Stick It (2006)
Directed by Jessica Bendinger
Written by Jessica Bendinger
Starring Missy Peregrym, Jeff Bridges, Kellan Lutz
Release Date April 28th, 2006
Published May 15th, 2006
If all juvenile delinquents could get the kind of court treatment that Hayley, the heroine of the new Disney comedy Stick It got, the world would be filled with extremely limber criminals. Hayley, the heroine of Stick It, has had numerous run-ins with the law in her short life; but now she finds herself in real deep trouble. After damaging property she is being sent off to, horror of horrors, gymnastics camp!
That ought to show her.
Stick It is the kind of wish fulfillment comedy that Hollywood is convinced that we love. Filled with sitcom characters and Saved By The Bell style dialogue, Stick It is a stylish but rarely amusing teen comedy.
Hayley Graham (Missy Peregrym) has been sentenced by a judge to go to gymnastics camp. Luckily she happens to have once been a world class gymnast before she walked away in the midst of a big meet or match or whatever the hell they call it. Needless to say, she is not popular with her fellow gymnasts at the Vickerman gymnastics academy.
Run by the tough loving Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges); the academy is better known for major injuries caused by Burt's hardcore training than for major gymnastic stars. Naturally, Hayley and Burt clash immediately. She doesn't want to be there, he doesn't care, they clash until valuable lessons are learned and naturally a big meet(?) bonds the team to Hayley and she to them.
Jessica Bendinger, who wrote the amusing script for the cheerleader comedy Bring It On, directs her first feature and brings a rebellious attitude to Stick It but, like most teenage rebellion, it's mostly just childish posturing.
Missy Peregrym gives a free spirited performance that is restricted by a script that puts really stupid words in her mouth. The dialogue is filled with dopey sub-sitcom zingers that undermine any character development. Not one of these characters feels like a natural human being because everything they say seems as if it should be followed with canned laughter.
I hope Jeff Bridges makes good use of the paycheck he picked up for Stick It. If the audience is bored watching Stick It they are just reflecting Bridges who could not be any more bored with this material. He knows this movie is no good and he reflects it with an attitude of disaffection.
So, does anything about Stick It work? Yeah; kind of. Director Jessica Bendinger establishes a candy colored palette in the background of her candy coated story. Using low grade special effects Bendinger makes gymnastics about as interesting as it can possibly be without having someone in your own family competing.
There is a certain camp humor found in Jeff Bridges' tired, bored, performance in Stick It. His character's almost constant exasperation is supposedly linked to the untamed rebelliousness of his charges, but you can easily read it as Bridges real life response to this lifeless exercise in teen appeal sit-comedy.
Jessica Bendinger is not an untalented director. She crafts some clever visuals with overlapping photography in the gymnastics scenes and makes good use of CGI. Bendinger makes gymnastics more interesting than I've ever found it before, but having never found it all that interesting to begin with, this is a minimal accomplishment.
Bendinger, at the very least, has enough talent to make me interested in what she will do next. Anything she does now will have to be better than the forgettable teen tripe of Stick It.
