If today’s cheerleader – half porn star, half girl next door – distracts from the game, shouldn’t the cheerleader movie distract us from a lack of believable plot points and honest jokes? Puppyish chick magnet Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) and football captain Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) have pulling down to a science.
Then it occurs to them that joining cheerleaders for two weeks of pom-pom training sounds more fun than grunting in Arizona with other guys. Sure enough, cheerleading camp is a vision of lithe women in short shorts but conscience strikes; after much success in the sack, the boys find they enjoy cheering, plus Shawn pursues a sweet hometown girl. It turns out ‘Fired Up!’ isn’t a dirty movie, despite the thigh on display, and it sports a more brainless evil boyfriend to make our heroes likeable. But trashy values place this generic comedy decidedly in the Bush era.