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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Bring It On (2000)

Bring It On (2000)

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Released 25-Jul-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio & Animation
Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain
Menu Audio
Audio Commentary-Peyton Reed (Director)
Featurette-Spotlight on Location
Deleted Scenes-with Director's introductions
Featurette-Wardrobe and Make-Up Tests
Theatrical Trailer
Featurette-Home Movie of the Car Wash Scene
Music Video-As If - Blaque
Biographies-Cast & Crew
Easter Egg-Photo Gallery with Director's Introduction
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 94:27
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (65:52) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Peyton Reed
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Kirsten Dunst
Eliza Dushku
Jesse Bradford
Gabrielle Union
Case C-Button-Version 2
RPI $34.95 Music Christophe Beck


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
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, bloopers and playing around

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    There is a genre of movies called "high school" movies. Some are comedies, some are horror, some are both. Perhaps the studios make them because high school students are a big audience; perhaps because those of us older remember our high school days fondly. I like quite a lot of them, and I think part of the reason is that they can deal with life on a smaller scale; we don't have to worry about the world in nuclear holocaust - simply getting embarrassed in front of the wrong person can be the end of the world.

    There have been two stand-out comedies made in this genre in the last few years: one is a loose interpretation of The Taming of The Shrew called 10 Things I Hate About You, while the other is a cheerleader movie called Bring It On. As the director of Bring It On points out in his commentary, cheerleaders are highly stereotyped characters; for some reason cheerleader movies involve either psychopaths with sharp instruments, or pornography. If you were looking for either, keep looking - this movie is rated M, and it doesn't really push the limits of that category.

    Bring It On is a comedy dealing with a crisis - Kirsten Dunst has just been appointed captain of the Rancho Carne (yes, that translates to "Meat Ranch") High School cheerleading team, and in her first practice she injures one of the squad by attempting "the most difficult pyramid known to cheerleading, and mankind". She must replace that squad member before the Regional Cheerleading competition. Considering that she's about to lead the squad into defence of their National Cheerleading title, this is important; after all, they have won the last five Nationals. Fortunately or unfortunately, the replacement turns out to know something no one else in the squad knew - their winning routines have been stolen from another team. Throw in some boyfriend problems, some awesome gymnastics and cheerleading sequences, and a lot of laughs, and you have the entire plot of the movie. No, it is not high art, but it is a lot of fun.

    Most of the cheerleaders in this film are real cheerleaders. The actors, who were chosen for their fitness, were sent to intensive training to learn enough not to put themselves at risk (I'm not kidding - you could get seriously injured trying some of those stunts without training). It is quite impressive to see the actors doing a lot of the cheerleading moves.

    For heterosexual males, I should point out that this movie contains lots of shots of beautiful young women in skimpy outfits, including the essential girls' locker room scene, and the obligatory gratuitous bikini car wash scene. I think those guys are convinced. For the rest of the guys, I should point out that at least one of the male cheerleaders is openly gay, and some of the male cheerleaders are quite impressively muscular. For the ladies in the audience, I'd like to mention that there are several strong female roles, a decent plot, and an unfaithful male gets a suitable comeuppance (are they convinced yet?). For the parents, I can happily say that there's nothing in this movie that you are likely to be too concerned about your teenager seeing. And for the teenagers, I can suggest that this is one movie you might actually enjoy watching, even with the parents in the room. Have I covered everyone yet?

    This movie is not overly long - just over an hour and a half. Even with the excellent transfer, that leaves quite a bit of space on the disc. This is the first feature film made by Peyton Reed; he has previously directed a series of "behind the scenes" featurettes. Strangely enough, this disc is filled up with all sorts of extras, including a "behind the scenes" featurette, deleted scenes (introduced by the director), extended scenes (introduced by the director), and a commentary (by the director)...

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This movie comes to us in Region 4 courtesy of Roadshow Home Entertainment. Unfortunately, that means it is in a C-button case. I tried to move it into a spare Transparent Amaray, but the slick won't fit. Why do I mention that? Because that is the only transfer flaw I could find.

    The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, making it look fabulous on a widescreen display, and giving only narrow black bars on an older TV. The original aspect ratio was 1.85:1, and I have no problem with the slight adjustment of aspect ratio.

    The picture is quite sharp and clear. On some of the close-ups you can almost count the eyelashes. Shadow detail is excellent. There is no low-level noise, although there are very few black patches that would show it. There were a couple of shots that were a teeny bit soft, but I suspect this was an issue of focus in the original source material.

    Colour is beautifully saturated - a necessity with the brightly coloured costumes they wear. Our heroes, the Rancho Carne Toros, wear costumes that are predominantly red. The most common colour to show colour bleed is red - there is not a trace of colour bleeding to be seen.

