Stick It - Quick Movie Review

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Title: Stick It

Release Date: 2006-04-28

Genres: Drama, Comedy


High essence:

"Haley and her competition teammates -- softened rival Joanne (Vanessa Lengies), perky, semi-clueless Wei ikki SooHoo) and harmless Mina (Maddy Curley) -- undertake a rebellion against the unfair scoring practices that has a vigorous fight the power/bring down The Man feel to it."

"When former elite gymnast Haley Graham's dirt-bike shenanigans land her in hot water, a judge gives her a choice: a military academy or VGA."

"She struts, she poses and makesheavy work of Bendinger's dialogue, which rarely rises abovesarcasm."

"Peregrym plays Haley Graham, a juvenile delinquent who's sentenced by a judge to return to the world of competitive gymnastics she abandoned years ago."

"Plunged into an unexplained life of rebellion, Haley became a frequent visitor to the juvenile detention center."

"Now, her options are juvie prison or something called VGA - the Vickerman Gymnastic Academy in Houston, run by the no-nonsense Burt Vickerman (Bridges)."

"2006 STICK IT alt=photo of 'STICK IT'> 2."

Medium essence:

Eric D. Snider:
  • The owner of the VGA is Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges), and he's in need of some redemption, too.
  • Haley and her competition teammates -- softened rival Joanne (Vanessa Lengies), perky, semi-clueless Wei ikki SooHoo) and harmless Mina (Maddy Curley) -- undertake a rebellion against the unfair scoring practices that has a vigorous fight the power/bring down The Man feel to it.
  • Missy Peregrym, who looks like a young, non-equine Hilary Swank, has been in films before, but Stick It could be her breakout.

Lisa Kennedy:
  • Packed with wordplay, buzzing with joy in the physical, Stick It lands almost all its tricks, including Daryn Okada's fanciful camerawork, which makes synchronized gymnastic routines Busby Berkeley loony.
  • Advertisement goodfp-EMBEDDED'); Nikki Soohoo nearly steals the show when her character Wei Wei Yong takes to the balance beam at the championship.
  • When former elite gymnast Haley Graham's dirt-bike shenanigans land her in hot water, a judge gives her a choice: a military academy or VGA.

:
  • She was a gymnast as achild and a sport which inflicts such wear and tear on very youngathletes would seem to be crying out for some clear-eyed insidecomment on the damage done.
  • She struts, she poses and makesheavy work of Bendinger's dialogue, which rarely rises abovesarcasm.
  • The Australian actress Gia Carides plays her fecklessmother, who's run off with one of Vickerman's coaching rivals.

Kevin N. Laforest:
  • Stick It was written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, who previously penned Bring It On, that guily pleasure of guilty pleasures which managed to make cheerleaders seem cool.
  • Peregrym plays Haley Graham, a juvenile delinquent who's sentenced by a judge to return to the world of competitive gymnastics she abandoned years ago.
  • Clich s abound, both from sports flicks and teen movies, but Bendinger keeps the snappy dialogue flowing and shows surprising skill behind the camera, putting much emphasis on color, composition and various visual effects of kaleidoscopic superimposition that recall the music videos of Michel Gondry.

Scott Gwin:
  • Stick It suggests gymnasts use its title as a battle cry for what the coaches and judges should do with the pommel horse.
  • Haley Graham, a highly gifted young athlete, stunned the gymnastics community by mysteriously walking out on her team mates at the prestigious World Championship.
  • Plunged into an unexplained life of rebellion, Haley became a frequent visitor to the juvenile detention center.

Robert Koehler:
  • A character that could have been a bully or worse in another actor's hands is a complicated soul in Bridges' - too complicated, in fact, for the pic to really know what to do with him.
  • Now, her options are juvie prison or something called VGA - the Vickerman Gymnastic Academy in Houston, run by the no-nonsense Burt Vickerman (Bridges).
  • Pushing forward the smack-talking, competitive spirit that auds enjoyed in her script for Bring It On, writer-director Jessica Bendinger peppers the screen with musicvid-style spark even as her dialogue falls flat.

Tom Meek:
  • 2006 STICK IT alt=photo of 'STICK IT'> 2.
  • There Haley gets into it with the catty Olympic hopefuls and their disciplinarian coach (an understated Jeff Bridges).
  • ) endears, and the colorful array (ditzy to bitchy) of balance-beam divas makes the film worth sticking out.

Low essence:

Eric D. Snider:
  • When Haley is charged with vandalism after a skating stunt goes awry, a plea bargain is struck: To stay out of juvenile hall, she's sent to the Vickerman Gymnastics Academy in Houston, where she's expected to resume training and make the most of her natural abilities.
  • The owner of the VGA is Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges), and he's in need of some redemption, too.
  • Haley and her competition teammates -- softened rival Joanne (Vanessa Lengies), perky, semi-clueless Wei ikki SooHoo) and harmless Mina (Maddy Curley) -- undertake a rebellion against the unfair scoring practices that has a vigorous fight the power/bring down The Man feel to it.
  • That point is very sweetly and amusingly made in a sequence where Haley's platonic guy friends Poot (John Patrick Amedori) and Frank (Kellan Lutz), both too young and mid-adolescent to be threatening, come to visit and woo some of Haley's teammates, who are only too glad to have something other than pommel horses and floor routines to think about.
  • Missy Peregrym, who looks like a young, non-equine Hilary Swank, has been in films before, but Stick It could be her breakout.
  • Bendinger handles it all impressively, especially for her first time in the director's chair, shooting the red and white VGA gym with overhead cameras and using time-lapse editing and other nifty maneuvers to give even the everyday training montages some new vitality.
  • The 16-ish Texas girl made it to the world finals a few years ago, only to walk away before the last competition and leave gymnastics forever, earning the scorn of her fellow gymnasts (particularly the teammates she let down).

