"Fired Up" is a Fun Movie, is is a Fun Movie

Genres: Comedy and Teen
Running Time: 1 hr. 34 min.
Release Date: February 20th, 2009 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, partial nudity, language and some teen partying.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing

Directed by: Will Gluck

JJ Rating: B+

Shawn (Nicholas D'Agosto - aka flying boy that stalked Claire on 'Heroes') and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) are on the football team. They don't want to spend time with the team at camp that summer with a coach that says the S word so much they bet how many times he'll use it in a sentence. So they come up with an idea of going to cheer camp just to get the girls. We're Driving. We-We are driving! Fired Up.

It is a premise that has been done before. This movie even has a scene where they watch part of Bring It On. All premises have been done before. What then matters is it entertaining? I believe it was. It was decently entertaining. It was more entertaining than one would have thought because of the movie season we are in. January, February, March and April are sort of the drought for movies. Maybe the tail of April starts to pick up and then Summer starts with May and we're off on a Summer Movie High!

It's a silly movie that could have been raunchy and less funny with more nudity, but it stuck to PG-13 and made it work. It was amusing within the context of the film and was different enough that I was not making comparisons with other cheerleader movies. That could also be because the ending was totally different than expected. That added to the coolness of the entire film. Instead of being a cookie cutter movie it had imperfections within the storyline that added a little more realism to it and less fantasy feel, even though the humor did get a little ridiculous. Such as when they did a flashback about one of the characters, everything they show never really happened that way. It was one of the better parts of the film.

Fired Up is a mess of a movie but somehow the director, Will Gluck, and the cast made the film work. It was exactly the right amount of time. Had it been longer it would have killed the fun viewing. What have I always said about comedies that make or break them? It's the time. An hour and a half is good timing, this one is four minutes over but still good timing. Any longer and it feels like the movie is dragging and melting at the same time.

I enjoyed the quirky characters in the film. There is the girl that always says the same thing with a different spin on it. The girl that is or isn't gay. The girl that doesn't see the is or isn't gayness of the girl that is or isn't gay. The girl that says she won't fall but does fall; as in love. The ambiguous boy. The flamboyant boy. And of course the dorky coach that you think could be gay but not sure if he is but the situational comedy that that places him in does cause much humor.

What I did really enjoy about the storyline was that the two main characters were friends and they were good friends the entire film. There was no ifs, ands or buts about that. I have this thing for good friend movies and I enjoy stories that keep the friends together even through the hard times. Even though Fired Up had some suggestive graphic moments, it had an underlining heart of friendship and teamwork.

In Fired Up there are good lines that could go for several moments of repeating such as the bus scene with the cheering. "We are driving. We, we are driving." I don't know why, but that's fun to say over and over again to the determent of anyone hearing me. There are more lines that that, but I'm in an obnoxious mood.

Fired Up is an enjoyable movie for what it is. It is not, of course, spectacular or the kind of funny I totally enjoy, but it is worth seeing. Go and see it! Go, go and see it. Or...not.