puberty, gymnastics and hipness that
does not quite pan out as well. Haley
(Missy Peregrym) has divorced parents and cannot stay out of trouble, so she is
sent to intense gymnastics she hates and her coach (Jeff Bridges, who is good
despite having an underwritten role) who is on her case constantly.
Like Bring It On, everything comes down to
the sometimes bitchy competition between the females, but it never has the bite
and conflict the previous film did.
Racial tension may be part of it, but when you have sequences in between
scenes that look like something out of Nancy Walker’s Disco Musical Can’t Stop The Music (1980) coming out
of nowhere to stop the narrative, forget it.
The film also cannot avoid whether it is or is not in the MTV mode. Polly Holiday (Flo from the great TV series Alice, reviewed elsewhere on this site)
has a fun turn as a judge, but the film falls flat and is quite
predictable. Young ladies might enjoy
this, as well as those into gymnastics, but the rest is a disappointment.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is on the flat side, with color in tact,
but Daryn Okata’s cinematography is competent.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is yet another where the surrounds and bass
really kick in for the songs. Extras
include a bloopers/outtakes reel, deleted scenes with commentary, commentary
section and three featurettes including one with actual gymnasts that are more
interesting than this film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
