Stick It

movies seen in 2010: 4

Today I sat down and put together a set of randomized pairings for all of our Netflix instant queue. We're adding things to it on a regular basis, but I realized that there are just way too many things currently on the list that don't get watched because we never seem to be in the mood for them. So, in order to try and check a few of them off I decided to pair them up and let fate take control. Throughout the year I'll select a number from a small bowl and that pairing will be our double feature for the night.

Basically, here's what I did. Using Netflix's personal RSS feeds, I grabbed my entire list of instant queued films and created a text file out of it. Then I used a randomizer to jumble that list. After running the randomizer a few times I split that list in half and jumbled up each chunk again and pasted them into a spreadsheet side by side. Then, just to create one additional layer of randomness I created a number list as long as the list of titles, randomized that and pasted it into a third column. Each movie has a partner and a random number assigned to it. Each number has a little piece of paper in a bowl. Throughout the year we'll draw a piece of paper from the bowl and force ourselves to watch whatever it tells us to. Yes, I realize that I'm a dork.

Anyway, after last night's pairing, Angela mentioned that she thought I had said we were going to watch STICK IT and not WHIP IT. Tonight after getting together with some friends we stuck in Stick It.

Have I mentioned the incredible backlog of movies Angela and I have to watch? The last few years we've tended to buy a lot of films in bulk during various sales. Pawn shops, video rental places, DVD stores... you name it and we've probably bought a handful of DVDs there. We were buying films at a pace where we'd never be able to catch up. Because of that, lots of things ended up on the 'we'll see it at some point list'. So, while Stick It came out in 2006 and I'm sure we picked it up sometime in 2007 it's 2010 and we're just getting to it tonight.

Another day, another Texas movie. You could have had me fooled. The movie screams southern california. A look at the IMDB page confirms it. The biggest giveaway is a running scene in 'Houston' where, in the background, you can see what look like mountains in the distance. It's kind of fitting since Whip It, also a Texas movie, was shot in Detroit. Thank the Lord that the legislature improved the state's film incentives. Hopefully more movies set in Texas will actually film here.

I didn't have high hopes. I mean, this is a film from the writer of Bring It On, First Daughter and Aquamarine... after she wrote and directed this, she hasn't had any additional credits save for 'industry mentor' on a horror film called Cheerbleeders. I guess having my expectations set extraordinarily low let me enjoy it slightly more. Don't get me wrong, there's very little in this movie that makes sense. Characters are flat, the main character is annoying and probably more than anything, the thing that drove me up the wall was that the movie geography is completely asinine. The main character in our movie lives in Plano. She's sentenced to rehabilitation at a gymnastics academy, a gymnastics academy that's a good four hours from where she lives in Houston.

. At one point in the movie, as she's being driven to the school her driver mentions they have a 3 hour drive ahead of them. So why, if they have AT LEAST a 3 hour drive between Plano and Houston do her 2 male friends (who we're led to believe live in Plano) seemingly show up all of the time as if on a whim? Don't expect the film to answer that question for you.

The main character isn't that appealing. They never show a great transformation for her smart-assness. She just suddenly decides to participate and all of the people who don't like her begrudgingly accept her friendship. There's no logic. Still, for whatever reason, the movie wooed me. Maybe it was the catchy soundtrack. It could have also been Jeff Bridges' bizarre channeling of Kurt Russell. Most surprising though was a little bit of adventurous cinematography from Daryn Okada. More than once they sort of evoke a little Esther Williams with the gymnastics performance. I've always dug the old synchronized swimming musicals. It's amazing how beautiful they are.

I guess I never really expected to see an homage to that in this movie. Check this out. Like I said, I never would have anticipated that they'd shoot it like this. (btw, if the clip doesn't stop at :43 seconds, go ahead and hit pause.)

They used a similar technique in one other place that I also thought was kind of cool, and putting Electric Six on your soundtrack? That's serious 'win'.

Should you check the film out? Probably not. I can't imagine I'll ever watch it again, but I think it's sad that it seems like this movie killed or damaged Jessica Bendinger's film career. While it's not a great film, it's better than at least a good chunk of the dreck that I saw last year. Looking at Bendinger's wikipedia page, it appears she came out with a young adult novel towards the end of 2009. Maybe with that book out she'll try and make a cinematic comeback.

Tomorrow I vow to get back to the gym and I also vow that I'll sit down and write out some of my goals for the year. If I blog about them at least there's a possibility that someone will see it and check in/harass me to see how they're coming along.

B