Bring It On Again (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	86:22
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (39:59)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Damon Santostefano
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Anne Judson-Yager Bree Turner Kevin Cooney Faune A. Chambers Bryce Johnson Richard Lee Jackson Joie Lenz Holly Towne Dennis Hemphill Jr. Felicia Day Katherine Bailess Joshua Gomez Kelly Stables
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Paul Haslinger

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, outtakes

    The success of Bring It On made it inevitable that there would be a sequel. This is that sequel. It went direct-to-video — that is never a good sign. It contains none of the original cast — that's especially ominous. In fact, it has no acknowledged stars in it — that usually spells "stinker".

    I was fully prepared for this to be a painful experience. It started OK, albeit drawing heavily on plot ideas from Bring It On. It seemed to lose its way for a while, then it seemed to be trying to get our pity. But then came the finale, which really worked and redeemed the film. You know what? This isn't all that bad, even if parts in the middle are cringeworthy. It's nowhere near as good as Bring It On, but it really isn't awful.

    The plot centres on Whittier Smith (Anne Judson-Yager, looking a lot like Reese Witherspoon). Whittier and her best friend Monica Jones (Faune A Chambers) arrive at California State College hoping to join the champion cheerleading team. The team is led by Tina Hammersmith (Bree Turner). Whittier and Monica try out, and get in. Whittier stands out, and Tina starts grooming her as next head cheerleader; the only problem being that Tina is grooming Whittier to be superficial and selfish (just as Tina is). Whittier goes along to an extent, but when she is pushed too far she quits. She starts a rival cheerleading squad, staffing it with members of an interpretive dance group, drama club, and martial arts club, all of whom lost their funding to the cheerleading team... Can this bunch of misfits take on the cheerleaders at their own game?

    The pieces stolen from the first movie are a bit too obvious: the opening, the tryout sequence, even the clubs contributing to the new cheer squad (remember the influences they drew from in building their new cheer sequence?). There are some nice additions — the reaction of the neglected sports when they get cheerleading support is quite entertaining.

    When I reviewed Bring It On, I noticed that it featured two of the young women from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Eliza Dushku, who played Faith, and Clare Kramer, who played Glory in Season 5). The only face I recognised in this film turned out to come from Buffy, too — Felicia Day (who played Vi, one of the more noticeable Potentials in Season 7) — she plays Penelope, a character who is hard to explain, kind of a goth pessimist. The thing is, her pallid complexion (although appropriate to her character) makes her really stand out among the tanned Californian bodies (you have to love the description of the head cheerleader as "tanorexic").

    If you really enjoyed watching the gymnastics of the cheerleaders in Bring It On, then this film will provide more of the same. The plot's not wonderful, but it serves to justify the cheerleading sequences, some of which are quite impressive. If you approach this film expecting the worst, then you may find it's not too bad (it worked for me!).

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. Even though this never hit the cinemas, this is the intended ratio.

    The picture is sharp and clear (not perfect, but very good). Shadow detail is very good. There's just light film grain, and no low-level noise.

    Colour is generally well-rendered, although skin tones are a tad variable. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are no film artefacts.

    There is a little aliasing, and occasional moiré on surprising objects. There are no MPEG artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English (actually, they have sound cues, making them really English for the Hearing Impaired). They are well-timed, accurate (more accurate than usual), and quite legible.

    The disc is single-sided, RSDL. The layer change is at 39:59. It's not the greatest layer change you've ever seen, but it's not awful, it just freezes a scene for a moment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in nothing but English, relieving us of the burden of selecting a soundtrack to listen to. It's Dolby Digital 5.1, at 384kbps.

    The dialogue is easy to understand (sadly — it makes the limp dialogue more obvious). There are no audio sync issues.

    The score from Paul Haslinger is appropriate to the events on screen — it is quite decent. There are a number of songs in the soundtrack, but the best is Hit Me With Your Best Shot at the start of the closing credits, accompanying the outtakes.

    The surrounds aren't used continuously, but they get their chances. The same applies to the subwoofer, mostly used to support the lowest register of the bass-heavy music behind the cheerleading routines.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras.

Menu

    The menu is static with music. There's very little for the menu to do, but it does that little easily.

    The Region 1 disc was released earlier this year. It features the same cover art as the Region 4 disc, but unlike the Region 4 disc, the Region 1 has a selection of extras including deleted scenes, a making of, and a variety of others. Judging by reviews, the R1 transfer is not quite as good as ours, but not awful.

    If you want the extras, you'll have to get the Region 1 disc. If you just want the movie, then the Region 4 will do fine. But you really have to ask yourself if you want either.

    A bad movie with some excellent cheerleading routines, on a DVD with a good transfer.

    The video quality is really rather good.

    The audio quality is quite good, although fairly frontal.

    The extras are completely missing (unlike the Region 1 disc).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall