Bring It On: In It to Win It

This film essentially begins with an all-star cheerleading team from California named the West Coast Sharks traveling to the Summer Cheer Camp in Florida to compete against their bitter rival from New York known as the East Coast Jets in a contest for the national championship. Although the East Coast Jets have beaten the West Coast Sharks three times in a row, the captain of the Sharks named "Carson" (Ashley Benson) is determined to win this time. Naturally, the captain of the Jets by the name of "Brooke" (Cassandra Scerbo) is equally determined to beat the Sharks. But what neither of them realize is that another team known as the Flamingoes has suddenly emerged with a lineup that appears to better than either of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, even though the similarity to West Side Story was quite obvious at the start, the film then shifted into something quite different around the midpoint with interpersonal drama giving way to increased dancing and acrobatics. Unfortunately, what was absent from this sports-comedy was any noticeable humor and that seriously affected this film as a whole. And it's because of this rather glaring omission that I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

After "Bring it on: All or nothing" I was more or less sure that I had seen everything there was to see about cheerleading, and when I heard that there was to be yet another Bring it on -movie I was very skeptic to the idea. It seemed to me that the Bring it on -franchise was turning into a modern Rocky/Rambo-franchise for teens: You think it's over, but then there's another one and another one and another one... often with deteriorating over all -quality as a result. To test my hypothesis I decided to watch "Bring it on: In it to win it".

As suspected the storyline was simple, nothing too surprising. There was the usual conflict between two teams, two girls fighting and the usual "wrong" hottie and the amazing final routine. It seems to me that there is a pattern in choosing actors for the Bring it on -movies. Bring it on 1 and 3 starred fairly famous actors/actresses (Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Bradford and Hayden Panettiere), while Bring it on 2 and 4 had (at least to me) fairly unknown actors/actresses. The good thing about casting relatively unknown actors/actresses is that they just might surprise you, as Cassie Scerbo (Brooke) did. Her sassy, sarcastic attitude, combined with her constant applying of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" -principles to her methods with which to destroy Carson's (Ashley Benson) squad, was very impressive.

All in all, I found "Bring it on: In it to win it" fairly amusing, and by far better than "Bring it on Again", which I regard as an all time low. The rivalry between the two squads is much like the one in the previous Bring it on -movie, and as usual the final routine was something special. As I live in a country where cheerleading is not such a serious or popular sport, I found it interesting and entertaining to watch this movie, even though I'm sure a lot is over-exaggerated.

I'd recommend this movie if you want something light and funny to watch on with your friends, but if you want something deep and thoughtful with acting that should get an Oscar... watch something else.

Rating: 6/10

Carson (Ashley Benson) leads the West Coast Sharks against her nemesis Brooke (Cassie Scerbo) and the East Coast Jets. Jets have won three years in a row. The Jets are precise while the Sharks are daring. Carson falls for flirtatious Penn (Michael Copon) who turns out to be a Jet. The Sharks are given the Spirit Stick but somebody steals it. The rivals get into an off-campus cheer off resulting in many injuries. To field a complete team, they have to combine forces and work together.

Ashley Benson is a fine actress but Hilary Duff lite actually hurts. I like Michael Copon's brash arrogance. Ashley Tisdale has a small cameo. The rest of the cast is either forgettable or simply bad. The adult characters are beyond bland. The writing isn't helping anyone either. The superficial referencing of West Side Story only gives a veneer of respectability. This is a former interesting franchise that has gone to straight-to-video hell.

Released to video in 2007 and directed by Steve Rash, "Bring it On: In it to Win it" is a high school dramedy/sports flick starring Ashley Benson and Cassandra Scerbo as Carson and Brooke, the captains of two rival cheerleading teams, the West Coast Sharks and the East Coast Jets respectively. They meet at Camp Spirit-Thunder in Florida for the championship, but Carson's romance with a male cheerleader of the Jets (Michael Copon) throws a wrench into the proceedings. Everything falls apart when the rival squads engage in a cheer-rumble where half their teammates sustain injuries that remove both the Sharks and the Jets from competition. What will they do?

"In it to Win it" is the fourth movie in the franchise. The others are "Bring it On" (2000), "Bring it On Again" (2004), "Bring it On: All or Nothing" (2006) and "Bring it On: Fight to the Finish" (2009). The first movie was the only one that was theatrically released and is therefore the most polished in the series as far as overall production quality. This perhaps explains why I couldn't get past the 50-minute mark of "In it to Win it" the first time I tried to watch it, but I decided to give it another chance and am glad I did because the first half is just a build-up to the nigh genius of the second half. While the first half is kinetic fun, it lacks dramatic depth and therefore becomes a bore by the mid-point, but the second half fleshes out the great characters and everything clicks for an amusing high school dramedy/ sports flick.

What distinguishes "In it to Win it" is that the entire movie takes place at the national cheer camp, which is parallel to a huge amusement park; as such, there are no high school sequences. In the first half you'll role your eyes at the stereotypes, but the second half pulls the rug out from underneath your presumptions with a great "confession" sequence. Highlights include the semi-homage to the renowned "West Side Story," the great cast, the smart amusement, the energetic tone and some amazing cheer routines, not to mention Ashley Tisdale's hit song during the credits. "In it to Win it" also has better women than the first movie, although not as good as "All or Nothing" (featuring Hayden Panettiere and Danielle Savre).

Speaking of the "great cast," they're essentially no-names, but they deliver the goods as a nice assortment of characters that you come to understand and like over the course of the story. Beyond the cast noted above, the top ones are Noel Areizaga (the gay Shark), Jennifer Tisdale (curvy white Jet), Kierstin Koppel (the Goth Shark) and Anniese Taylor Dendy (black shark with seemingly ghetto edge).

The film runs 90 minutes and was shot at Universal Studios Florida, Universal Orlando Resort.

GRADE: B

I have seen all four of the Bring It On Movies and this was by far the worst one yet. The actress who plays Carson was the best in the movie and the other girls were barely tolerable to watch... a waste of a trip to blockbuster if you ask me.

The plot is set out to be a modern day version of The West Side story, with the two sides coming together to succeed in the end. But bad acting, writing and costumes (these girls are young, but having them wearing two small of shorts resulting in "muffin top" is ridiculous) ruins the movie in the end. No wonder it was a straight to DVD film. Jennifer Tisdale should be ashamed of herself for choosing a part in this movie. She is too old to be playing the high school cheerleader ditz. It might be time to move onto a new career and leave the success to her little sister.