Bring It On: In It to Win It

MGA decided after putting people through the pain of three Bring It On movies, to make a fourth one. Apparently after trying three times the people at MGA think that they will get it right a fourth time; I think not.

Not any different than the other three movies this one takes place in Florida at the National East Coast cheer leading championship, where the mighty East Coast Jets compete with their rival team, the sharks. The Jets new captain Carson, played by Ashley Benson is the most "focused" on the team until she meets Penn (played by Michael Capon) and she loses this "focus"- if there was any. Little did Carson know that her Prince Charming was on the Sharks cheer squad. The teams ended up having to work together because of people on both squads getting injured during the passing of the spirit stick.

The writer and the director of this movie should seriously be fired for even considering being a part of this project. After three movies of Bring It On people would think that they would stop the attempt at making these movies. I cannot even begin to comprehend as to why people like these movies.

What's bad about this movie is has the same plot as the other three Bring It on movies, there is nothing original about it. It reminds me of every other teen movie that is in the market. The directors and writers need to come up with something different if they want to make more money.

If I wanted to go see girls be promiscuous and to backstab one another I would go to my old school, and not spend money on a DVD that isn't worth the 90 minutes.

the first was still the best. this movie reminded me of grease and high school musical....... cheer battles in the street, people doing flips and jumping off light poles!! been done and this movie was over the top. Not to mention all of the sexual comments, i don't think kids would get them, but they're there plenty. This movie would appeal to teenagers but I would not let them watch due to the sexual content. The acting was poor and a lot of the lines are cheesy. There are way too many so called messages that you get lost trying to follow them. I would not willingly watch this movie again or recommend this movie to anyone.

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.

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.

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