In her charming teen comedy Bring it On, Jessica Bendinger took some well-aimed swipes at cheerleading.
With Stick It, Bendinger turns her gaze on competitive gymnastics but she has substituted anger for humour.
Her heroine, Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym), is a rebellious young woman who spends her time risking limb, if not life, executing extreme stunts.
When a bike stunt causes untold damage to a luxury home under construction, the judge sentences Haley to a term at either a military school or a gymnastics academy.
Haley opts for the military school, but her father insists she do her time at the gymnastics academy.
He has an ulterior motive.
Haley was an Olympic hopeful, but she walked away from competition during the finals.
Dad hopes she'll rediscover her love for gymnastics, or at least benefit from the discipline such training demands.
It takes a good hour of the film before we learn why Haley turned her back on gymnastics, making her a rebel with a cause.
The other students at the academy are straight out of central casting.
There is Joanne (Vanessa Lengies), the snotty, mean girl, and Wei Wei Yong (Nikki Soohoo), the Asian girl with an inferiority complex.
When they actually get to competition, there is Haley's bitter rival, Mina (Maddy Curley).
Though Lengies is funny in her caustic way, the real comic relief is provided by Kellan Lutz and John Patrick Amedori as Haley's daredevil buddies.
Lutz and Amedori's reactions to the girls' costumes and gymnastic moves are priceless and genuine.
Jeff Bridges gives a stalwart performance as the slave-driving coach who really does care about his young charges.
He turns out to be the father figure Haley needs in her life.
Bendinger's real motives in writing and directing Stick It are revealed once the girls get to competition.
Their real enemies are not other gymnasts, but the judges. These judges make those infamous Olympic figure skating judges look like paragons of virtue.
Stick It can't stand up under too much scrutiny. It's cliched and contrived, but it does play well to its target audience of young females.
To its credit, in Haley, Stick It offers a strong female character and Peregrym has an arresting screen presence.
(This film is rated PG)
