Stick It- DVD review
By Tony Farinella
September 16, 2006 - 16:51
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Review: 'Bring It On' brought some respect to cheerleading while having some fun along the way. The same writer this time writes and directs in the gymnastics film 'Stick It.' She brings along a cast of fit, good looking people including Missy Peregrym, and Vanessa Lengies along with the great Jeff Bridges.
Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is a talented but troublemaking teen who finds herself on the wrong side of the law once again. She can either go to boot camp in Texas, or return to the world she left: Gymnastics. She flaked out on nationals many moons again and is not too well liked by that world. But when the options are jail or gymnastics, you pick up your leotard and go with the flow.
Her return to gymnastics is not well received. Her in-your-face attitude mixed with her hard nosed coaches and teammates is a recipe for disaster. Jeff Bridges tries to reach the troubled but extremely talented gymnast, but to no avail. Pretty soon his patience starts to wear thin with her and her attitude. She is also not making any new friends at gymnastics school. Pretty soon she has no where to turn to and is all alone.
She decides to suck it up and start taking this seriously and work extra hard. She starts to see it is not as easy as it once was and just how hard being involved in gymnastics is. She starts to throw the rule book out the window and play by her own rules. Change it up. Throw caution to the wind. Have a little fun at the expense of the overly strict gymnastics rules.
'Stick It' does a solid job of showing just how hard the sport of gymnastics is. It takes you in there and gives an honest eye to how hard, grueling, and intense the training is. It shows they are not just pretty faces and there is skill and hard work that goes along with it. There have not been too many gymnastics films to my knowledge, but this one does a solid job of showing it in depth.
The problem with 'Stick it' is in the speech. Everyone is talking in a very strange, slang, and bizarre fashion. No one really sounds like a human. The film also relys too much on music video sequences to tell the story. A lot of it is done by computers, and I wish they would have cut out all the music and visual tricks. It was distracting. The film tries to mix comedy with realism, but comes up short.
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Image & Sound: The DVD is sharp as 'Stick It' is a very colorful film with lots of colors. All of the colors are shown vibrantly here. It is very bright and looked crystal clear on my DVD player.
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Special Features: Bloopers and Outtakes are included on this DVD. Not my type of humor, but it had its moments. Deleted scenes with commentary are included. The film run at 103 minutes, and it is easily seen why they were deleted. It would have made the film overly long. You can listen to the commentary track on why they were deleted. A Missy Elliot Music Video is fun to listen to and watch. Another music video with Jeannie Ortega and Papoose is on the special features. A very cool featurette called "Hard Corps" is also on the DVD, as it pays tribute to the real gymnasts who were stunt doubles for the film. Good to see them getting their props.
"The Elites" shows the full gymnastics routines performed by some of the worlds best. This also has a commentary track, which is insightful. "The Judges' Table" shows uneven bar routines in slow motion, this again has commentary. Lastly, we have numerous feature length commentaries with the director and a good portion of the actors. This was a lot of fun to listen to. You could tell everyone had a blast working on this film. There is also a director and filmmakers commentary. I recommend listening to the cast one.
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Final Words: For teenage girls, 'Stick It' will be a favorite along with 'Bring it On.' For everyone else, 'Stick It' does not have enough mature humor or situations to keep everyone interested. But then again I realize I am not the audience for 'Stick It.' The film was not made for me, intended for me, or marketed to me. It was marketed to an audience and it fits that audience well.
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