The Movie:

Alternately known as The Great Girl Robbery (the title card on the print used for this transfer confirms it!), Cheerleaders Wild Weekend is one of those odd drive-in films that mixes comedy and sex with a few slightly darker and dramatic moments. It makes for a pretty weird viewing experience, as it delivers all of the tits and ass you'd expect but also some slightly more serious content in between.

The premise for the film is pretty simple - there's a cheerleading competition going on soon and so three different troupes of girls from three different schools all wind up on a bus together as they head out to strut their stuff and hopefully win the competition. Of course, there's tension between the groups, we see this immediately when they try to one up each other by teasing a horny hillbilly passing by in his truck, the lucky recipient of some quality flashing courtesy of the girls. At any rate, after the hillbilly enjoys his free show, the bus gets high-jacked by a strange group made up of three angry ex-football studs - Wayne Matthews (Jason Williams), George (Anthony Lewis) and Big John (John Albert); one of the jocks' little brothers (Robert Houston); and an angry lesbian with a smokin' body (Courtney Sands).

The high-jackers force the bus to drive off to a remote cabin out in the boonies for the night, where they're being held hostage for the amount of two million bones. The authorities had better pay up and fast if they want to see these girls again, and in order to help out a disc jockey named Joyful Jerome (Leon Isaac Kennedy) is used as a sort of on air hostage-negotiator. The government isn't willing to pony up the ransom money but they are willing to loan the parents of the girls the cash if they want to pay it themselves. The girls, however, realize that if they want to make it out alive, they're going to have to stop bickering with each other and work together to outsmart their captors. Nudity ensues.

In between the copious but welcome shots of buxom boobs and bouncing bottoms are, as mentioned, a few oddly serious scenes that actually help create a bit of tension in the film which goes a long way towards making it more exciting. Kind of like a cross between The Cheerleaders and Trip With Teacher, the film, as quirky as it is, winds up a pretty entertaining watch that delivers a fairly engrossing story alongside the requisite nudity. 70s drive-in fans will enjoy seeing Kristin DeBell (probably best known for her turn in the X-rated Alice In Wonderland feature) alongside other drive-in queens like Marilyn Joi and Lenka Novak appear in the film as well.

Although the film, at times, falls prey to a wealth of the era's clichés and the whole disc jockey angle feels like it was borrowed from Vanishing Point, the dialogue sometimes has a welcome viciousness to it and the characters are a bit more well rounded than you'd probably expect, ringleader Wayne Matthews being the best example. The chip on his shoulder is well explained and while it's still a bit of a stretch that his experiences would make him kidnap a couple of dozen cheerleaders and hold them for ransom, I suppose it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that an off centered macho meathead might try something like that.

Ultimately the film doesn't really seem to be trying to say anything deep, it's simply a good slice of late seventies era entertainment. On that level, it works and it works well. There's enough comedy to compliment the drama that you're not required to take anything too seriously and enough drama that the story is interesting enough to work.

Video:

Cheerleaders Wild Weekend hits DVD in a decent 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen progressive scan transfer that despite some minor print damage here and there generally looks pretty good. Colors have held up well over the years and flesh tones look nice and natural. Some grain is present, but that is how it should be, you probably wouldn't want it looking too much cleaner than it does here. No problems with mpeg compression or edge enhancement worth griping about.