**CONTAINS SPOILERS**
This is a cute movie. My 6 year old daughter watches it from time to time on Netflix. Sometimes I catch myself being sucked into the movie, oddly enough.
THE ACTING... The kids featured in the movie are probably gymnasts who happened to act in a movie...not actors who happen to know gymnastics. So, yes, the sub-par acting cannot be ignored but how cool for these gymnast kids to be in a movie. I hate to criticize children, so good for them that they got to make a movie (I can only dream of it!), but I am willing to bet their main gig is gymnastics. Let's hope.
The actress that played Beverly seems to be a "real" actress and was heartfelt in her plea to Kate to help coach her 3 girls after she suffered a medical emergency. The actress that played Kate wasn't bad, but wasn't good either-I suspect she is or was a gymnast. The actor that played Shane did pretty good- he was the eye candy of the movie but he too is probably a gymnast with that crazy fit body. Kate and Shane had a good sexual tension going even though this movie is geared toward kids. The actress that played Sally good at making you dislike Sally, you really felt the resentment and hatred from her LOL
THE STORY... The story line is good. Predictable, but over all good. There is discord between a coach and a judge (Kate and Sally) who were former friends and gymnast teammates until a young Sally suffered a debilitating injury that left her in a wheelchair for life. Sally blames Kate for pushing her off the balance beam, while Kate remembers it as playfulness gone wrong. How haunting for Kate to grow up with that guilt, while Sally's life changed forever and had to give up gymnastics (something she clearly loved if she grew up to be a gymnastics competition judge.) The resentment is clearly understandable from Sally, whose whole life was changed, yet you can't help but dislike her for being vengeful and petty as an adult and using Maddy, an innocent party, to get back at Kate by punishing Maddy with low scores.
Maddy lives with her father who has to work a lot. Her mother died and they both miss her very much. Maddy is a talented gymnast with low confidence. Maddy has 2 very supportive friends at school, who are also on her gymnastics team.
Chelsea is the school "it" girl who is on an opposing team and usually wins lots of medals. She's taken it upon herself to knock down Maddy whenever she can. Maddy befriends Joshua, a boy gymnast with whom she is training, and Chelsea, for a lack of something better to do, decides to cause a rift between Joshua and Maddy. Maddy has a crush on Joshua and he seems to like her back as well, but he IS a boy, so when a pretty girl with a hidden agenda, like Chelsea, bats her eyelashes at him, he takes the bait. Luckily, eventually he sees right through Chelsea and puts her in her place and gets her where it hurts: her parents.
Chelsea's well-off parents are too busy with their social schedule to even come to her competitions and is always disappointed when she looks for them in the crowd, only to find her governess, or grandmother- not sure who that is- and 2 empty seats next to her. So you end up feeling sorry for Chelsea even though she deserves a good smack from Maddy.
The main story line is Maddy's team is struggling in competition and Beverly persuades Kate to enlist the help of Shane, a boys' gymnastics coach, to train the girls in a way that will help them win competitions. Kate and Shane start off on the wrong foot but eventually work well together, as do the girls and boys. Most people wouldn't pay much attention to this aspect, but I immediately thought "Ok, so they are saying the only way girls can be good is if the boys help." In fact, my daughter asked "Why are the boys so good and the girls are not?" (referring to the montage of the girls struggling on the boys gym equipment). I told her that the girls are good, they just aren't used to doing those exercises. This bothered me, but, after reflecting on it, it doesn't really seem chauvinist. I think it's more about being creative and a bit unorthodox- in a good way. In real life, if I was a gymnast, I would have a competitive edge if I trained on both the men's and women's equipment because I would be strengthening and conditioning differently.
The movie follows the girls as they train with Kate, Shane, and the boys. We see Maddy grow more confident but we also see Maddy give up and quit her team because of Chelsea's snidery. Kate comes to the rescue and shares a special moment with Maddy...and as one can expect, Maddy is back on the team, ready to win. Shane and Kate go on a date and Shane humorously does his impression of a girl on the balance beam... eventually in the movie they kiss a very passionless kiss- almost as if the actors did not want to- but then again...it's a kids movie so no need to make a big fuss of that.
I didn't care for the very long opening credits...my daughter thought the whole movie was going to be like that. The music selection was cheesy. And good God, why did I spend so much time on this review?...
