Movie Review: Fired Up

Fired Up (2009) 

Directed by Will Gluck 

Written by Freedom Jones

Starring Nicholas D'Agostino, Eric Christian Olson, Molly Sims, Daneel Harris 

Release Date February 20th, 2009 

Published February 21st, 2009

Eric Christian Olson is a talented, quick witted comic actor who has yet to learn the fine art of choosing projects. Olson has been the best part of more than a few bad movies and sadly Fired Up continues the trend. Though Olson earns the few scant laughs to be found in Fired Up, this limp cheerleading comedy is yet another low point on his growing resume.

Nick (Olson) and his pal Sean (Nick D'Agostino) are top flight football jocks who use the game as a way of meeting chicks. It's worked so well that they can't walk the halls of Gerald R. Ford High without bumping into someone they've been regularly bumping into.

Unfortunately, football is about to cut into the skirt chasing. Coach (Phillip Baker Hall) wants the boys in El Paso Texas for two weeks of girl free, boiling hot football prep. But, when the boys overhear cheerleaders talking about an upcoming cheer camp where 300 beautiful women will be surrounded by a paucity of male cheerleaders.

The opportunity is irresistible and after some serious scamming they find themselves on the Cheer squad and indulging a near endless amount of beautiful girls who don't already know what horndogs they are. Things get complicated when Sean develops feelings for the head cheerleader Carly (Sarah Roemer) and Nick runs afoul of the cheer counselor Diora (Molly Sims).

Fired Up being an idiotic formula comedy you can guess what happens from there. As is the case with all formula movies in this day and age predictability isn't so much the problem; it's trying to find unique ways to draw laughs from the formula. Folks, formula isn't going away anytime soon so we can only hope that the characters trapped in these formula stories are interesting and funny.

Unfortunately, in Fired Up, they are not. Even the very talented Eric Christian Olson struggles to get laughs out of these stick thin characters. The women in Fired Up are utterly useless, written as either bubble headed or clueless, there isn't one brain among them as each falls head over heels for our lecherous heroes.

Filling in for the characters is a whole lot of awkward gay jokes and bizarre asides featuring the head cheerleaders jerk boyfriend and his love for 90's hip hop and pop tunes. These jokes are seemingly just whipped against the screen and we in the audience are expected to find them as funny as the filmmakers do. We don't.

There is a movie out there that will give Eric Christian Olson the role he needs to best show off his quick wit and comic virtuosity. Hopefully he finds it soon and and can put Fired Up behind him as quickly as I forgot it after writing this review. Right about.... now.

What was I writing about?

Movie Review: The Roommate

The Roommate (2011) 

Directed by Christian E Christiansen 

Written by Sonny Malhi 

Starring Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, Cam Gigandet, Aly Michalka, Daneel Harris, Billy Zane 

Release Date February 4th, 2011 

Published February 3rd, 2011 

It's odd to think of a little movie like “Single White Female” and deem it iconic. Yet, there are few women in the past 20 years who have moved in with another woman and not thought for a brief moment of the potential for a Bridget Fonda/Jennifer Jason Leigh scenario before laughing it off. ”Single White Female” was nothing all that new or inventive; rather it was simply more stylish and well acted than many similar genre efforts. 

In an attempt to recreate that iconic style and culturally relevant kitsch, the makers of the new thriller “The Roommate” have offered us a copy of “Single White Female,” a black and white, low-light copy from a machine that is low on toner. ”Friday Night Lights” star Minka Kelly is “The Roommate” of the title, Sara Matthews. Sara is a daughter of privilege from Los Angeles who is attending a nameless L.A College to get out from under her parents watchful eyes. 

Sara's college roommate is Rebecca (“Gossip Girl's” Leighton Meester), fresh off the bus from Des Moines, Iowa and hoping to make it as a big city fashion designer. Sara and Rebecca are fast friends but others are quick to see Sara's dark side. Tracy (Aly Michalka), for one, is immediately creeped out by Sara's too friendly demeanor, and is soon avoiding Rebecca at Sara's warning. Meanwhile, Rebecca meets and falls for Stephen (Cam Gigandet) and while he doesn't have any dangerous encounters with Sara, we witness her stalking him in the library without his knowledge.

Every scene in “The Roommate” coheres to a similar scene in “Single White Female” right down to a murder committed by the psycho roommate while in the guise of the non-psycho roommate. Remakes are becoming relatively typical but are we truly far enough away from a movie like “Single White Female,” which was released in 1992, for a complete rehash? Taken on its own “The Roommate” is flat and joyless; an exercise in tedium that lacks not merely in originality but in any kind of invention. Even those unfamiliar with “Single White Female” will assume the beats of this story and easily determine the simpleminded 'twists' well before they turn.

”Single White Female”, at the very least, was not afraid of being trashy, indeed, that film traded in high class trash to become iconic of its brand of thriller. “The Roommate” could have used a little trashiness to dress up these flat, boring characters. Instead, with a PG-13 rating the closest we get to trashy is the sight of one character's belly ring in a shower scene.

I don't mean to come off perverted but when you trade in stock characters, unambitious dialogue, and a boring, overly familiar plot, the least you could do is trash it up with stronger girl fights and a little more bare flesh. If you are going to bore us to tears with a mere rehash of a better movie at least dress it down with some high class campy trash. Is that too much to ask?