BRING IT ON - DVD review

The phrase "cute as a button" is tailor-made for this film. Belly buttons, I mean. There was a time well into the 1960s when women couldn't even show their belly buttons on screen. Remember poor Barbara Eden on TV's "I Dream of Jeannie"? Her two-piece genie outfit was so sedate it made people wonder if she even had a belly button. The unveiling of her navel was a turning point in the history of television. Anyway, the movie "Bring It On" not only prominently sports a multitude of female belly buttons, the buttons are positively the stars of the show. You'll see more navels in this PG-rated 2000 film than in a Florida orange grove.

Naturally, for this many buttons to be on display, it has to be about high school students and so it is, high school cheerleaders to be exact. But unlike most teenage comedies, this one isn't about outrageous sex and smut. In fact, it's rather amusing in its innocuous way, thanks largely to its high energy and spirits. Thanks, too, to its star, the cutest button of them all, Kirsten Dunst, who plays Torrance Shipman, the captain of a cheerleading squad in competition with its crosstown rival in a nationwide cheerleading contest.

The plot involves the squad, five-time national champions, finding out at the last minute that the routines they've been practicing for the cheerleading tournament were ripped off from their opponents, forcing them to devise a whole new agenda of dances and activities. OK, admit it; you've never really taken any notice of cheerleader routines. I've been teaching high school for over thirty years, and I've never seen much difference in the cheerleaders themselves, let alone their routines. I mean, beyond capering about, yelling, screaming, and bouncing up and down, their exercises seem more a tradition than a necessity. But "Bring It On" puts all that into a new perspective. It's the "Chariots of Fire" and "Breaking Away" of the cheerleading world. Like the art of comedy itself, we learn that cheerleading is a serious business, and those who engage in it dedicate themselves to it heart and soul.

Now, while the film has gusto, its story and characters are entirely predicable. Torrance is the nice young girl, the naive young girl, the girl who wants always to do the right thing but finds the other members of her squad a bunch of selfish, preening, egotistical, cheating creeps; you know, Hollywood's usual portrayal of high school kids. Yet amidst this den of vipers, she does meet two sensible fellow students who have just moved into the community--Missy and Cliff Pantone (Eliza Dushku and Jesse Bradford). Missy is a gymnast who tries out for the cheerleading squad because her new high school, Rancho Carne, doesn't have a gymnastics team. She eventually becomes Torrance's best friend. The tryout scene involving Missy and a number of wannabe losers is the funniest part of the film. Cliff, Missy's brother, looks at cheerleading the way most of us do, as a rather frivolous way to spend one's time. Naturally, he becomes Torrance's romantic interest in the story. There is also an abusive, maniacal choreographer, Sparky Polastri (Ian Roberts), the team hires to help them out, and he's fairly diverting. "Cheerleaders are dancers that have gone retarded," he tells them. Otherwise, the cast could have been drawn in toto from any recent high school picture.

Mostly, as I say, the plot and characters are predicable. The San Diego high school setting is the kind Hollywood loves to depict when it isn't doing "The Substitute"; Rancho Carne is all white and upper class, the kids wearing bright pastel clothing, living in million-dollar homes overlooking the sea, and driving shiny new automobiles. And with the exception of Ms. Dunst, the actors playing the kids are all in their early to mid twenties. (Dunst was about eighteen when she did the role, so she's the only one who actually looks anywhere near high school age.) Also as expected, you'll find the obligatory girls' locker room scene (minus the nudity), the mandatory puke scene, and the bikini car-wash scene. Finally, the opposing crosstown rivals of the all-white Rancho Carne Toros are the all-black East Compton Clovers, a contrast that is never exploited in the film for any serious purpose.

Video:
DVD's potential for excellent picture quality is fully exploited, though. Universal Studios provide a 1.74:1 anamorphic widescreen image that is as good as it gets. It is truly resplendent, bright, colorful, natural, and clearly defined.

Audio:
The audio, Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1, is also good, if less sensationally so. It's loud, dynamic, and deep, with good localization of channels; understandably, it doesn't have a lot of spectacular sonic effects to reproduce, so it doesn't make the kind of impact the sound would in a new action, sci-fi, or horror offering. The music has a nice ambiance about it, however, and there are a few effectively convincing surround details like water splashing overhead in the car-wash scene.

Extras:
In terms of bonus materials, Universal usually afford a good collection and this disc is no exception. First, there's a full-feature commentary with director Peyton Reed. Next, there's a fourteen-minute documentary, "The Making of Bringing It On," that doesn't include much more than what we see in the film but does have a couple of worthwhile interviews. Then there's the best part, a series of about a dozen or so deleted and extended scenes, all of them prefaced by remarks from the director. After that, there are wardrobe makeup tests; plus a never-before-seen, 8mm home movie of the car-wash sequence; a music video, "As If" by Blaque; a "Did You Know That?" trivia bit that can be played while watching the film; a few DVD-ROM features; twenty scene selections; and a widescreen theatrical trailer. English and French are the spoken language options; English is available for subtitles.

Parting Shots:
Now, to get back to the film's major contribution to society: If this midriff exposure fad continues, I wonder if before long plastic surgeons won't be doing the bulk of their cosmetic surgery to enhance the navel, the way people get nose jobs and women get breast implants today? And I wonder what new part of the anatomy will be emphasized in the future? The elbow, perhaps? The shoulder blade? I've never really been in favor of armpits, but they, too, are conspicuously flaunted in "Bring It On."

Nevertheless, in spite of its preoccupation with matters navel and its occasional, needless four-letter expletives, "Bring It On" has its fair share of fun and laughs. It took me a while to get over my initial reservations about watching it, but once I did, I confess it was rather painless. I suppose I could have been doing worse things for an hour and a half, like staring blankly at an Adam Sandler or Pauly Shore flick. "Bring It On" is mindless summertime-mode diversion that's worth a rental glance at the very least.