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Massawyrm risks it for the biscuit and gets FIRED UP!!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Look, Fired Up is as dumb, vapid, and fluffy as it looks. Not so much a teen comedy as it is a teen fantasy, this thing lives in a universe populated entirely by Stepford Ambercrombie and Fitch models who fall in and out of bed so quickly that that it might convince you that you need to make a trip to the clinic just by proximity. I can’t think of a single believable moment in the entirety of the film. Not one. It makes other teen comedies feel more like documentaries in terms of its presentation of reality. But despite all that, this film has one thing going for it. It’s as funny as a rubber crutch.
No matter how ridiculous the premise, no matter how easily the logic of the film can be unraveled with the slightest tug at a plot thread, no matter how stupid and easy they would like us to believe a camp full of girls are – the movie never ceases to hit joke after joke. There’s a definite cleverness to it – which of course there HAD to be for this to work at all. This is a PG-13 teen sex comedy coming out in the midst of a raunch-renaissance. With so many films coming out of the Apatow stable and audiences ready and willing to gobble them up, it’s hard to imagine something working without the edge of the R Rating. But here it is, in all its stupid glory.
Fired Up is an 80’s style sex comedy that also happens to be very much in love with its predecessor Bring it On (and even includes a sequence showing just how in love with it it is.) Two football players with libidos that would make Ed Powers and Peter North feel their age decide to skip Football camp for the summer and join the (sorely lacking) cheer squad in order to get into the 3 week cheerleader camp populated by 300 of the girls who attend every audition and casting call in LA. They then proceed to tear their way through as much tail as they can before bailing a week before the big competition. Then, as you can expect – they find that they care for their teammates and that they actually enjoy cheering. Question is: can they make it to the competition before their cover is blown and their poon party is spoiled?
I could challenge each of you to write a script for this and odds are they would all be exactly the same – save the jokes. And those scripts would be the story to this movie. It’s very by the numbers without a single plot surprise or twist that catches you off guard. But the humor does. It’s a very funny movie that finds its strength in its two leads drawn from the school of 30-year olds playing teenagers. Nicholas D’Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen have a great chemistry together and present their dialog and one liners not with the brain damaged audacity of Seann William Scott and Ashton Kutcher, but with a wit of a seasoned comic team. The one thing this film has in its favor in terms of realism is that you buy that these guys can get chicks. They’re quick on their feet, charming and smooth – and each gets their fair share of well delivered jokes. They also possess a back and forth that you only see with some of the best comic teams, which makes me want to see these guys work together again on something a bit sharper and down to earth.
The comedy’s only problem is in the direction which stresses a lot of front on shots of the two (in the same shot together) almost delivering their jokes to the audience, and sometimes a little too cleanly. These guys occasionally come across as too canned – which totally works in the context of the unbelievably ridiculous universe in which it exists, but does make you wish for a little more authenticity. Then, even as far as it has gone in asking you to suspend your disbelief, it does have a third act eye rolling moment which pulls out one of the oldest, lamest sports comedy clichés in the book, which is a little too cheesy even for this film. Fortunately the film quickly recovers and returns to the course it had previously been on.
But it is consistently funny. It never runs to the cheap joke and has nary a piss, shit or fart joke anywhere in it. Despite its juvenile nature and premise, it maintains a sharp edge and proves to be a solid sex comedy for girls that their boyfriends are going to have a hard time believing wasn’t made for them instead. If this were 1982 it would be a Scott Baio/Willie Ames movie and would have a kickass shower scene or two. That’s what this is in a nutshell. The only difference is the PG-13 rating. I couldn’t stop laughing, even on the odd occasion I knew I probably shouldn’t be. But it won me over – and the groups of girls walking out with me (but sadly not WITH me) were all talking about how funny they found it as well.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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yeah!
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Interesting review, btw. Not compelling however
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...they're going to rape you. And it's going to hurt. Run.
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What's a buscuit?
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Unless you meant buzz cut which is also spelled wrong.
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Fuck it. Won't be getting my money.
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hmmm!
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C'mon. Spell check that shit, dude.
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I just can't do it. It looks too 1990's.
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He played such a creepy douche.
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I may have to Netflix this.
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but i respect him for being the only guy who called out my bloody valentine 3d for being the crap that it was.
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I gotta say, it was probably one of the best gag-for-gag comedies I've seen in the last twelve months. Witty and fun as all hell. Escapism. Liked it better than MANY of the comedies in the last twelve months -- and no "A-lister" in the lead -- or in the cast for that matter. Congrats!
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I'm confused. what makes it for girls?
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she says i've got a little 14 year old girl in me. [ insert obligatory joke ] looks like you do, too, massawyrm. i'll just make an excuse to go with her and her BBBS mentee.
is there a dance/cheer off? my wife loves those. -
Seriously, how much do they pay you guys to write reviews like this? Or, are movie choices just that bad right now?
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What's the point?
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how much did it cost the studio to have you write this review?
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was hilarious in 'Election' as the kid who counts the votes. When was the last time we had a movie like that??
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but the broad in the 'Forbidden Science' banner up there is making me think things.
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And that looks to be about the wittiest about this movie. Plus, there's something about this premise that bothers me. Why would anyone want to see a movie about two good looking jocks out to get laid? I'd rather root for the underdog which means the guys have to be average at best. Kind of surprising to see Erik Christian Olsen playing a teenager. I don't think he can pass for that anymore. College guy and twenty-something slacker, sure.
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pass.
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He's been playing frat guys for what seems like more than a decade now, and while that may in fact be how long a guy like the ones he plays would probably take to finish college (or at least get finally kicked out), there's something very 90210-ish silly about it. He's actually been pretty good in the one or two dramatic roles I've seen him--wasn't he on 24 once? D'Agosto must be older than I thought, I'd forgotten him from Election (that the vote counter was him anyway) and only remember him from the Office and the bad-but-maybe-not-as-bad-as-what-would-came-later second season of Heroes (nah, it was still bad, but I think the character got a bad break for that season's poor pacing, an unimaginative arc--more evil cheerleaders--and a recycled power). Seeing these two guys go Baio/Aames on the freakishly unrealistic teen sex comedy thing might be fun, but I think I'll wait for DVD to check it out.
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geek cool. Why review this movie on this site?
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Wyrm reviewed Beverly Hills Chihuahua just so you guys could read how the Wyrm would rip into the movie and leave its bloody festering carcass in his wake. Massa was probably egged on to review this movie by the same people, he just ended up enjoying it instead. If Wyrm is happy with the 2 hours he spent watching this movie, then I'm sure it deserves a spot on the website. I swear all some people do is bitch.
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Stand outside of the local mall's Abercrombie and Hollister stores and listen to dumb ass fifteen year olds talking on cell phones? I would rather drop a car battery on my foot than do either. Not fucking cool at all.
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PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! even Sex Drive had the balls to have a few tits
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I didn't even pay attention to the TV spots until that one where they're singing Chumbawumba's hit song and he says something to the effect of: "Man, it's the soundtrack of my life." That had me cracking up. And I felt bad for it because this looks like such an awful movie.
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