At Camp Beaver View, high school cheerleaders get whipped into shape over the summer and compete for national titles in ass-wiggling and leotard-wearing. It’s also a place for corny sex jokes and for 25-year-old male instructors to romance 16-year-olds with little consequence because this is the 80s.
Yes, it’s another raunchy teen comedy. Pop your popcorn, pop open a beer and pop a boner. Maybe. This is entertaining and it brings all of the idiocy that you want, but it’s shy on nudity. A few quick glimpses of a breast here and there is about the extent of it. As it goes on, it begins to dawn on you that this seems intended to appeal to young girls as much as guys.
By far, the most memorable and ridiculous moment in the whole film is when a guy dances in his underwear in the camp shower room—and it’s not some improvised fuck-off scene; it’s an elaborately choreographed production number straight out of Flashdance in which he swings from pipes and breakdances and does straight-up stripper moves. And it’s about four minutes long! It’s pure animal crackers.
Meanwhile, the girls spy on him through the windows and between the cabin’s wood planks. (It’s likely a parody of/response to the scene in Porky’s when the boys peep in on the girls showers).
The plot is Flimsy City. There’s an annual cheerleading competition that will culminate with a live spot on ABC television. Meanwhile, the camp owner courts Japanese investors (always introduced by the sound of a gong–hello, 80s) who are watching everything. The camp’s most charismatic teacher, who is also our 25-year-old teen diddler, is unreliable, is feeling too old for the job, has dreams of going back to school, and has a stormy relationship with the owner (who wants him out), but the Japanese love the guy and want him to stay for at least five more years or the deal is off. The owner can’t bring himself to admit this to him so he proposes a wager.
If Golden Boy can coach the worst cheerleading squad on the roster (the shy girls in The Lucky Ducks, who can barely get through a routine without tears) to the winning spot in the competition, he gets a $10,000 bonus. If they lose, he has to sign a five-year contract with the camp.
I hope the suspense isn’t causing you too much stress.
Director Paul Justman got his start making videos for the likes of The Cars, The J. Geils Band and Diana Ross. This is one of his few fictional films in a career dominated by music documentaries, but even this one behaves like a music video at times. It’s loaded with dance scenes, nonsense and a plot that’s freely forgotten when it gets in the way.