After all the teams and all the routines, every Bring It On movie following the original has been a disappointment — and Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack is no exception. With no real plot or mission, the cheerleaders gave the Rancho Carne Toros and the East Compton Clovers a bad name.
It’s been 17 years since the first film of the series hit theaters. Arguably the best of the franchise, the movie follows cheer captain Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) as she tries to lead her team to their sixth national title. Newcomer Missy (Eliza Dushku) transferred from Los Angeles and soon realized the Toro’s routines looked wildly familiar. She takes Torrance to see the Clovers compete and realizes that “Big Red” (Lindsay Sloane), former captain, stole all of their choreography. In the meantime, Isis (Gabrielle Union), the Clovers’ captain, made it her personal mission to defeat the Toros at the national championship. Throughout the film there is drama, backstabbing, flirting and everything else you could imagine happening on a high school cheerleading squad.
Despite the cliché-ness of the first film, the characters had substance, it was actually funny and had a concrete theme. It showed the ups and downs of teenage relationships, the typical teenage vs. parents era, the war between crosstown rivals and most importantly, the value of friendship.
Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack … sigh … was a struggle to get through. There was no opening nightmare sequence with the prominent roll-call us Bring It On fans love. Instead, the head cheerleader, Destiny (Cristine Prosperi) started talking in some weird cheer code with sayings like #cheerlebrity and #cheermiliated.
There was the usual “bad team” who showed up, challenged the Rebels to a cheer-off and ultimately lost. And of course, over the duration of the film, the All Star Rebels consulted the Cheer Goddess (Vivica A. Fox), who’s a celebrity in the world of cheer. She hosted the virtual competition which allowed teams from around the world compete for the number one spot.
After, the Rebels celebrated and the usual Bring It On kiss between the cheer captain and the guy that’s way too good for her happened. The camera pans off and the only people who were actually #cheersmacked, were the viewers.
Overall, the movie was a social media takeover with too many hashtag sayings, memes and Instagram references. The plot of living your life offline and for yourself was spotted from a mile away.
Rating: 1/5
Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack is available on Blu-Ray, DVD and Netflix.
