Given the reviews for Fired Up, you’d think it’s a total trainwreck. Having now seen it, I must say that anyone who hated it has no sense of humor. I mean, of course it’s fluff – it’s about two high school football players who go to cheer camp to score with girls. But as my roommate and I decided, it’s kind of a borderline parody of all these cheerleading movies. There’s a scene where the entire cheer camp watches Bring it On and everyone at the camp enthusiastically talks along with the dialogue word-for-word. Funny stuff, while also totally acknowledging that this is basically every other cheerleading movie you’ve seen.

Basically, there are only about 5% of the jokes that aren’t funny, and everyone and every aspect of the film is at least twice as good as you’d expect. If you just roll with the fact that it’s fluff and that it’s got a predictable storyline, it’s a really good time. Totally funny one-liners, surprisingly strong chemistry from the cast, and just all-around a surprisingly decent film. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called it “a kind of dumb but also kind of smart-about-being-dumb comedy.” Spot-on. B