    There are no film artefacts to be seen. No MPEG artefacts. And, which surprised me, no aliasing to speak of. Normally I'd expect a transfer this sharp to show aliasing - I didn't note any.

    The disc is single sided, dual layer (RSDL), with the layer change at 65:52. I hate to say it, but the layer change is not perfect. If they'd placed it a fraction of a second later it would have been invisible. As it is, there is a closing door that freezes for a moment. This is one thing that the Region 1 disc does better - the layer change on the R1 is close to imperceptible.

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

Audio

    This movie is about cheerleading. Cheerleaders perform to music. There's a lot of music in this movie. The soundtrack does it justice.

    There are only two soundtracks on this disc - the main soundtrack in English Dolby Digital 5.1, and the Director's Commentary is in English Dolby Digital 2.0. I listened to both.

    Dialogue is clear at all times. One or two words in the cheers are a little unclear, but that's understandable.

    In addition to the songs (I didn't count them, but the Director's Commentary suggests there are fifty songs used) there is a score by Christophe Beck. I was a bit surprised to see that, because the only other place I'd seen (OK, heard) his work before was on Buffy The Vampire Slayer - he did the music for about half of the episodes in Season 2. He has done a good job on this movie, with a score that starts off rather techno, but evolves as the movie continues - a bit hard to describe, but good stuff.

    The primary soundtrack is 5.1 for good reason. The surrounds are used to great effect. One nice example comes when we see a cut from a scene in a gym, where there's a cheerleading routine going on, to a reverse, showing Kirsten Dunst watching the performance - the sound of the performance switches to the surrounds. Very effective.

    There's a lot of rhythm in this soundtrack, and the bass extends well into the low octaves. The subwoofer is working almost continuously, supporting the sound without being obtrusive.

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

Extras

    The extras are numerous (there are two pages of bonus features menu), and mostly good.

Menu

    The menu has some minor animation, with sound. The sound is the cheer sequence that starts the movie - fun, but it does start to grate after a while.

Featurette - Spotlight on Location (14:00)

    A better-than-average "behind the scenes" featurette, but still clearly of that ilk. Presented in non-anamorphic 1.33:1. Video is a bit soft, but acceptable.

Deleted Scenes (13:37)

    These deleted scenes are presented as a long sequence, with each scene introduced by the director. I'm pleased to report that there are chapter stops at the start of each scene, so you can skip the ones you don't want to see. There are ten deleted scenes in all, including a couple of alternate endings. Interesting stuff.

Extended Scenes (6:25)

    These are three scenes that are in the movie, but these are longer versions. Each is introduced by the director, who has something interesting to say about each, especially the extended stripper scene.

Wardrobe and Makeup Tests (0:42)

    One of the few extras I thought fairly useless. Just Eliza Dushku and Kirsten Dunst gyrating in different clothes and makeup.

Easter Egg

    I found this by accident. You must go to the second page of extras, and press left arrow - a highlight appears on Kirsten's arm in the form of the Rancho Carne High logo - press Enter. You get a brief intro from the director, and a mini photo gallery of 11 stills.

Trailer (2:05)

    This is a theatrical trailer, presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The video quality is not as high as the movie.

Home Movie (2:48)

    This is footage shot by one of the visitors on the day they shot the bikini car wash sequence. It is Super 8, so the quality is poor.

Music Video - As If (3:51)

    This is a music video by Blaque for the song As If. The song is used in the movie. Unusually, so are three of the girls from Blaque - they play members of the Clovers cheerleading team. The music video is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Prologic surround sound.

Cast and Crew Bios

    Fairly normal bios and filmographies for Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, and Peyton Reed.

Director's Commentary

    This is a screen-specific commentary, and is quite interesting. Peyton Reed enjoys talking about this movie, his first feature film, and he has quite a bit to say. He talks almost continuously, with little wasted space. His commentary on the final credits got a little silly (the importance of choosing the right font, and deciding that the credits should roll upward rather than downward...), but apart from that it was well worth listening to. I recommend giving it a go.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on: The Region 1 disc misses out on:     The only significant difference, in my opinion, is the dts soundtrack - it has somewhat better bass definition, and a slight increase in clarity of the surrounds. If you don't care about dts, then the Region 4 disc is a good choice. If you do care about dts, then the choice is tougher.

Summary

    Bring It On is a fun movie on a feature-filled DVD.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is superb.

    The extras are good, and there are lots of them.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Thursday, June 14, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-737, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics matte white screen with a gain of 1.0 (280cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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