Fired Up!
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The Story
High school football stars and buddies Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) decide to skip summer football camp in order to join their school’s cheerleaders at cheer camp. Why? To have sex with as many of the 300 cheerleaders there as possible before ditching the big end-of-camp tournament to get back for a football party.
The downside of their scheme is having to take cheerleading seriously enough to participate, but the guys get into it enough to convince everyone of their enthusiasm. After a few days of sleeping with girls from other schools, Shawn starts to fall for Carly (Sarah Roemer), a cheerleader from his own school who wants nothing to do with him. Nick sets his sites on seducing Diora (Molly Sims), the wife of the cheer camp’s head coach Keith (John Michael Higgins).
Content Issues
The buddies make out with a dozen or so girls onscreen and have sex with more off screen. Lots of crass verbiage is used to describe various sex acts and body parts. The girls are offered for ogling and groped in skimpy clothing, and the guys have an extended nude scene in which they barely cover themselves with pom-poms. One guy’s naked backside is in full view.
Homosexuality is openly mocked as one of the girls is secretly gay and repeatedly fondles another clueless cheerleader. Two of the other guys at the camp are gay, one stereotypically so. The other gives Nick a sex toy as a kind of invitation. Lots of swearing is heard, including uses of God’s and Christ’s name and repeated cheers of “F.U.”
Worldview Talking Points
Fans of cheerleading movies like “Bring It On” and the “High School Musical” series might be drawn to “Fired Up!” It is a teen cheerleading movie, but it is NOT in the same category as those high school films. This movie’s closest cousin might be the R-rated Owen Wilson sex comedy “Wedding Crashers”—only carefully built to barely nab a PG-13 rating and draw in teens.
Like that film, this is a sex comedy about two fast-talking buddies who value women only for sex and use deception to manipulate as many as possible to sleep with them. Teen girls are seen as willing participants just waiting for the next guy to bed them. The worldview of the film is to normalize that view of guys as dogs and girls as near-mindless objects—until one or the other is in a “relationship” that miraculously changes them into monogamous and loving human beings.
The movie’s other worldview is that homosexuality is both normal and weird, both okay-if-that’s-what-works-for-you and an open target for mockery and derision.
If your student has seen the film, the following questions might help to generate some productive conversation about these worldview issues.
- Did you think “Fired Up!” was funny? Which parts of did you like or not like? What did your friends think of the movie?
- It’s a comedy, so the movie is supposed to exaggerate things and go too far with them. But what would you say is the film’s view of teen guys?
- Do you think the guys you know would have sex with any good-looking girl that was willing? Are there teen guys who control themselves sexually—or at least believe that they should try?
- How does the movie describe teen girls? Do you think most girls would willingly have sex with guys like these? Why or why not?
- How does the film picture homosexual teens? Do you think it’s ever okay to mock people for being or acting gay, even if the Bible teaches that participating in homosexual acts is a sin?
- Overall, what would you say is the movie’s worldview about teen sex and/or sexual morality?
- What would you say is the Bible’s perspective about sexual morality? How is that different from what the movie is showing about right and wrong when it coms to sex?
- Between this movie and the Bible, which ideas about sex are closer to what your friends believe?
- What do you think about watching movies like this for entertainment? Should we just laugh along and forget it or should we skip movies with this kind of content? Does it matter?
- Does a movie’s rating even matter these days? What’s the real difference between a PG-13 rating and an R rating?
Lisa on Mar 04, 2009 said...
Thinking this was similar to “Bring It On,” my daughters saw this movie last weekend, along with a huge group of their friends. They were embarrassed and thought the movie was horrible - my 18-year-old said it wasn’t even funny, just stupid. I have to be more diligent in checking movies out and trying to steer my children in a better direction.