Sugar & Spice

A high school cheerleading squad robs a bank in order to support the burgeoning family of one of their own. They get the idea watching the Keanu Reeves movie Point Break and then watch movies like Reservoir Dogs and Dog Day Afternoon to figure out how exactly to pull the caper off.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Sounds like a cutesy family movie, right? The kind that warms the cockles, wherever they are. Well, almost. It's a dead-on, surprisingly hilarious comedy, with perfect off-center performances and a crisp, honest script.

The last cheerleading movie I saw (and quick, can you name more than a couple anyway? Didn't think so) was the Kirsten Dunst comedy Bring It On. This one blows that out of the water, out of the atmosphere, and out of the solar system. There's no moralizing. There's no good-girls-are-right, bad-girls-are-wrong lesson. Heck, we're talking about teenage girls pulling off a robbery! And one thing that could have sunk this movie early on was a character change. You've seen movies in which a character, faced with a new set of circumstances, does a 180-degree turnaround on how they've behaved up to that point. In this movie, you'd expect the girls to suddenly become flawless professional robbers. Not so. And while their plan has its faults, it's still a plan, buoyed by the vacant aphorisms of their leader, the pregnant and chipper Diane (Marley Shelton). Sing-songy and ebullient, the kids squabble among themselves but, in the true spirit of cheerleading and gosh-darn Girl Scout-like togetherness, they pull together as a team. Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Decent cheerleading movies are hard to come by. Come to think of it, so are any cheerleading movies. Oh, not that I'm looking, but I can name only two off the top of my head: Bring It On and the legendary, overlooked (okay, just kidding) 1977 opus Satan's Cheerleaders. But the latter's pep squad was in college, so it's different. But I digress.

Truth be told, there's not a dull moment in the movie. Diane's knocked up before the prom by her dimwit football-hero boyfriend. This guy's so stupid he gets himself fired from such seemingly unfireable jobs as fast-food employee and other glamorous retail employment opportunities. See, in the real world, he'd be upset that the luster had worn off his diamond of an image, having to work with geeks at the video store. But he's a dope, blissfully ignorant. He knows but one thing - that he loves Diane - and being such a dullard is supremely helpful to the film (and isn't easy to do; kudos goes to James Marsden in the role).

In short, a real hoot. We've seen many bank robbery movies with their own twists and idiosyncrasies; this one's one of the better ones to come down the pike. Go team go!

Who would not want to see a movie about bank robbing cheerleaders? The movie isn't so concerned with the cheerleaders themselves as it is with the classic "what if?" scenario of the captain of the squad becoming impregnated by the captain of the football team. And where to go from there? Why, rob a bank, of course. They have the finesse, they have the ability and, most of all, they have the grooviest disguises (All-American Dolls) since the Ex-Presidents in Point Break.

What stood out is the performance of Mary Shelton in the role of Diane, the cheerleader captain and mastermind. She does a wonderful job of keeping a positive attitude when her life starts to crumble around her. And, as her polar opposite, James Mardsen does a great job of portraying the clueless jock Jack. Mardsen has cluelessness done to a T, especially when failing to realize the stigma of having to work at a video store. While it's nice to see that the stereotypes are not being limited to just the popular people, is it really necessary to have them at all?

The rest of the squad, however, only fall into the aforementioned stereotypes. The cast does their best to overcome them, but there are only so many cheerleader jokes you can do in a feature. Mena Suvari does look like she's having fun, though, as the bad girl cheerleader. And Rachel Blanchard does look pretty as the morally upright cheerleader.

When the robbery comes, it's almost a non-event. But it does come with quite a few laughs. What the film needed to show more of is the aftermath. How does it affect their lives immediately after? Sure, there's a recap at the end, but it would have been better to see those events unfold than to just read about them. Maybe New Line didn't like the first cut of the film and had it pared. Given the 83 minute running time, that is likely.

However, this is the best film with a January release date since Jackie Chan's First Strike. The photography is arid yet striking. The cast is game, the screenplay does have some great laugh out loud moments and it's nice to see a film that shows the many uses of cheerleader athletics.

This is a smart movie about dumb people – but don't let that get in the way of your enjoying it.

There are a lot of laugh-out-loud situations in this short (less than 90 minutes by my watch) film. The whole situation is laughable when the team captain of the `A-Squad' cheerleaders at Lincoln High School is pregnant and what she does to make the situation more livable.

James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops in `X-Men') is the too-good-to-be-true boyfriend of Marley Shelton (Diane Weston in the film) whose innocence, sweetness and naivety makes you want to believe that there really are people like that in the real world.

Mena Suvari (late of both `American Beauty' and `American `Pie') is a study in contrasts as the girl that `was born in prison.'

There has been a spate of cheerleader movies this last year – but this one owes much more to `But I'm A Cheerleader' than it does to `Bring It On.' There is a tension and sense of surrealism that isn't in `Bring It On.'

When all the cheer leaders don their `Betty' masks it becomes very surrealistic – almost spooky.

There is no big opening to this film: just an introduction to the characters; but there is a nice end to the film – explaining what happens to the major characters after the end of the film.

