General Movie Review
as a Teen Movie
9.55 as a Gymnastics Movie

If you haven't already seen it, shut down your computer, call your friends and go see "Stick It" right now.  Gymnasts, especially, should be going out to see the movie and support the first gymnastics movie in 20 years.  First weekend box office results are important and we are going three times just this weekend.

For all moviegoers this is a solid entertaining movie with one-liners, humor, drama, laughing, crying and spectacular high level gymnastics.  Fast paced, smooth and bright special effects and with a pulsing, varied musical soundtrack, the movie runs the gamut of emotions and champions the athletes above insensitive judges, deceitful coaches and Olympic compulsive parents.

No one is going to mistake this movie for an Oscar winner, nor was that the goal in its creation.  Jessica Bendinger has, however, created another intriguing career sequel to her cheerleading "Bring It On" successes.  Like them, viewers of "Stick It" may not know why they like the movie so much, but like it they will.

Evaluating the movie from the perspective of the general teen movie audience, there are hot girls in leotards, lots of attitude and the dumb and dumber guys are not overly obnoxious.  Even the obligatory fart jokes are more funny than annoying.  Teenage boys everywhere are going to be saying, "Why haven't we watched this sport before?"  Teenage girls are going to be as envious of these movie gymnasts as they frequently are of real-life gymnasts with their spectacular sports talent, perfect athletic bodies impressive six-packs.

As a gymnastics movie, we have to admit to first being relieved that the movie is way better than you would be led to believe from the trailer and does not suffer from the low quality of gymnastics movie in the past.  In spite of the fact that the movie lists a entire litany of some of the problems facing gymnastics in the sport today, it does accurately depict how spectacular the sport and its athletes are. 

In a sport too populated with anal, opinionated judges who hold too much power and control freak coaches with an inflated sense of their own abilities, this movie certainly has tapped into the sport from a gymnast's perspecitve and point of view.

The movie depicts hard work, sometimes painful falls and the deep cameraderie that develops (or at least can develop) between gymnasts within gyms and even throughout the gymnastics world as a whole. 

Writer/director Jessica Bendinger has intuitively determined the real basis and heart of the sport of gymnastics that even some coaches and parents miss.  Her movie revolves about the theme that the sport really is and always should be for the gymnasts and that they should be participating in gymnastics for themselves.

True gymnastics aficionados will have to overlook some of the gymnastics errors and artistic license taken.  We all know no gymnast, no matter how talented, is going to get back in shape, after being out of the sport that long, to compete against National level gymnasts in a major meet in only a month.  And no coach is going to let a gymnast work out alone, but the few such anomalies are easily overlooked and do not too prominently stick out in "Stick It."

And while one of the major themes of the movie, judging problems with skill difficulty, may have already been addressed by the new Elite and International rule changes (although it is still too soon yet to be sure) in the interim since the movie was filmed, there is much truth in the movie. And upon later reflection, many of the topics raised in the movie deserve careful consideration by everyone involved in the sport. Moreover, there is a great current need for reflection in gymnastics in America.  Blinded by our successes, we have not looked and worked hard enough to keep gymnastics for the gymnasts.

On a lighter note, we are sure we are not the only gymnastics fans happy to see Nastia Liukin acting  in the movie.  The movie producers were as taken with her as gymnastics fans are and expanded her role in the movie (with even spoken lines). Nastia took time out from preparing for the 2005 U.S. Classic in Virginia Beach to spend four (instead of the originally planned three) days to film the National Championship meet scenes in the Los Angelos Sports Arena.  Nastia fans will be looking for her scenes.

Less noticeable and impressive was the very brief walk-on appearance of Carly Patterson.  While we might be able to understand the 15 minutes of fame perspective of the normal movie viewer, it does seem that we in the sport of gymnastics forget our heroes too soon and too easily.  Our perspective of the sport is too short-term and the collective lack of knowledge of the history of our sport by coaches and gymnasts does not help.

While it hopefully will have a long and successful run, we have to admit that we can hardly wait until this movie goes to video, because we will have already seen the movie three times and we cannot wait to buy the DVD and add it to our personal and gym collection.

And a note to Jessica Bendinger, get started on "Stick It Again."

Again if you haven't already seen it, call your friends and go see "Stick It"