Fired Up Review-By Kelsey Zukowski

Starring: Nicholas D’Agosto, Eric Christian Olsen, Sarah Roemer
Directed By: Will Gluck
Written By: Freedom Jones
Grade: B

Fired Up is the epitome of stupid comedy, it even takes on this sub-genre by not just applying this to the characters and situations, but to so many moments in the movie which are incredibly ridiculous. You know this watching it, but it is almost that dumb over the top comedy that makes it so much fun to watch. Fired Up probably couldn’t even be categorized as a good movie, but you know what to expect going in to it. You know it is going to be a mindless teen comedy so the comedy that you get throughout is a ton of low grade fun.

Shawn (D’Agosto) and Nick (Olsen) are two of the most popular guys in school. They are stars of the football team, but it is their attraction to girls that really drives them. Their ill tempered coach is preparing them for football camp this summer. Nick and Shawn decide that they just aren’t up to the work this year. Girls is what they are after and at cheerleading camp they would be surrounded by them. So they get Shawn’s little sister to train them and they get the squad to take them on even though the captain, Carly (Roemer), seems to see right through them. They get there and as there are hundreds of girls and only a few other guys, all of which are gay, they are in heaven. Nick has a list of every girl he meets there since he can’t keep track of them all.

Shawn begins to really take a liking to Carly. He spends a lot of time with her and when he meets her dimwitted unworthy boyfriend he gets jealous. He begins to like her in a way that he has never liked anyone before. Nick is horrified by this as he sees this as their opportunity to hook up with as many girls from other schools as possible since they have used up all of them that go to their school. Nick has a conquest of his own. He has had his eye on Diora (Molly Sims), one of the camp counselors who is married to the very goofy instructor, Coach Keith. He continues hitting on her though and he continues to get turned down over and over again, something he isn’t used to. Amidst going after these girls, the two begin to actually want to be there. They became cheerleaders for the girls, but even when they try to escape to their old football ways, their cheering instincts take over.

Both D’Agosto and Olsen are very funny and likeable despite the way thei treat girls and don’t seem to care about much of anything. Their characters still give us a enjoyable trip, especially in how their personalities are challenged and transformed. Sarah Roemer did very well as the self-respecting and intelligent Carly. Roemer and D’Agosto had great chemistry together and worked together really well. Molly Sims added some funny moments as the counselor who kept on rejecting Nick. John Michael Higgens was hilarious as the very cheerleading-aware counselor who was almost overly cheerful yet very serious about what he was there to do. Daneel Harris has a small, but pretty funny role as a lesbian cheerleader who has a crush on one of her cheer-mates, who happens to be the only one who doesn’t seem to realize this. It was nice to see Margo Harshman again and her character had a lot of really random lines followed by “I’m just saying”. I would have liked to see Harshman and Harris have a larger role in the film. Even their characters were pretty one-sided and it would have been better if they were opened up a little. David Walton as Carly’s boyfriend, Dr. Rick, was pretty hilarious. He thought he was much more cool than the dorky self-indulgent prick he really was. Every time he is driving in his car he only seems to have 90s music playing like “Mambo number 5” and Chumbawumba’s “I Get Knocked Down”. Just how in to it and how typical this is for him just makes it more funny.

Fired Up wants to be the anti-cheerleading comedy. In some ways it is since it has a very different focus. It shows this through the absurdity of a showing of Bring it On where every girl recites the entire movie like they are the most important words they ever said. On the way to camp they cheer about everything they do such as “We are driving, we, we are driving”. There is a move that is forbidden even to be said as it is so dangerous. Through things like these, the film pokes fun at certain tendencies cheerleaders have. The funniest moments are just in the ridiculousness of the situations. The dialogue is really funny as well. At some points there are redundant and repetitive jokes that didn’t even work all that well the first time. These are in the minority though as most work pretty well. Overall, if you have low expectations and are looking for stupid comedy in an obscure situation, you will most likely have a lot more fun with Fired Up than you would expect.