There's a very, very fine border between stupid and stupid-smart, and that narrow no-man's-land is pretty much exactly where Fired Up lives. And, with the plot of the film, that description is more appropriate than you'd think. Shawn (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) are football stars whose casual womanizing is serious business — and so when their upcoming football camp is slated for two hot, hottie-less weeks in El Paso, Shawn and Nick decide to flip the script and report instead to cheerleading camp, where the guy-to-girl ratio offers Shawn and Nick a broad buffet of buff bodies to peruse and pursue. Nick and Shawn will, of course find true love and become better people along the way, but the nice thing is that Fired Up knows that its cliché moments are cliché and does smart versions of what could have been stupid jokes and scenes. Or, more succinctly: How many PG-13 sex farces manage to make jokes about Crocs, Nickelback and FICA?
Director Will Gluck's resume includes such off-kilter and unexpected TV comedies as In the Loop and Andy Richter Controls the Universe, so it's not surprising that Fired Up is a little bit better than it might at first look. There's a certain air of bad-lad naughtiness about the film, too — the movie had to be submitted to the MPAA 18 times to get whittled down to a PG-13 rating — and I certainly laughed more than I thought I would at how much Gluck and his cast were getting away with. (Those of you looking for a wholesome family comedy? Keep looking — sure, Fired Up has a nice message and spins some gender roles on their ear, but it's also sex-soaked, larded with double-entendres and more than willing to get people naked in the name of a laugh.)
I'd also be remiss to not point out the simple fact that D'Agostino and Olsen have, for lack of a better phrase, real chemistry; you buy them as friends, and while neither of them would probably be charismatic enough to carry a film by themselves, they make for a nice comedy duo. D'Agosto's Nick is a little more sensitive than Olsen's Shawn, and falls for cheerleading captain Carly (Sarah Roemer), with Shawn knocking his desire to chase one girl instead of several until, in the name of friendship and true love, he comes around to help save the day; Glib womanizer Shawn tears a swath through the girls of cheer camp but finds he can't get his mind off of coach Diora (Molly Sims). …
The supporting cast is also superb in Fired Up — not merely Roemer and Sims, but also familiar faces like Phillip Baker Hall (Air Force One, Seinfeld) as a foul-mouthed football coach, or John Michael Higgins (Best in Show, Kath and Kim) as a dementedly gleeful cheerleading coach. And despite how much director Gluck may protest during the DVD's commentary (recorded alongside D'Agonstino and Olesen, and quite funny) that Fired Up is not a cheerleading movie, it does get the cheerleading sequences down pat to solid effect — you get a sense of both joy and athleticism, of effort and elation.
In addition to the above-mentioned commentary, Fired Up's DVD includes deleted scenes and a few mini-documentaries on the making of the film; this is probably not a film that demanded this level of effort, but it's appreciated nonetheless. Fired Up isn't a spoof like Bring it On; it's a spoof of movies like Bring it On, and that loose, fresh feel is what makes the film as much fun as it is. In the language of cheerleading, Fired Up may not nail the dismount, but it does a pretty good job of the lifts, twirls and tosses leading up to the big finish with plenty of charm, comedy and shameless style.