Lisa Kennedy:
  • Packed with wordplay, buzzing with joy in the physical, Stick It lands almost all its tricks, including Daryn Okada's fanciful camerawork, which makes synchronized gymnastic routines Busby Berkeley loony.
  • Advertisement goodfp-EMBEDDED'); Nikki Soohoo nearly steals the show when her character Wei Wei Yong takes to the balance beam at the championship.
  • In 1992's A League of Their Own, Geena Davis' character threw a game in the name of sisterly love and proved that as fun as it was, Penny Marshall's movie hadn't a clue about women athletes and competition.
  • Time and again, this sisterhood of the spandex leotards nails it.
  • Because if Stick It star Missy Peregrym and writer-director Jessica Bendinger have their way, John Tesh's fingers will be forever pried from the heart of women's gymnastics.
  • When former elite gymnast Haley Graham's dirt-bike shenanigans land her in hot water, a judge gives her a choice: a military academy or VGA.
  • A couple of years earlier, Haley walked out of the gymnastic championships, leaving the U.

:
  • It is her punishment for a spectacularlychoreographed stunt with a BMX bike, which lands her in court forputting the bike through somebody's plate-glass window.
  • If Bendinger could shape that kind of fluffinto wit, there seemed a good chance that she could producesomething really sharp with this story.
  • She was a gymnast as achild and a sport which inflicts such wear and tear on very youngathletes would seem to be crying out for some clear-eyed insidecomment on the damage done.
  • coaydney Morning Skip June 14, 2006 Stick It is not a term of abuse, although it's asuitable one for this teen flick.
  • Peregrym, who's a tall, broad-shouldered all-American girl, atleast looks like an athlete - although she's hardly the year's mostendearing teenage nonconformist.
  • She struts, she poses and makesheavy work of Bendinger's dialogue, which rarely rises abovesarcasm.
  • The Australian actress Gia Carides plays her fecklessmother, who's run off with one of Vickerman's coaching rivals.

Kevin N. Laforest:
  • Stick It was written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, who previously penned Bring It On, that guily pleasure of guilty pleasures which managed to make cheerleaders seem cool.
  • Peregrym plays Haley Graham, a juvenile delinquent who's sentenced by a judge to return to the world of competitive gymnastics she abandoned years ago.
  • Clich s abound, both from sports flicks and teen movies, but Bendinger keeps the snappy dialogue flowing and shows surprising skill behind the camera, putting much emphasis on color, composition and various visual effects of kaleidoscopic superimposition that recall the music videos of Michel Gondry.
  • This makes the presence of The Dude all the more welcomed, even though his role is a stereotype.
  • Hence, while I like to watch sweaty, muscular men having a knife fight, I can also get it on with girls who wish they could have control over their sport instead of those damn judges so they pull out their bra straps and - what point was I trying to make already?

Scott Gwin:
  • What Burt doesn t bargain for are the effects Haley s boat rocking attitude has on the rest of his team and neither of them is prepared for what happens when Burt uncovers the reasons behind Haley s strange championship walk-out and troubled past.
  • The movie s entire finale abandons the solid foundation it began with and turns into a whiny complaint that gymnastics needs less form and precision and more freedom of expression and extreme sport characteristics.
  • Still, she has a little further to go before she finds the formula for a teen chick movie that manages a powerful message without insulting everyone s intelligence.
  • So, what do you do when the pressure gets to be too much and the rules begin to seem silly?
  • Stick It suggests gymnasts use its title as a battle cry for what the coaches and judges should do with the pommel horse.
  • Haley Graham, a highly gifted young athlete, stunned the gymnastics community by mysteriously walking out on her team mates at the prestigious World Championship.
  • Plunged into an unexplained life of rebellion, Haley became a frequent visitor to the juvenile detention center.

Robert Koehler:
  • A character that could have been a bully or worse in another actor's hands is a complicated soul in Bridges' - too complicated, in fact, for the pic to really know what to do with him.
  • The film certainly doesn't know what to do with Haley (Missy Peregrym), first seen being arrested for causing major property damage while performing free-styling biking stunts in a Plano, Texas, suburban development.
  • Now, her options are juvie prison or something called VGA - the Vickerman Gymnastic Academy in Houston, run by the no-nonsense Burt Vickerman (Bridges).
  • Pushing forward the smack-talking, competitive spirit that auds enjoyed in her script for Bring It On, writer-director Jessica Bendinger peppers the screen with musicvid-style spark even as her dialogue falls flat.

Tom Meek:
  • 2006 STICK IT alt=photo of 'STICK IT'> 2.
  • Justin Timberlake on Saturday Night Live, Dick in a Box (YouTube) Lords of acid rock At both shows Earl Greyhound have played in the Boston area to date upstairs at the Middle East (to which they return this Tuesday) in early October and outdoors in Harvard Square for Oktoberfest a week later people laughed.
  • There Haley gets into it with the catty Olympic hopefuls and their disciplinarian coach (an understated Jeff Bridges).
  • ) endears, and the colorful array (ditzy to bitchy) of balance-beam divas makes the film worth sticking out.

Source:
http://www.denverpost.com/movies/ci_3755069
http://www.thephoenix.com/Boston/Movies/11337-STICK-IT/
http://www.montrealfilmjournal.com/review.asp?R=R0001011
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117930346.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/Stick-It-1548.html
http://www.ericdsnider.com/movies/stick-it/