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Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, Clare Kramer ... see more see more... , Nicole Bilderback , Tsianina Joelson , Rini Bell , Ian Roberts , Richard Hillman , Lindsay Sloane , Cody McMains , Nathan West , Natina Reed , Huntley Ritter , Shamari Fears , Brandi Williams , Claire Kramer

The hard work, dedication, and personal politics behind "rah rah rah!" and "sis boom bah!" go under the microscope in this engaging teen comedy. Torrance Shipman (Kirsten Dunst) discovers that being c... read more read more...aptain of her San Diego high school's six-time championship-winning cheerleading squad is more complicated than she had imagined. Torrance's parents want her to spend more time on her homework, her boyfriend wants her to spend more time with him, and she learns that the squad's former captain stole some of their best routines from other teams -- and that Isis (Gabrielle Union), captain of a top squad at a crosstown, inner-city high school, plans to fight back this year. To make things worse, when one of the cheerleaders is injured, Torrance is forced to replace her with Missy (Eliza Dushku), a cynical new kid who is involved only because the school doesn't offer gymnastics. In the midst of this chaos, with the national championship around the corner, Torrance couldn't have picked a worse time to fall in love with Cliff (Jesse Bradford), a classmate who cares a lot more about punk rock than school spirit. Dunst trained with a cheerleading squad for her role, though a double performed the more complicated stunts. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

68% liked it

705,062 ratings

Critics

64% liked it

116 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Peyton Reed

Release Date: August 25, 2000

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DVD Release Date: February 13, 2001

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Stats: 43,419 reviews

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Bring It On Bring It On Hayden Panettiere Bring it Bring It On Kirsten Dunst Bring It On Bring It On Eliza Dushku Eliza as Missy GO GO People! swing Bring It On with Eliza Dushku Bring It On Bring It On lesson Jesse Bradforf in Bring it On Face Off
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Flixster Reviews (43,419)

  • wildaly14
    December 3, 2011
    wildaly14
    Quite entertaining despite being a cheerleader film.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    October 22, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    A film I will always be able to go back to to remember my teenage years. Whilst I am not American and have never been a cheerleader, it's a deep rooted dream of all teenage girls to perform and be loved by people. Whilst it is cheesy and predictable it's something that is an easy... read more and uplifting watch.
  • fb729949618
    August 9, 2011
    fb729949618
    Despite it being a complete bimbo movie, it's pretty entertaining to watch. It definitely comes with some laughs.
  • jennifxu
    July 30, 2011
    jennifxu
    According to the personal canon I made during my quasi-productive, mostly dreary week of "spring" break, "Bring It On" ranks as the 36th greatest film I have ever seen, wedged squarely between the more acceptable heavyweights "Unforgiven" (a melancholy Western masterpiece) and "G... read moreilda" (Rita Hayworth, mee-yow!). And yes, I am referring to the cheerleading movie.

    "Bring It On" has become a regular fixture on cable television, often blared noisily on the likes of TBS or ABC Family on a lazy Saturday night. So it's not, strictly speaking, a "neglected jewel" of yesteryear. Yet, while so much has already been said about the film - Ian Roberts's marvelous, manic spirit fingers, Eliza Dushku's smokin' ass, bubbly Kirsten Dunst back when she was still relevant - so little about it is given credit.

    The modern teen comedy, which debatably originated in early John Hughes filmography, is its own beast. There are the tropes we've come to expect - the inappropriately timed gay jokes, the obligatory pan across a notebook-sketched map of cafeteria cliques, the cheating loser boyfriend - and the movies that adhere faithfully to them. Unremarkable on their own, these films have managed to craft their own discourse over the years. But then there's the trifecta, the films called favorites by even those for whom pubescence is a faraway memory. These movies bring something special to the table, whether brutally displaying the teenage condition ("The Breakfast Club"), cheekily evoking Victorian literature ("Clueless") or satirizing teen cliques and queen bees ("Mean Girls").

