Head cheerleader Diane Weston (
Marley Shelton) has just been knocked up by her boyfriend, the football team's star player Jack Bartlett (
James Marsden). Unfortunately, both their parents have disowned them, and they need a place to live, and more money than they have. So Diane has
a brilliant plan to rob the supermarket's bank branch, with the help of the rest of the cheerleading squad.
Better Than It Sounds. Also starts
Marla Sokoloff,
Mena Suvari,
Melissa George, and
Alexandra Holden.
This movie contains the following tropes:
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: On almost a stalkery level.
- A Simple Plan: Subverted; everything would've gone swimmingly if Lisa hadn't been there.
- A-Team Firing: The one time one of the guns accidentally goes off, it completely misses the redneck threatening them with a knife.
- Berserk Button: Kansas has a few.
- Brainless Beauty: Jack, to an extreme extent.
- But You Screw One Goat!: Hannah seems awfully interested in horses...
- Camp Straight: Bruce.
- Clark Kenting: The girls perform the heist dressed as...cheerleaders...with rubber masks.
- Arguably Fridge Brilliance as: 1)Who would suspect Actual cheerleaders of robbing banks, and: 2)The number of Cheer leading groups in a general area.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Kansas.
- Dawson Casting: Of varying degrees, but the most egregious example is James Marsden, who was old enough to be going to his tenth reunion.
- Deconstructor Fleet: A lot of the Teen Comedy genre is taken apart.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: The "free" TV and VCR Jack and Diane's landlord "gives" them.
- Genius Ditz: Jack is really dim, but a great salesman.
- Genre Savvy: Deliberately invoked. The squad watches heist movies to come up with a plan. Also averted, in that they don't find anything useful.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: This could be Warren Meers start of darkness... Also, W.B. Brown as the "Terminator".
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Melissa George's character becomes a scream queen in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, by starring in Scream 8. While George wasn't in that movie, she has made a career of starring in horror movies, albeit more intelligent horror movies (or at least movies that try to be intelligent). And since Scream 4 came out recently...
- Hollywood Homely: Fern is actually kinda cute. But she shouldn't fill the tanks before practice...
- Hollywood Pudgy: Mostly averted; while it's mentioned at the beginning she'd slimmed down since last year, not much is made of Lisa's weight.
- Meaningful Name: Jack and Diane.
- Morning Sickness: A running gag is Diane's frequent need to vomit.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The guy they get their guns from is called the "Terminator".
- Poke the Poodle: The girls watch heist movies to get ideas, but Hannah lives in a devout Christian household, and can only watch G-rated movies, so she watches The Apple Dumpling Gang.
- Stalker with a Crush: Cleo seems awfully interested in Conan...
- Spiritual Successor: To Drop Dead Gorgeous. Both were written by Lona Williams, have similar themes, humor, characters and a few actors (like Alexandra Holden).
- Stepford Smiler: Diane. Marley Shelton's big anime eyes help the effect.
- Uncanny Valley: The Betty masks.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue
0 reviews