Bring It Onto Your Telly! (Bring It On: Fight To The Finish (DVD))

Member Name: mummy2harry

Product:	Bring It On: Fight To The Finish (DVD)
Date:	07/10/09 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun to watch, great soundtrack, good young cast

Disadvantages: Bit predictable!

Lina is devastated when her mother Isabel marries a rich American man and they both have to leave their home in East LA and move to West LA into a big, posh house and a new stepsister she isn't mad keen on. Lina struggles to fit in, and it's made worse by Cheerleading team Jaguars captain Avery who is determined to put down Lina down at every turn. Lina's new step sister Skyler persuades her to join their own cheerleading team, the Sea Lions, but unfortunately they aren't very good and Lina can't turn them around on her own. She recruits her friends Treyvonetta and Gloria from East LA and the trio set about transforming the Sea Lions. Avery senses they are a threat, and soon the two teams are going head to head at the All Star Spirit Championships. It's a fight to the finish... who will be victorious?

Bring It On: Fight To The Finish is the 5th movie in the American cheerleading franchise which has proved to be a lot more successful that anyone would have thought! I haven't actually seen films 2, 3 or 4 but when this new DVD came into the library, I thought it would be worth a whirl and decided to watch it. I did love the first one so I hoped this one would live up to that. It stars pop star Christina Milian in the main role, and I haven't seen her act in anything before so I was curious to see how good she would be.

The movie begins in a Latin-American neighbourhood with Lina and her friends, some great music and dancing and I felt it was a great beginning to the movie. The female characters are all very likeable and I instantly warmed to Lina and Gloria in particular. It's very light and cheerful, and was easy to watch right from the off. They have made the move from East to West LA obvious so the viewer knows whats going on, and I think this was well done by the creators and added a new element to this movie. The bullying of Lina by the rich girls was awful but a good reflection of modern society.

Milian was great as Cheercaptain Lina, and had a great relationship with the other girls in the film, and they were all believable friendships too. She worked particularly well with Holland Roden (Skyler) and Vanessa Born (Gloria) and the three had a great chemistry. Milian is a good enough actor for this sort of film, I can't say she'd be amazing in a more serious role but she will appeal to the young girls demographic that will watch this, and she's a great dancer which is important in a film like this! The other actresses are good too, particularly Vanessa Born as super happy Gloria, and you might recognise Laura Cerón who plays Lina's mother Isabel, who was Nurse Chuny in ER!

The music in this film is great and really modern. There are songs by artists such as Lady Gaga, The Veronicas, DJ Aligator and even Ms Milian herself whose music video for I Gotta Get To You plays over the final credits. The music keeps the pumped up and cheerful atmosphere throughout the movie, and a great soundtrack is really important in a film like this. The music suits the storyline, and I really enjoyed the Latin influence on all the songs throughout. The final cheerleading contest songs were brilliant, very fast-paced and had a definite dance and R&B feel to them, and I really enjoyed all the songs used.

My only complaint is that I didn't feel the end cheerleading sequences were long enough! I watch these kind of films because I really enjoy watching the dancing and cheerleading aspects of it, but I felt it was lacking a bit in these things in the film. There was a lot of dancing between the characters at various parties, but the cheerleading scenes were pretty few and far between, and I felt this was a shame. The end scenes were excellent, and I would have liked them dragged out a little bit more, but I guess they had to make time for the rest of the story to develop around them.

Overall, I think this is a good film, and when you watch this sort of thing you know what to expect so you can't really slag it off that much! The music was great, the acting was good enough for the film and the story was good and carried the film along at a good pace. It tackles some good issues such as fitting in, the "rich/poor" divide and slight edges of racism as well, and I think the movie does these in a good way. Milian is a good lead actress, and is able to carry off the cheerleading scenes well. I'm glad the movie was good, and I'm now going to track down the 2nd, 3rd and 4th films to give them a whirl too! A great film, but not for everyone!

Directed by Bille Woodruff
Writers: Elena Song and Alyson Fouse
Running Time: 102 minutes
Certificate: PG

Main Cast:
Christina Milian ... Catalina 'Lina' Cruz
Cody Longo ... Evan
Rachele Brooke Smith ... Avery (as Rachele Smith)
Holland Roden ... Skyler
Laura Cerón ... Isabel
David Starzyk ... Henry
Nikki SooHoo ... Christina
Gabrielle Dennis ... Treyvonetta
Meagan Holder ... Kayla
Vanessa Born ... Gloria

Thank you for reading.

Summary: Another good "Bring It On" movie