    What separates "Bring It On" from the likes of these classics is that it's actually really stupid. It's about a group of cheerleaders that rips off a neighboring school's routine and then get second place at a national competition. It's about a goofy, hyper-kinetic girl who breaks up with her lame boyfriend and instantly lands herself a cute one who plays air guitar in his bedroom. In short: stupid.

    But it works, maybe because its expectations fall nothing short of conveying the honest, true-to-life adolescent experience. In place of self-aware satire, "Bring It On" goes for the belly laughs - football players fumbling over the pigskin, a montage of "American Idol"-style cheer tryouts. Teenagers aren't portrayed as modern prophets or Holden Caulfield-esque saviors - they're genuinely confused, sometimes cruel, human beings. This authenticity intertwines rather potently with the film's depiction of young love: The tooth-brushing scene (you know which one I mean) is one of the sweetest I've seen in contemporary cinema, admittedly in part due to the crooked smile of one Jesse Bradford. And, it boasts a career-best performance from Kirsten Dunst, emotions shown blankly on her face as she dances like a maniac to a mixtape that serenades her "pom poms" and vows to feed her "bon bons."

    And yet, there are the stylistic things that infuse "Bring It On" with its own all-American aesthetic. Decked out in full '90s fashion with belly shirts and crimped hair, the characters develop their own brand of teen jargon: "She puts the 'itch' in 'bitch' " and "Follow me or perish, sweater monkeys" most notably spring to mind. There's camerawork comparable to the heavyweight caliber of Roger Deakins (of Coen Brothers fame), in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of way. Check the whooshing camera tracking from foot to face when introducing, center screen, the head cheerleader of the rival school, Jesus light glimmering in the background.

    "Bring It On" gets better and better with every viewing, and there's not many movies you can say that about. I think it's because there's something discreetly original about it.

    While you can lump the film into a host of categories - whether a modern screwball made up of bobble-headed ditzes or a postmodern parable on ownership and originality - "Bring It On" is most accurately a film of its own caliber, completely comfortable in its own unremarkable skin.

    Toward the end of the film, Torrance says to another character: "I am only cheerleading." That is, both sheepishly and exquisitely, an encapsulation of the entire existence of "Bring It On" - for better or worse.
  • murphmann93
    June 24, 2011
    murphmann93
    The best one of the 'Bring It On's' A really good film! A must see!
  • ythelastman89
    January 22, 2011
    ythelastman89
    I actually really like this. It has no problem being just a light hearted teen comedy. It's main focus was to show off the hot bods of its female stars and it does so quite flawlessly. It is the end all say all of cheerleader movies. No other movie captures the lifestyle quite so... read more beautifully. On top of that, it's actually very funny and harmless.
  • danperry17
    October 3, 2010
    danperry17
    I have to admit, I liked this film more than I expected. It's a vacuous piece of Californiana but it features an easily absorbed plot, some snappy one-liners and a racially-coded rivalry. Worth watching once - on TV. A decent enough teen movie that helps put a cap on that 90s So-... read moreCal thing, I think I'd have liked it more if it had ended with a routine based on Punk Rock Lover Boy's musical tastes and not more of the same autotuned sugar pop that, unfortunately, was to prosper in that next decade...
  • fb733768972
    April 25, 2010
    fb733768972
    Decent Film! I was pretty satisfied and I laughed quite a bit!
  • FilmFanatik
    February 23, 2010
    FilmFanatik
    Meh.
  • sanjurosamurai
    November 30, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    i hate junk like this, but this movie entertained me

View All Bring It On Reviews

Critic Reviews

Lisa Alspector
July 25, 2007
Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader

This earnest and arch story -- so fast paced its formulas are wonderfully obscured -- has an adolescent energy and a tempered sexuality, and it's infused with the moral agenda of a warmly didactic sit... Full Review

Kevin Courrier
March 19, 2002
Kevin Courrier, Globe and Mail

Who would have thought that a film about competing cheerleading squads would turn out to be the one very pleasant surprise in this very dismal summer season of moviegoing? Full Review

Robert Koehler
February 14, 2001
Robert Koehler, Variety

Dunst can't really hold pic together. Full Review

Vicky Edwards
January 1, 2000
Vicky Edwards, Chicago Tribune

The problem with the film is that others have done its routine before, and have done it better.

