The Movie

Bring it On: Fight to the Finish is the fifth in the Bring it On series and it provides a weak story. The plot is simplistic and the characters are limited. As with past films in the series, the premise is about an underdog cheer squad pushing the envelope to become the best. "Fight to the Finish" stars pop singer Christina Milian who is uprooted from her life in the "hood" into the lifestyle of the rich. She joins a loser cheer squad and turns them into winners. Overall, I found the movie to dull, slowly paced, and hard to enjoy. The film is better suited for a young audience who is not looking for complexity, multi-faceted characters, and real plotlines.

Lina (Christina Milian) is a Cuban American with an attitude. She grew up in East Los Angeles and had a "hard" life. She is an aspiring cheerleader who wants to be an all-star. Her dreams are crushed when she has to move to Malibu. Her mother Isabel (Laura Ceron) married Caucasian American Henry (David Starzyk), which Lina was not too excited about. Her initial introduction to Malibu is filled with culture shock as she gets accustomed to the lifestyle of the rich. She has a new step-sister, Sky (Holland Roden) and they do not get along. Lina is mad at the world for having to give up her life.

At Lina's new high school, she clashes with Avery (Rachele Brooke Smith), who is the captain of the independently funded Malibu Jaguars cheer squad (an all-star winning team). She also catches the eye of Avery's brother Evan (Cody Longo). Lina decides to join her high school's defunct Malibu Sea Lions cheer squad, which is led by her dance-challenged step-sister. The squad used to be good, but Avery took all the talent to the Jaguars when she was not made captain. Lina works on a plan to make the new team the best. To that end, she recruits a couple of her friends Gloria (Vanessa Born) and Treyvonetta (Gabrielle Dennis) to help teach the team.

As the story continues, Lina faces challenges. Her new squad is awful and despite her attempts, they do not seem to be improving. Avery continues to taunt her and she goes to the extreme to give the team an edge, which includes multiple trips to East Los Angles. Lina hopes that exposure to her culture and former lifestyle will help the new girls get some class. She intends to have the team capable of winning the all-star championship, a fight to the finish with the Jaguars. At the same time, she and Sky bond as sisters. Evan also continues to pursue her, which is complicated because he the brother of her rival.

Overall, Bring it On: Fight to the Finish is nothing special. As mentioned in the introduction, the storyline is simplistic and there is not very much to the characters. The story is pretty basic as outlined. It is highly predictable and has little to draw you in and keep you wanting to know what happens next. The characters are also single-faceted without much depth. Many of the actors/actresses over perform in their roles. There are also several attempts at humor, such as an Asian girl who speaks with a monotone voice, cultural differences between wealthy Caucasians and poor minorities from East Los Angeles, and so on. While these representations are portrayed in a goofy manner, they tend to be low in laughs. In the end, the film is better suited to a younger audience who are not looking for depth in any form.

The DVD

Video:
The video in this release is given in an anamorphic 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color format. The picture quality is quite good. It suffers from a slight grain, but detail remains to be sharp and clear. However, there are moments when the picture suffers noticeable compression artifacts. Overall, the picture is relatively clean and should look good on big screen televisions.

Audio:
The audio is presented in English 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound and dubbed 5.1 tracks in Spanish and French. The 5.1 track is dynamic and makes decent use of the surround sound capability. In general, the sound quality is good and it provides an audible and clean track for dialogue and it sounds very lively when necessary (sound effects, music, etc.). The DVD also contains subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (14:41): is series of six deleted scenes.
• Practice Round (5:43): is a look at the dancing/cheering behind the movie. It includes brief interviews with cast and crew, as well as footage of practice dances.
• Backstage Pass (11:26): is another behind the scenes featurette. It has interviews with cast and crew discussing talking about characters, key scenes, key scenes, experiences, production techniques, and so on.
• On Set with Christina Milian: is a montage of clips on the set with Christina. They include "Meet the Sea Lions' Mascot", "Prima J", "Last Day", "Welcome to the All Star Championship!", "Show N Go Basket Toss", "It's My Birthday", "Holland's Birthday", "Cody My Movie Boyfriend", and "Cute Movie Boyfriends".
• Mun2: The Chicas Project: "Flip This" (23:12): is an episode from The Chicas Project where the girls experience cheerleading.

Final Thoughts:
Bring it On: Fight to the Finish is a lackluster movie that is better geared towards a younger audience. The film lacks substance in its storyline and characters. It is predictable with overacting, poor attempts at humor, and light drama. In the end, "Fight to the Finish" will fail to capture your attention, unless you are a young teenager. If anything, the movie feels like a quick production trying to scrap any value from the original Bring it On movie.