|
|
 |
Cheerleaders (The) AKA The 18 Year Old Schoolgirls AKA Return to Montclair High
R0 - United Kingdom - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (24th October 2011). |
|
The Film
 The 1970s proved to be a wonderful time for filmmakers and audiences alike. Boundaries started to be pushed with regards to sex, violence and language and restrictions started to fall... fast. Some films of the late 60s helped pave the way (like Blow-Up and The Graduate) for a new wave of directors in Hollywood to really push the limits. One of the genres that was really pushed, was the sex comedy, now with much more nudity and innuendo leaving less for the imagination than ever before. Of course, the titillation that came with such films, also gave people the wrong impression of what they were really about and because of this impression, many low budget sexcapade films were made with the look of cashing in on cheap thrills. The Cheerleaders can be viewed as one such film. The synopsis from Arrow reads: Debbie may have done Dallas, but the girls of Amorosa High are game enough to take on the whole country in The Cheerleaders, a classic 1970s sex comedy where the laughs come thick and fast and the outfits come off even quicker. For the bold and brassy girls of the cheerleading squad, taking one for their football team comes naturally, so when rivals need to be taken down, there’s only one solution... seduce them into exhaustion. Now the game girls are on a sex-crazed mission to ride their rivals to victory in the politically incorrect comedy that shocked the world! From lesbian sports mistresses and square-jawed jocks, no one is safe from the amorous advances of the hottest squad of horny good-time girls in the USA. The first thing that strikes you with this film, is that the acting is quite laughable, especially from the male contingent. The females spend most of their time with their clothes off, so perhaps acting talent wasn't so much a requirement, but nonetheless, the main cheerleaders played by Stephanie Fondue, Denise Dillaway, Jovita Bush, Brandy Woods, Sandy Evans and Kim Stanton are played well enough for what is required. Dialogue wavers from dreadfully woeful to some surprisingly funny innuendo and it is this funny innuendo that manages to keep the movie ticking over. Music is very reminiscent of the decade and suits the film really well but is unfortunately underused which is a shame as the story is quite weak, using silly ideas to string together the more raunchy scenes. The strange thing is, no matter how bad I know this movie is, it was still quite good fun, but there are much much better sex comedies out there.
Video
The transfer is presented anamorphically at 1.85:1 and is quite good, if unspectacular. The transfer is progressive, features some grain throughout but the damage is not particularly overbearing and is still a marked improvement over VHS.
Audio
Audio is limited to an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono track which features some slight hiss but is otherwise adequate. No subtitles have been included.
Extras
The main extra is the third film from the series "Revenge of the Cheerleaders" although why Arrow are not promoting this as a double feature astounds me? Other than that, we get some TV Spots, Radio Spots, Trailers and a booklet.
Overall
It's a silly film, but fun nonetheless and the fact it comes packaged with one of the sequels and at a low retail price means I can recommend it to fans. It won't be most people's cup of tea though so if you've never seen it, I strictly recommend you rent it first.
|
|||||
|