Review of Stick It

Stick It (2006)
10/10
I have now seen this movie, four times in a row.
7 May 2006
Yep! You read that right. And, I enjoyed it, each and every time.

I never heard of Missy Peregrym, or Vanessa Lengies, before this. But, I have a strong feeling they will be getting a whole lot more work, from now on.

Missy plays Haley "the Cracker" Graham. A rebellious teenage gymnast who walked out on the sport a few years earlier. After learning that her then-coach (played by John Kapelos, ex-FOREVER KNIGHT) was apparently involved with her mother on a less-than-professional basis!

She is court-ordered to join a gym owned by Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges). A former male gymnast with a Bela Karoly-like reputation for injured students. He and Haley gradually learn to grudgingly respect each other. Enough to take their four-girl team to another pre-Olympic world championship.

Now, this movie might seem like a fluff piece, based on the way the trailers are edited. But, if you sit through it, you realize that it cooks up a lot of valid food-for-thought. Why do real-life sport judges go for consistency over innovation? Did the gymnast, for whom the Sukahara Move is named, get initially penalized for what he or she pioneered? Don't they remember what Ralph Waldo Emerson said about foolish consistencies and little minds?

I think the next time real-life judges act less-than-impartial (which seems to be the rule, rather than the exception), at a real-life gymnastics tournament, the real-life female gymnasts should instigate a little civil disobedience. After all: over-paid footballers, baseballers, and hockey players have gone on strike. And, eventually, been forgiven for it. Why not under-appreciated female gymnasts, who (because they are required to be "amateurs") don't enjoy seasonal salaries of seven or more figures?

Thanks for letting me vent.
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