I had the pleasure of watching the last half of Bring it On: Fight to the Finish the other night. Normally you would want to watch an entire movie before committing to a review. I will make a special case for ‘Fight to the Finish.’
Bring it On is a series of movies that fills that oft overlooked niche of high school cheerleaders and their tireless efforts to not only “bring it” but “bring it on.” The latest foray into this world finds Catalina Cruz, played admirably by Christina Milian, leaving “East Los” for the confines of an upscale West Los Angeles high school.
This classic fish out of water tale pits Catalina (Lina) against the posh high schools resident superstar of a dance squad, Avery.
Much like the above clip. The movie is really summed up in two or three two-minute segments where the writers decided to throw in a story. This is why watching only half the movie wasn’t really a problem. But my favorite part of this film is not the superficiality but the overt stereotypes. That’s what makes this movie so fun.
Bring it On: Fight to the Finish doesn’t have a tag line. If it did I am sure the producers would have gone with “Latinos are Spicy.” There is a scene where the white girls at the “rich” school follow Lina to “East Los” to find their rhythm. Once there, a whole block party ensues where all flavors of people are dancing like hot peppers. I tried to find a clip of this but Youtube has not yet finished putting up all the awesome videos in the world.
In another quite spectacular scene we meet Victor, a friend of Lina and her counterparts. He hails from the same neighborhood in East LA. He too is spicy. He too has a thick ghetto accent. He too is unable to articulate his thoughts without moving his head. I would normally not be offended by all of this if not for the fact that it was being broadcast on ABC FAMILY. Yes, so Suzy Smith from Bloomington runs to her mommy and says, “Mommy I saw a movie about the Latinos in their habitat. They don’t speak so well and like cars that go up and down. Oh and they love to dance.” Put this on Comedy Central and you have sold me.
The one saving grace of all this is that the ghetto dancers from the hood end up sprinkling rhythm dust on the Ivy leaguers. With that they beat Avery at her on dancing game. Which brings me to the second tag line of “Sometimes in life you need a little chili in order to take down the evil ice queen.” That tag line does seem a bit long but then again so did the movie. Burn.
Gabe Zaldivar 