"One individual mistake can cost your squad everything!"

Somewhere in Rancho Carne, California, lives a hero that has yet to be awakened. That hero is Torrance Shipman, hauntingly played by Kirsten Dunst. There is a group of warriors known as the Toros, and that group has yet to be tested in battle. Their leader, a tough Captain known only as Big Red (Lindsay Sloane), has taken this group of recruits as far as they can go, but she is being redeployed and must now turn over the reigns to a new leader who has the fortitude to lead them into battle, and that leader is Shipman. Shipman gladly accepts this new leadership role, but learns just how much she has to learn almost immediately. She fails in her first battle and is stripped of her uniform in front of all her peers. She screams in shame and horror. That scream awakens her and the audience realizes this was all just a dream. And thus director Peyton Reed deftly foreshadows what is to come in Bring It On.

This is no random dream, however, but reflects the great changes that are about to become reality in Shipman's life. Indeed, that very day, events are about to be put in motion which will soon affect all of the members of the elite Toros. Although they are all hardened warriors, they select Shipman to lead their squad in the future. Shipman eagerly takes command and sets out immediately to test their mettle. Taking them through their maneuvers, Shipman knows that though they may have lived up to the expectations of Big Red, they still have much to learn. Shipman pushes them harder and harder until they reach the breaking point and one of their veterans, Carver, falls and nearly breaks her neck. Completely demoralized, Shipman dismisses the squad knowing that she has filled them not with confidence, but with doubts about her ability to lead.

Shipman returns home only to be confronted by her family. Her younger brother is a complete slacker and has no respect for the life Shipman has chosen. He's rather play video games than confront the horrors his sister has to face on a daily basis. Her parents are equally confused by her life-choice and try their best to talk their daughter out of her course of action before it's too late. Shipman tells them that it's a calling, that it's her life and she'll do as she chooses. Sometimes a hero has to walk a lonely path. That's Bring It On!

Shipman can't let her personal life interfere with the task at hand, and the first thing she has to do is replace Carver. It's only been a day since the accident, but already many on her crew have begun to doubt her ability to lead. Replacing one of your own is a grueling ordeal, and the new recruits are put to the test one by one. And one by one they all fail to live up to the standards of the Toros. Shipman is about to give up in despair when Missy Pantone (Eliza Dushku) walks through the door. Pantone oozes attitude, and the other members of the Toros dismiss her out of hand. Clearly this soldier doesn't respect authority, and the other Toros feel threatened by her attitude. But where the others see only threat, Shipman sees potential, and in the future battles that are to be waged, the Toros are going to need every weapon they can get. In the gritty dialogue of this movie, Shipman demands that the others get on board, "Missy's the poo, so take a big whiff!" That's Bring It On!

Shipman's instincts prove to be right on target as less than a day into training, Pantone senses a crack in the their armor. Pantone convinces Shipman to take a dangerous journey into the heart of enemy territory: East Compton. There they witness their archrivals, the Clovers, going through maneuvers of their own; the same top secret maneuvers the Toros have been working at so hard. And not only were they performing the same maneuvers, it was also painfully obvious that they were much more proficient. They are led by the ruthless Isis, played by Gabrielle Union, and it's only then that Shipman sees what it takes to be a true leader. After a tricky escape, Shipman travels back to Rancho Carne with a heavy heart, knowing that the Toros have been betrayed by one of their own, and that their training must start over from scratch.

Bring It On is a stirring film about honor, brotherhood and self-sacrifice, but perhaps more than that, it's a film about confronting one's enemy and walking away with some respect and understanding for that foe. The battle scenes are unnerving, leaving you with the sense of what it must have been like to be in those arenas. The Toros may lose this battle, but because of the persistence of one Torrance Shipman, they live to see another day. Bring It On indeed.

Hamlin Grade: 8

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