Verdict
Summary
A true grindhouse drive-in “classic,” Cheerleaders’ Wild Weekend is not what you’d expect with its comedic marketing would suggest, but rather much more of a T&A thriller under the guise of a cheerleader-type sex comedy.
Plot:
Three cheerleading teams are kidnapped by a terrorist faction and must figure out how to survive … and escape.
Review:
Three rival cheerleading squads all bundle into a school bus for an away game, and the girls come from diverse backgrounds: some are from the wrong side of the tracks, while others are from high class, rich families, but one thing they all seem to have in common is that they’re all frisky and willing to dare each other into doing stupid things … such as exposing themselves to passing drivers on the road, just for the thrill of it. Before they can reach their destination, the bus is diverted to a remote farmhouse, and it becomes clear that a group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries (terrorists by another name) think that by kidnapping all these young women that they can help fund their cause with the ransom money they expect to receive in trade for the release of all the girls. To safeguard their location and identities, the terrorists call into a local radio station (the DJ is played by future Penitentiary star Leon Isaac Kennedy) and begin their hostage negotiations on the air. Meanwhile, the girls are subjected to the terrorists’ pervy whims by being forced to parade around in the nude for pitiful rewards, and in the process are all but molested by their captors (one of whom is a lesbian). With little hope of being rescued, the girls must get creative and forceful if they’re going to escape this wild weekend.
A true grindhouse drive-in “classic,” Cheerleaders’ Wild Weekend is not what you’d expect with its comedic marketing would suggest, but rather much more of a T&A thriller under the guise of a cheerleader-type sex comedy. The girls are gorgeous and all get naked a lot, but it’s not exactly what I’d call a “fun” movie because it’s sort of a prison movie and there’s not much of a wink-wink, nudge-nudge vibe to it. The girls aren’t pretending to have fun so much as being subjected to handsy and pervy dudes, and while that’s certainly for a certain type of audience, I struggled to have a good time with it. I can appreciate a grungy, nudie thriller, but not so much if it’s delivering one thing when it sort of promised to deliver another thing and didn’t do that. It’s an exploitation through and through, and it’s tough to complain when the girls are all great looking, so it gets some lowbrow points for that. It’s just not much of anything else, though, and like a Tootsie Pop without the crunchy veneer, it’s just a Tootsie Roll … and nobody really likes a Tootsie Roll, do they? Directed by Jeff Werner.
MVD Rewind brings Cheerleaders’ Wild Weekend back in print on Blu-ray, and it comes with some archival bonus features, including some audio commentaries, a photo gallery, an interview with Leon Isaac Kennedy, and a foldout poster as well as a slipcover.
