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: Easy A

Easy A (2010) 

Directed by Will Gluck

Written by Bert V. Royal 

Starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Stanley Tucci, Aly Mischalka, Patricia Clarkson

Release Date Septeber 17th, 2010 

Published September 16th, 2010

There is a shortage of witty repartee at the movies these days. Thus, when wit is on display in such wonderful fashion as it is in the teen comedy “Easy A” it must be celebrated. Written by first time screenwriter Bert V. Royal, Easy A may at times get a little too cute for its own good but the witty passages help us ease past that which is a little too precious.

Easy A stars Emma Stone as Olive, a typically verbose movie creature whose above it all manner works only because you believe she is indeed above it all. Olive has quick, incisive wit that finds the joke fast but never sacrifices the really good thesaurus words. Get used to Olive's high minded verbiage because she is our narrator for this story which plays out as a flashback during an odd but eventually sensible web-cast.

Olive is anonymous within her school until one mistaken conversation with her best friend Rhiannon (Aly Mischalka) is overheard by the school busybody Marianne (Amanda Bynes) and blows up into a massive, school wide scandal in moments thanks to the wonders of social media.

In an effort to shake off a weekend with her best pal and her parents without hurt feelings, Olive invented a date with a college boy. The following Monday Rhiannon accuses Olive of giving up her V-card, the aforementioned overheard conversation that is then blown up. All might have been dismissed as quickly as it exploded, as often happens in our fast paced social media world, but Olive kind of likes being a tramp, at least people know her now.

They know her alright, even more so after she agrees to use her new tramp status to help out Brandon a gay teen who seeks one straight conquest to alleviate the brutal treatment he gets from those who assumed he was/is gay. Olive's good deed soon becomes an industry of helping nerds, geeks and dweebs in need of a social upgrade in exchange mostly for pricey gift cards. Naturally, Olive's actions are not without consequence but it's rather unique the way said consequence rises and falls and then rises again in unexpected ways.

From time to time Olive’s incisive wit is a little too on the nose and things get a little too Juno-esque in Easy A but those moments are thankfully few. Most of Easy A is a tart mix of sexy and smart with witty dialogue that spills forth from terrific characters especially Emma Stone and the sensational duo of Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive’s parents.

As Stone digs deep into Bert Royal’s exceptional dialogue, Tucci and Clarkson join in the fun bringing life and energy to roles that are more often than not cast as clueless, put upon and foolish. The scenes between Olive and her mom and or dad, are the best scenes in Easy A for their sheer loving, comic energy.

Also good is Penn Badgley an actor who has never impressed me until now. Playing the school mascot, who happens to also be Olive’s original school crush, Badgley matches Olive’s hyper intelligent wit word for fast pitched, jokey word. Till now Badgley has been little more than eye candy on TV’s Gossip Girl, with “Easy A” he shows real chops.

“Easy A: is a strong showcase for all involved from director Will Gluck, who needed the boost after the atrocious comedy “Fired Up,” to newcomer Bert V. Royal who could not have asked for better debut feature and especially for star Emma Stone who, whether “Easy A” is big box office or not, firmly establishes herself as a first rate leading lady, heir to the Drew Barrymore throne of the cool, hot chick.

Witty, sexy, funny and exceptionally well cast, Easy A is a terrific teen comedy that, though the bar was exceedingly low, raises the expectations of the moribund genre of teen sex comedies. “Easy A” references a number of John Hughes classics along the way and is the rare modern teen comedy to have earned the right to make those references.