Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007) DVD Review

I have seen everyBring It On film ever made. If you give me a month I can write you a convincing thesis on why Ice Princess is the 2000’s Karate Kid, and I have spent more time discussing Win a Date With Tad Hamilton then you have worrying about your life’s woes. No I am not trying to prove to you I am gay. I am telling you that Bring It On: In It to Win It is not very good, and I’m listing my credentials to prove to you I can make that call. While this wasn’t bad enough to kill the franchise (even though I cannot imagine how much longer they can milk this concept), it surely was a bad hiccup in what has become a surprisingly good series of direct to DVD movies. It tried its best but failed at almost every turn.

Even the straightest of straight men could have not missed the musical references. It is as if they wanted this to be a musical, but wouldn’t 100% commit to it, so they snuck in as many musical nods as they could. They even named the rival squads the Jets and the Sharks, a clear homage to West Side Story. With the success of High School Musical they should have been smart enough to just make this sequel a full blown musical, but that would’ve taken some creative thinking, and that is something Hollywood is not really known for these days. A poorly done musical would have been way more entertaining than what they actually gave us.

This time the two adversaries are not from different high schools but from the same cheerleading camp. Instead of economics (or race) separating them it is geography-West Coast vs. East Coast, which is something else they managed to get wrong. Besides featuring the worst gay character since Wesley Snipes donned a dress, the West Coast group seemed to have a more East Coast attitude, and I am talking just having attitude in general. The squad also included the obligatory sassy black gal and a goth chic, which basically means some barely legal chick with a purple streak through her hair sporting fake vampire fangs.

After the Jets lose the “magical” spirit stick, their camp is cursed, causing both of the squads to lose too many members to compete, and forcing them to join together to defeat the rival cheerleading camp, which is run by their coach’s ex-husband. It is not a bad twist for a fourth installment, but somehow this Bring It On still managed to be a yawner. The dialogue was awful and not in the funny purposely done way like its predecessors. Hayden Panettiere's "IM talk" in Bring It On: All or Nothing was comical, the cheesy dialogue being one of the things that made the Bring It On films what they are. Bring It On: In It to Win It was just lame slang gone wrong and was annoying. It did not bring me one chuckle. The dance off, another West Side inspired scene, was hilarious, but again not in the way it was intended, and was cut way too short. In addition the “cheer-offs” sounded like they were written by an annoying white guy who thinks he can rap but can’t.

With all the elements that made these films fun to watch gone, or inadequately executed, one would hope to at least pull something perverted out of a film about teenage cheerleaders, but even pervy Dads that watch this with their daughters will probably struggle to find something to fantasize about when they are forced bang their wives later that night. The dumb but hot sidekick role, that was done so well by Amanda Seyfried in Mean Girls, was even miss cast with some chubby chick. Overweight and goth cheerleaders, a bad stereotypical gay character, and no fun cheer-offs just leave the fourth Bring It On on the bottom of the pyramid.

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