Michael O'Sullivan
January 1, 2000
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

The tart, taut script by first-time screenwriter Jessica Bendinger is stuffed with such deliciously mean dialogue. Full Review

Kevin Thomas
January 1, 2000
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Crackling good script, sharply directed. Full Review

(CNN.com) Paul Clinton
January 1, 2000
(CNN.com) Paul Clinton, CNN.com

Based on energy, the film is a 10. Its script? Give it a five. Full Review

Jay Carr
January 1, 2000
Jay Carr, Boston Globe

[Dunst is] the big reason the film rises above instantly rejectable formula to campy pop.

Bob Longino
January 1, 2000
Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Needed more work on its vim and vigor. Full Review

Steven Rea
January 1, 2000
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

It's another one of those high school pics that don't really have much bearing on the real world. But as fluffy adolescent fantasy, it's better than most.

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Facts

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    • Whitney Dow: She puts the 'itch' in bitch.
    • Courtney Egbert: She puts the 'whore' in horrifying.
    • Big Red: What are you doing?! You're wrecking everything I built!
    • Aaron: Hey, hey, it's not totally her fault. I was the one that hooked her up--
    • Big Red: This season should have been gravy. I hand picked the squad. I delivered an idiot-proof routine. Platter, Nationals, hello?
    • Torrance Shipman: Don't you mean the stolen routine?
    • Big Red: Oh, don't be so naive, Torrance. Look the truth is I was a real leader, okay. I did hat I needed to do to win at Nationals and ever since i handed the reigns over to you, you've run my squad straight into the ground. If i made any mistakes at being a team leader, it wasn't borrowing cheers. It was announcing you as my successor.
    • Missy Pantone: [Looks out the window] Shut up! You don't have it yet! You don't have it! Give it up already! [Pulls drapes shut]
    • Isis: Where we come from, 'Cheer' is not a word we hear very often.
    • Lava: They should call us, 'inspiration-leaders' instead.
    • Jenelope: Oh that's deep I like that.
    • LaFred: I don't know why we writing to some talk show host, it's like we beggin for charity or something.
    • Isis: It's not charity. Pauletta Pattin is from our neighborhood.
    • Lava: She'll understand why we need the money.
    • LaFred: Tell her we need to buy doughnut, her big butt understand that.
    • Jenelope: Aha, stop being counterproductive, aight.
    • LaFred: Lava, stop teaching her these big words before she choke on'em.
    • Jenelope: Better I choke you, Lafred.
    • Torrance Shipman: I guess that's it. You were too busy to believe in me. Oh no, wait. You weren't too busy to sell me out to Courtney and Whitney were you? Well, I hope You're not too busy to hear this. Kiss my ass, Aaron, it's over. [pushes the door open] You're a great cheerleader Aaron, it's just that maybe you're just not 'boyfriend' material. Buh bye.
    • Sparky: I understand you have underwear up your ass right now, but it beats the hell out of a shattered skull. Think about it. [flicks Missy's nose]
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Bring It On Trivia

  • Note the Quote: "Awesome, oh wow, like totally freak me out, I mean right on, Torros sure are number 1!"  Answer »
  • Which of the Bring It On movies stars Hayden Panettiere?  Answer »
  • what "Bring It On" movie was Hayden Panettiere in?  Answer »
  • What movie geatured Solange Knowles and Hayden Panettiere and also starred Rihanna? Just to note this wanted you to bring it!  Answer »
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