This is a cute movie. My 6 year old daughter watches it from time to time on Netflix. Sometimes I catch myself being sucked into the movie, oddly enough.
THE ACTING... The kids featured in the movie are probably gymnasts who happened to act in a movie...not actors who happen to know gymnastics. So, yes, the sub-par acting cannot be ignored but how cool for these gymnast kids to be in a movie. I hate to criticize children, so good for them that they got to make a movie (I can only dream of it!), but I am willing to bet their main gig is gymnastics. Let's hope.
The actress that played Beverly seems to be a "real" actress and was heartfelt in her plea to Kate to help coach her 3 girls after she suffered a medical emergency. The actress that played Kate wasn't bad, but wasn't good either-I suspect she is or was a gymnast. The actor that played Shane did pretty good- he was the eye candy of the movie but he too is probably a gymnast with that crazy fit body. Kate and Shane had a good sexual tension going even though this movie is geared toward kids. The actress that played Sally good at making you dislike Sally, you really felt the resentment and hatred from her LOL
THE STORY... The story line is good. Predictable, but over all good. There is discord between a coach and a judge (Kate and Sally) who were former friends and gymnast teammates until a young Sally suffered a debilitating injury that left her in a wheelchair for life. Sally blames Kate for pushing her off the balance beam, while Kate remembers it as playfulness gone wrong. How haunting for Kate to grow up with that guilt, while Sally's life changed forever and had to give up gymnastics (something she clearly loved if she grew up to be a gymnastics competition judge.) The resentment is clearly understandable from Sally, whose whole life was changed, yet you can't help but dislike her for being vengeful and petty as an adult and using Maddy, an innocent party, to get back at Kate by punishing Maddy with low scores.
Maddy lives with her father who has to work a lot. Her mother died and they both miss her very much. Maddy is a talented gymnast with low confidence. Maddy has 2 very supportive friends at school, who are also on her gymnastics team.
Chelsea is the school "it" girl who is on an opposing team and usually wins lots of medals. She's taken it upon herself to knock down Maddy whenever she can. Maddy befriends Joshua, a boy gymnast with whom she is training, and Chelsea, for a lack of something better to do, decides to cause a rift between Joshua and Maddy. Maddy has a crush on Joshua and he seems to like her back as well, but he IS a boy, so when a pretty girl with a hidden agenda, like Chelsea, bats her eyelashes at him, he takes the bait. Luckily, eventually he sees right through Chelsea and puts her in her place and gets her where it hurts: her parents.
Chelsea's well-off parents are too busy with their social schedule to even come to her competitions and is always disappointed when she looks for them in the crowd, only to find her governess, or grandmother- not sure who that is- and 2 empty seats next to her. So you end up feeling sorry for Chelsea even though she deserves a good smack from Maddy.
The main story line is Maddy's team is struggling in competition and Beverly persuades Kate to enlist the help of Shane, a boys' gymnastics coach, to train the girls in a way that will help them win competitions. Kate and Shane start off on the wrong foot but eventually work well together, as do the girls and boys. Most people wouldn't pay much attention to this aspect, but I immediately thought "Ok, so they are saying the only way girls can be good is if the boys help." In fact, my daughter asked "Why are the boys so good and the girls are not?" (referring to the montage of the girls struggling on the boys gym equipment). I told her that the girls are good, they just aren't used to doing those exercises. This bothered me, but, after reflecting on it, it doesn't really seem chauvinist. I think it's more about being creative and a bit unorthodox- in a good way. In real life, if I was a gymnast, I would have a competitive edge if I trained on both the men's and women's equipment because I would be strengthening and conditioning differently.
The movie follows the girls as they train with Kate, Shane, and the boys. We see Maddy grow more confident but we also see Maddy give up and quit her team because of Chelsea's snidery. Kate comes to the rescue and shares a special moment with Maddy...and as one can expect, Maddy is back on the team, ready to win. Shane and Kate go on a date and Shane humorously does his impression of a girl on the balance beam... eventually in the movie they kiss a very passionless kiss- almost as if the actors did not want to- but then again...it's a kids movie so no need to make a big fuss of that.
I didn't care for the very long opening credits...my daughter thought the whole movie was going to be like that. The music selection was cheesy. And good God, why did I spend so much time on this review?...
