Movies.ie has got spirit! This week to get your spirit fingers ready for the release of new teen comedy Fired Up, we take a look at the extremes guys will go to to get the girl.
If the movies are to be believed, teenage boys are a pretty desperate and single-minded bunch. Cinema is littered with the crushed hopes and broken dreams of guys who set their caps at girls who are a little out of their league. Usually, though it is the nerds that get the raw deal, constantly in the shadow of the athletic jocks and forced to some pretty desperate (and sometimes underhanded) behaviour, to get themselves noticed. Next weeks release Fired Up turns the tables on the American jock. Shawn and Nick are the most popular guys in school and heroes of the football team. Dreading the prospect of spending the summer with a bunch of sweaty guys at football camp, they decide to switch to the much more easy on the eye cheer camp – such are the lengths they will go to in order to spend the summer with 300 cheerleaders. To whet your appetite for Fired Up, here are some more teen films that show
1. Weird Science (Build a woman)
Science enthusiasts certainly do get a raw deal in cinema. In blockbusters they’re there in the background giving the bad news while the hero gets to fly about in planes and blow things up. In teen movies they’re the unpopular weird kid who sits in the corner and never gets a date for the prom. Weird Science is the film that fought back. So you’re a socially incompetent and highly frustrated science nerd, no girls pay any attention to you and they probably never will… so what’s the logical conclusion? Make your own! This is a John Hughes 80’s classic, from the lycra-clad Kelly LeBrock, the utterly adorable nerd-extraordinaire Anthony Michael Hall, to the BIG COMPUTERS and a must watch for any computer geek!
2. Rushmore (build an aquarium)
Max Fischer may look like he’s got it all figured out – he’s the king of extra curricular activities in his beloved Rushmore college, from the fencing club to the Max Fischer Players. Women have taken a back seat to all this activity; as his father tells him “You’re like one of those clipper ship captains. You’re married to the sea.” All this changes when Max becomes enraptured with Miss Cross (Olivia Coleman), a teacher at the Rushmore elementary school. Unfortunately, Max is a little young for her, so goes to some pretty extreme lengths to try and win her heart; including attempting to dig up the school’s baseball diamond in order to build an aquarium in her honour (which may or may not include piranhas).
3. Grease (turn jock)
Proving you don’t have to be a loser to have girl trouble and that love makes fools of even the coolest guys; enter Danny Zuko (John Travolta)! Much like Shawn and Nick in Fired Up, Danny has no trouble with the ladies; unfortunately he has his heart set on the prim and proper Sandy (Olivia Newton John), which means he has to move on from his greaser lifestyle and become everything he hates – a clean-cut, all American jock, by joining the track (“You mean runnin’?) team. Gone are the black leathers and tight jeans and in are the teeny shorts and letterman sweater…not a good look really and thankfully Sandy comes round to his way of thinking in the end. A good thing too, the quiff never would have held up in a sprint situation!
4. 10 Things I Hate About You (pretend to be their friend!)
If you really want to know about the lengths men are willing to go to to win fair maiden where you really should start is Shakespeare; expert in the absurd nature of the mating game. 10 Things I Hate About You is based on The Taming of the Shrew and (like Clueless) is an excellent and spirited modern re-working of a classic. Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the sweet but unpopular newcomer to Padua High who becomes smitten with queen bee Bianca (Larisa Oleynik). Bianca can barely remember his name, so Cameron needs to take action; pretending to be an excellent French speaker, so as to spend time tutoring her, helping her to find a date for sister Kat (Julia Stiles) and generally pretending to be an uninterested platonic friend. The craftiest of ploys, lulling her into the friend zone!
Fired Up is in Irish cinemas from Friday, July 10th.