Economics students and Turgot disciples rejoice! If ever there was a film franchise that effectively demonstrated the law of diminishing returns, it's the Bring It On series. That's right, series. You may have assumed director Peyton Reed's surprisingly successful turn-of-the-century teen flick was a one-hit wonder, you may have even thanked the cinematic gods accordingly, but Bring It On was merely the beginning. Four direct-to-video sequels have followed in its wake -- the aptly titled Bring It On Again, Bring It On: All or Nothing (starring Heroes' own Hayden Panettiere), Bring It On: In It to Win It and, most recently, Bring It On: Fight to the Finish -- each one desperately gutting its predecessor for spare parts, shamefully casting bright-eyed hopefuls as increasingly unlikeable cheerleaders, and cutting further swaths of destruction through a genre bereft with plodding, predictable drivel. But will teenage girls, the series' target audience, enjoy Fight to the Finish? I truly, deeply, sincerely hope not.
Move along. Nothing to see here... |
Having just ejected
Fight to the Finish from my Blu-ray player, I hardly know where to begin. A plot synopsis would be good form, but a single glance at FttF's coverart will tell anyone who's made it through the fifth grade everything they need to know. Suffice to say, a group of misunderstood cheerleaders square off against a pack of snotty rich girls in a competition that puts their dancing skills, personal convictions, and confidence to the test. But for the sake of proving I actually sat through this direct-to-video mess, I suppose I should offer more details. Mina (Christina Milian) and her sharp-tongued best friend, Gloria (Vanessa Born), have a short amount of time to whip their newly adopted squad into shape. The goal? To win the All Star Spirit Championship. The enemy? A snide elitist named Avery (Rachele Brooke Smith) and her semi-talented cheermates, a dead-eyed gang of hate-mongers who help render their mean-spirited leader one of the most contrived villains to ever grace the genre. The spoils? A big ol' trophy, street cred (or locker cred, whichever the case may be), and long-lost Jonas Brother, Evan (Cody Longo). The outcome? Sorry to spoil the fun, but would it really shock anyone to learn Mina manages to earn all three?
Watching
Fight to the Finish is like watching a high school student-film: the production values are certainly higher, but the performances, blocking, plot developments, and dialogue are decidedly low-rent, leaving little to enjoy and even less to adore. Even the most forgiving genre junkies will find themselves rubbing their foreheads and squeezing their eyes shut every time one of the girls says a word. Every line is exaggerated (beyond the bounds of acceptable comedic deliveries), every expression is overly rehearsed and melodramatic, and every gesture is forced and inflated with attitude. Annoying doesn't even begin to describe the unbearable nature of it all. Yes, I'm a thirty-year-old man, and yes, the movie is clearly aimed at teenage girls, but I can't imagine the sort of bottomless chasm a child would have to live in for sixteen years to find
Fight to the Finish remotely entertaining. Maybe I'm naive, maybe the cinematic tastes of teens are far less refined than I think, but I pray our next generation is intelligent enough, despite things like youthful inexperience, to recognize superficial nonsense like this dreadful bubble-pop nightmare. Pipe dream? Perhaps. I'm just hoping this is the last we'll see of the
Bring It On series.
Sigh... who am I kidding?
Fight to the Finish will fly off shelves, landing in the hands of enough young filmfans to turn a profit and influence studio execs to greenlight yet another horrid direct-to-video sequel. Taste and humor are relative I suppose, particularly when age is a factor. I fell in love with
Ewoks: The Battle of Endor and
Starchaser: The Legend of Orin when I was seven, so I have little room to talk. The only thing I can do is make sure my kids learn to identify a quality flick, sidestep shallow black holes like the
Bring It On sequels, and hone in on films worthy of their time and money.
Video
If there is a highpoint to
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish, it's undoubtedly Universal's competent (albeit uneven) 1080p/VC-1 transfer. Colors are bold, black levels are rich and resolved, and skintones are warm and healthy. Contrast is less consistent, dipping at inopportune times and overheating at others, but still imbuing the image with commendable depth and dimensionality. Likewise, detail is hit or miss: textures are crisp and edges are clean one minute, soft and spongy the next. While impressive shots thankfully dominate the proceedings, cheer-veterans and videophiles will probably be disappointed by the dull, at-times underwhelming appearance of several key scenes (including the All Star Championship sequences). Still, the film's summery jaunts through Malibu, its sun-drenched... ahem, cinematography, and its vibrant palette will satisfy anyone who finds themselves enjoying everything else the flick has to offer. More importantly, artifacting, banding, and edge enhancement (which are present to a negligible degree) are kept to a minimum, while other notable digital nuisances are nowhere to be found. All things considered, the transfer injects a bit of value into what's arguably a worthless release.
Audio
Unfortunately,
Fight to the Finish's thin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track doesn't fare as well, mismanaging everything but the film's bass-beat soundtrack, producing a front-heavy listening experience, and fumbling the most fundamental aspects of its mix. Dialogue ranges from pinched to sharp, sacrificing natural tones in favor of boosted clarity and obvious looping. While few lines get buried beneath the cheerleading chaos, it's accomplished by capping the remaining soundscape anytime an actor opens their mouth. Similarly, LFE output is strong but forgettable, rear speaker activity is present but far too passive, and pans are swift but stocky. It doesn't help that accuracy is a joke, and dynamics are lacking. I doubt ecstatic teenage fans will care, but their more discerning parents (at least those who've been conned into watching the film) will raise an eyebrow.
Supplements
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish tumbles onto Blu-ray with the same deluded fluff that appears on the DVD version. The lone highpoint of such a painful supplemental package? The majority of the video content is presented in high definition. Sorry, cheer-fans, that's all the praise I can muster.
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 15 minutes): While I would argue this collection of cuts should be 103 minutes longer, it does include classic quips like "how would sniffing your own butt make you calm?"
- Practice Round (HD, 6 minutes): A look at the dance preparation and cheerleading practices that went into the film's competition scenes.
- Backstage Pass (HD, 12 minutes): This behind-the-scenes EPK tries to convince viewers that Fight to the Finish is well-written, realistic, and culturally relevant. Go ahead, snicker. I did.
- On Set with Christina Milian (HD, 10 minutes): A nine-part video journal hosted by actress Christina Milian. There's little of note, aside from an unnecessarily cumbersome menu.
- Mun2: The Chicas Project: "Flip This" (SD, 23 minutes): Wow. Words cannot describe what I just tried to watch. Seriously.
- BD-Live Functionality
Final words
Universal declined to send screeners for
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish, and I can definitely see why. A terrible film, an uneven video transfer, a shallow DTS-HD Master Audio track, and a lame collection of special features isn't likely to elicit much kudos from critics. If you have a teenage daughter and absolutely can't avoid this one, save as much money as possible and rent
Fight to the Finish. Otherwise, stay far, far away from this direct-to-video abomination and skip the sort of migraine I've spent the last hour trying to shake off.
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