Fired Up! (2009) Nicholas D'Agosto, Eric Christian Olsen, Sarah Roemer, Molly Sims, Danneel Ackles Movie Review

Fired Up! (2009)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen in Fired Up! (2009)

Cheerleader Camp Crashers

High School buddies Shawn (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) are the master of the playbook, not just on the football field but off it as well as they work as a double team to score with any girl who looks fit whilst escaping angry fathers. But when they learn that Football camp is going to be in a remote part of a Texas desert they decide to switch camps and go to cheerleading camp with the prospect of 300 flexible girls to score with. All is well until Shawn falls for Cheer Captain Carly (Sarah Roemer) forcing them to reassess what is important as they also get in to the whole competition side of things.

Maybe having just watched, or more like endured, a trio of lousy teen sex comedies my expectations when it came to "Fired Up!" were low but ended up pleasantly surprised by a reasonably well put together teen sex comedy. That doesn't mean that "Fired Up!" is a great movie it is pretty derivative and you could say it is "Bring it On" crossed with "American Pie Presents Band Camp" with a touch of "Wedding Crashers". In fact with a little bit of thought it could have worked as an amusing prequel to "Wedding Crashers" with are High School friends running a series of plays to get with various cheerleaders.

Sarah Roemer and Nicholas D'Agosto in Fired Up! (2009)

So as I said "Fired Up!" is another derivative teen sex comedy and there is not an original idea in the movie. But it combines various elements nicely so we have Nick and Shawn who are a deadly duo with a series of plays and rules for scoring with babes who think Cheerleader Camp will provide them with a field of dreams with many flexible cheerleaders. You can guess how everything will play out with Shawn falling for Carly who has a lying dick of a boyfriend and you can guess that they will end up enjoying getting to known the cheerleaders as friends. But it brings it all together nicely with some nice production and a sense that whilst derivative some thought has gone in to how to combine it all.

There is also some thought gone in to the humour in "Fired Up!" and there are some truly well worked gags none more so that in the scene where Nick and Shawn end up doing a naked cheer routine with strategically placed pom-poms. It's never clever humour and like the movie itself a lot of the humour is derivative but it is not just a collection of weak sex gags with a much nicer variety which helps to keep you entertained.

Now you do have to laugh because Eric Christian Olsen who plays Nick was born in 1977 which if you do the maths he was over 30 when playing a High School senior, but thanks to his laid back attitude and blonde hair gets away with it. Olsen also gets away with it because he works well with Nicholas D'Agosto who plays Shawn and whilst not in his thirties D'Agosto was in his late 20s. These two make a good double act in the same way that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in "Wedding Crashers" and they have a good selection of attractive stars to flirt with. Having said that it is sort of ironic that Adhir Kalyan, who will be familiar to some as Timmy from "Rules of Engagement" and the hilarious John Michael Higgins end up stealing many a scene for their intentionally over the top performances.

What this all boils down to is that "Fired Up!" is utterly derivative and nothing more than very familiar but it works and if you are a fan of teen comedies it will be an enjoyable distraction.


LATEST REVIEWS