Friday 28 February 2014

Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976)






So for whatever reason the Cheerleaders Collection has this as its second entry, even though it was made later than the movie they have in the third spot. Not that there is any continuity between the films in any event, so I guess it doesn't matter all that much.

The eponymous revenging cheerleaders are top of the roost at Aloha High school. They date all the best looking boys, cheer their basketball team to win after win, and are generally allowed to run things by the completely inept administration. However, the cluelessness of the principal and his staff is no accident: an evil businessman plans to get the school closed so he can redevelop the site. The girls and their wacky hijinks, such as drugging the school inspectors, inadvertently play into his hands. Thosee hijinks also - and I am sure this will surprise you - involve getting naked a whole lot.

So far, so stereotypical teen sex comedy. I mean sure, the dance numbers that pop up from time to time are a bit out of the ordinary, but other than that we've got a lot of familiar story beats here, right down to the hard-ass new principal (an ex marine, of course) who kicks the girls off the squad. Temporarily, anyway.

And then, in the last half hour or so, a truly wondrous thing happens: utter insanity. The climax of the film includes a chase around a giant statue of a dinosaur, a secret underground base, and a frickin' quicksand bunker on a golf course. I mean seriously, it's almost worth just seeing the last act of the film because it seems like they took some of the those drugs they had their characters use.

Hell, even the hard-ass new principal turns out to be a good guy. Talk about subverting genre expectations.

Ultimately, of course, it's a trashy film with bad acting and a flimsy script to justify lots and lots of naked boobies. Check it out only if you're eager to witness the madness of the ending, or the lashings of nudity, or because you just really, really want to see a very young and very lanky David Hasslehoff play a character named 'Boner'.

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