The Swinging Cheerleaders

The last time I saw this movie was in 1991 on USA "Up All Night" and I haven't seen it since. I first saw it in 1983 on cable when I was 12 years old,I had to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to watch it,because it was a "dirty movie". Those were the days. It may be cheesy as hell,but I like it. I noticed that Colleen Camp is in this,and no, there are no nude shots of her. One thing I've wondered about this is what type of movie this is: Comedy? Drama? Action? I think it's all three. I miss this movie and I wish it was available on VHS. I see SWITCHBLADE SISTERS is! Why isn't this one?! SWINGING CHEERLEADERS is way better than SWITCHBLADE SISTERS!

Needing another member for the cheerleading squad at Mesa State College the cheerleaders open tryouts for anyone who might be interested. As it so happens a student by the name of "Kate Corie" (Jo Johnston) auditions and is accepted even though the head cheerleader "Mary Ann Putnam" (Colleen Camp) is jealous of her for flirting with her boyfriend "Buck Larsen" (Ron Hajak) who happens to be the star quarterback. What nobody knows however is that Kate only wants to join the squad to dig up some dirt for her journalism term paper. And in the course of her work she discovers a lot more than people fully realize. Anyway, rather than divulge any more of the plot and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this particular film had a reputation for being somewhat sleazy when it first came out. However, while it certainly had some nudity and scenes of a sexual nature, it wasn't nearly as graphic as I had initially thought back then. Likewise, although it was definitely a low-budget drive-in type of movie that one would find back in the mid-70's, it had a fairly interesting plot which managed to keep my attention for the most part. At any rate, while it certainly wasn't a blockbuster film by any means it wasn't that terribly bad either. Accordingly, I give it an average rating.

A feminist reporter (Jo Johnston) who wants to write an exposé on how cheerleading degrades women decides to infiltrate the cheerleading squad. Once accepted, she realizes that the cheerleaders aren't bad and finds out that the football games are rigged. She also falls for the team's quarterback (Ron Hajek), and this does not sit well with his girlfriend - the head cheerleader (Colleen Camp).

Semi follow-up to 1973's "The Cheerleaders" is a disappointment. Too many subplots, amateurish performances and writing ruin this loser. Directed by Jack Hill ("Coffy," "Foxy Brown"). My evaluation: * out of ****.

As opposed to the original film in this series, this follow up definitely is less of a raunchy silly sexploitation comedy and more of a thoughtful drama. With an entirely new cast, there are the occasional silliness but nothing is really humorous. The acting is noticeably more serious, better overall and more drama is included. The women characters have more morals, are more mature and aren't as sex craved. A lot more realism where this takes place with college level students opposed to high schoolers in the original.

Even though, this is a lot less wild and explicit which may slightly be bizarre considering this is college and not high school. There is more focus on a plot and less focus on scenes of skin and soft core-like scenes for the sake of it.

The ending of the film ends rather ubruptly with the football game still being played yet we simply see the credits roll. We then hear an announcer mentioning the game but not speaking on its conclusion. Which was rather bizarre that they didn't conclude the actual game finishing that was presented earlier in being very important.

As a film overall, it's better than the original since the tone is more serious and realistic. Not nearly as raunchy which can see why people prefer the original. Still nothing really special. One time watch.

So I sat down to watch this expecting a waste of 90 minutes of my life. Surprisingly I found myself actually enjoying this seedy little mid seventies sexsploitation piece.

The plot is nothing to speak of - journalism major decides to do a piece on swinging cheerleaders and their jock boyfriends.

Where the film surprises is in it's scripting - surprisingly liberated considering this was 1974 and somewhat witty with a bevy of interesting performances from a game cast, this turned out to be far more entertaining than expected.

Fun seventies drive-in fair and somewhat more layered than you may think. A solid six out of ten.