Fired Up! (2009)
Directed by Will Gluck
Popular high schoolers and best friends Shawn and Nick decide to ditch football camp for cheerleader camp. For the girls and for the glory.
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What critics compared Fired Up! to
High Points: It’s surprisingly funny for another weak American Pie rip-off; Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen make a hilarious pair; If you're under the age of 25 you’ll like it.
That counts as one of the better moments in this sloppy but moderately amusing attempt to cross the 2000 Kirsten Dunst hit with the raunchier brand of teen comedy that came in the wake of American Pie.
John Michael Higgins plays the idiot adult character (see Eugene Levy in the American Pie films) and Philip Baker Hall is on hand to say the "sh--" word as often as possible without ruining the rating.
Every decade or so we get a new, all-out, dirty-joke comedy about randy teenagers -- "Porky's," "American Pie," "Superbad."
It sounds like that the kind of thing that would have been right at home with the teen comedies of twenty years ago, or even the brief "American Pie"-ish revival.
But thanks to the Weitz Brothers (American Pie), certain standards have to be maintained by anyone who plunges into this genre and Gross's idea just isn't gross enough.
Director and co-writer Will Gluck – both of whose first two films, Fired Up! and Easy A, I liked quite a bit — tries mightily to liven up the familiar rhythms of the plot, but he’s only occasionally able to add some incidental pleasures (an entertainingly coarse one-liner or bizarre pop culture reference here and there; amusing character work from the likes of Woody Harrelson and Patricia Clarkson; a surprising amount of on-screen sex).
This is his third feature after “Fired Up!” and “Easy A,” and what all three share is that you might go in expecting an unoriginal retread of a dozen other movies and are instead surprised by something that’s fresh and original.
It's an inspired touch, not just because it's a fun bit of nostalgia and not just because director Will Gluck (" Fired Up! ") rarely slows his movie down to explain them.
A major step up for director Will Gluck, who previously helmed 2009's smarmy " Fired Up! ," "Easy A" is nothing short of a love letter to the late, great John Hughes; there are references mischievously sprinkled throughout ("Never had one lesson," Olive replies to her father when he catches her strumming a guitar in her bedroom), choice soundtrack recollections (The Thompson Twins' "If You Were Here," beautifully covered by The Cary Brothers, and Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" both play pivotal roles), and even a montage of scenes from classic teen flicks encompassing not only Hughes, but also 1987's "Can't Buy Me Love" and 1989's "Say Anything."
Easy A is being marketed as a high school comedy, and director Will Gluck’s last film was Fired Up!, so you can see why I might have approached his current offering with some trepidation.
Not all of these can be put at the feet of its green writer, or its equally inexperienced director (Will Gluck of "Fired Up!").
Screenwriter Bert V. Royal has come up with some great family conversation and director Will Gluck ("Fired Up!") has provided the environment for his actors to excel.
Director Will Gluck made his debut last year with the cheerleader romp, “Fired Up!,” a disastrous comedy that highlighted the filmmaker’s overanxious attitude, while emphasizing a moldy sense of humor.