Dir. Jessica Bendinger
Writ. Jessica Bendinger
Act. Missy Peregrym, Jeff Bridges

This movie is full of fluff and I love it. It has a bunch of young, good looking women running around in revealing outfits being coached by a guy that could only be better if he was a drunk that was cured of his ailments by the young women. I will only recommend this movie to families with young girls who like or are thinking about becoming gymnasts, but it is a fun movie.

Haley Graham, played by Missy Peregrym (TV's Smallville,) is a young thrill seeker who was once one of the best young gymnasts in the country before unexpectedly quitting the national competition, and now has no respect for authority, including her separated parents. After committing her latest felony, Haley is given a choice, go to juvenile detention, or go back to gymnast school. She is sent to the Vickerman School run by Burt Vickerman, played by Jeff Bridges (Seabiscuit) who has to overcome Haley's past and attitude and his own past to lead Haley and the rest of the team to nationals.

Director/writer Jessica Bendinger likes to write about the female in life. Other than this movie, she has also scripted the movies First Daughter, Aquamarine, Bring it On and an episode of Sex and the City. However, her movies are not very well received by the general public and I can see why in Stick It. There is so much cheese in this movie that you will become lactose intolerant by the end of the movie. Everything from Haley's bad girl image, her parents fighting in court about her, and even Vickerman's issue with the judges all seems hollow. There is no depth of character and everything is superficial, which follows because Bendinger was a former model and that is the world of frivolity. Yet, for what ever reason, I like it, it is mildly entertaining, just not good.

Another problem with the script is that the climatic scenes with the tournament would never happen. Because if it did, the girls would be banned from competing again and Vickerman would not be allowed to take any team to a high school competition, let alone a tournament event. The ending takes away from the fun that is the movie.

All the young ladies in the movie are wonderfully athletic and nimble. I don't know if there are any future award winners, but there are no bad eggs here. They performed their clichéd characters perfectly and they should be commended for that. Even Bridges did an admirable job, and since I normally find him annoying that is a good thing.

You girls will like this movie because that is the age that it is written for, especially gymnasts. Bendinger appears to do her homework and goes into detail while the girls are training and describes what they go through. Of course, like everything else in the script, she goes over the top in her details of the training. Sorry, but I don't believe young gymnasts, male or female, have a more difficult training regiment than Navy Seals.

Take your young girls to see the movie, and prepared to be mildly enjoyed by the extra layer of cheese from the movie. This will be the kind of movie that your daughter will love as a kid but when she is in her 20's she will not believe that she like the movie.

Brian - the Naked Gun