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Review

Writer/director Bendinger wrote the cheerleading hit Bring It On, and it shows; Stick It is just a slight variation on a theme — here, the pretty teenage girls are gymnasts. Bendinger also takes a cue from Bring It director Peyton Reed by making the film as stylish as a musical; unfortunately, while some of these ideas work, Bendinger doesn't yet have the consistency in tone (or, frankly, the chops) that Reed demonstrated (a Busby Berkeley-inspired montage is a clever way of condensing a gym meet sequence, but the actual result is silly and CGI-laden). The film begins horribly, with an extreme sports challenge gone wrong that is as baldly pandering as a Do the Dew! or Sunny D ad. Peregrym comes across as a petulant, trendier-than-thou brat whom no one in their right mind would want to spend more than a few seconds with (even considering her physical charms). But this off-putting exterior predictably hides a vulnerable heart of gold. After being forced to train as a gymnast in lieu of juvenile hall (paging Brezhnev), she's put through the ringer by stern-but-caring coach Bridges, who, as usual, brings a great deal of professionalism and class to his cliched role. The film improves during the climax, when the girls decide to teach their dusty old judges a lesson; while it's really just far-fetched wish-fulfillment, it's still fun and even compelling. All told, however, this is throwaway filmmaking, with only a modicum of worthwhile moments to make it barely passable.

 -- Dean C. Galanis