I enjoyed this film much more than I thought I would – give it a chance – you may enjoy it too.

It's been only five months since we've last seen a cheerleader shake fest with the successful BRING IT ON. Girls went to see the film since it was a girls story, guys went to go see it since it showed girls shakin' their charms. Now imagine BRING IT ON, just more darker and a bit more humorous, and it's called SUGAR & SPICE. And quoting one of the other user comments, it's not bad for a January release. SUGAR & SPICE's story is told by the very jealous Lisa (Marla Sokoloff) as she is speaking to federal agents. Lisa is on the second squad of the cheerleaders, and has been overlooked for so many years. Her peers known as the 'A' squad are popular, smart, and pretty. Then when a new quarterback moves into town, Jack Bartlett (James Marsden), Lisa and the rest of the female students have a crush on him, even the cafeteria lunch ladies! But Jack has his eye on Diane Weston (Marley Shelton) who made a strong impression when meeting Jack, by doing flips and accidently kicking Jack in the face. When they see eye to eye, it's love at first sight, which leds to dating for homecoming, and Diane announcing that she is pregnant with Jack's baby, and they are getting married. But in order to get married, Jack and Diane need to live on their own. They can't get any bank loans, and not being a high school graduate yet, Jack can only get evening jobs at either fast food restraunts or Video Update with geeky clerks. Diane takes a job as a bank teller at the brach adjacent to a grocery store. And it's one evening when Diane along with her cheerleader friends are watching POINT BREAK, that Diane gets an idea that her squad should rob the bank and get the money. There's Kansas (Mena Suvari) who is the rebellious cheerleader, she speaks her mind and is sort of the leader of the squad. Kansas goes to the state prison and gets bank robbing advice from her mom, Mrs. Hill (Sean Young, with no make-up). Then Cleo (a very hot and beautiful Melissa George) who is the glamorous member, who is the only girl who doesn't have a crush on Jack, because she has a crush on Conan O' Brien! Lucy (Sara Marsh) is the brains behind the group who gives second thoughts to this robbery fearing that it will cost her the Harvard scholarship that she's working on. And Hannah (Rachel Blanchard) is the religous zealot who is very worried about doing the heist for both parental and religious reasons. The girls watch classic heist movies to learn the film character's mistakes, that way they won't make the same mistakes. Classic crime movies like RESIVOR DOGS, HEAT (1995), and APPLE DUMPLING GANG are the films watched for homework. Can the girls pull off the heist and not get caught, or will Lisa, who witnessed the heist will give the girls identification away to get on the 'A' squad? I found SUGAR & SPICE to be a surprise! It was very funny and enjoyable. It's the kind of movie that doesn't praise or show the excitement of the teenage life like CAN'T HARDLY WAIT, CRUEL INTENTIONS, or SHE'S ALL THAT. Na, instead it makes fun of it, the dopey personality of Jack. The crush on a major celebrity of Cleo, the loud mouth and vulgar Kansas, the religious worried Hannah, and the constantly studying Lucy. These are the characteristics of modern teens, not "who's going to take me to homecoming?" or "will I win that boy's affection?" I knew more cheerleaders in high schoollike the ones featured in SUGAR & SPICE, than BRING IT ON, or other teen flicks. The humor in it is quite clever. A example would be Jack's job at Video Update, where he works with two teenage geeky clerks. They hire Jack because of his popularity at school, and they also want to hear his sex stories with Diane. It's like a twisted version of SHE'S ALL THAT when you think about it, but it's more realistic. And the robbery scene at the bank is without a doubt the funniest bank robbery since George Clooney did his in OUT OF SIGHT. And the acting is also done very well, all of the girls do a good job playing teenage cheerleaders, when all of them are old enough to legally drink! I personaly enjoyed Melissa George, her character crush on Conan was quite funny, and did I mention how beautiful she was? I also enjoy the dim-witted performance of James Marsden who proves that he's a good actor, after being Cyclops in X-MEN, he can show his acting talent even further. SUGAR & SPICE is a enjoyable dark comedy, it's the kind of movie that people who already graduated high school would enjoy. That's because teens in high school now won't get the jokes since they either act like that, know people like that, or it's too witty for them. But for those who remember the wanna be's, the pretty girls, and the idiots in school, SUGAR & SPICE is a treat! And not to forget the heist is also funny itself. **** (out of five)

Sugar & Spice is almost a caricature of a teen movie. It is not, because it's not making fun of teens or teen movies, but has that slightly over the top smiley attitude that pushes you to that laughing place where you don't take things too seriously. Those who didn't like that movie didn't get that vibe. It is quite fun.

Now, it's not a perfect movie, the subject matter is treated very lightly, but the story, the dialogs, and the characters are all very entertaining. It doesn't bring anything new, per se, to the table, but it does it with flair, and laughs. The girls are beautiful, but not plastic perfect. The acting is simple, but sincere and adorable in certain cases.

One of the scene, when they announce they're getting married, is the perfect example of the quality and tone of the film. It and its followup scene in the car are hilarious.

If you want to see a good little known teen flick with an adult mask, that would to it.