User Reviews

When I first saw this movie in theaters, I didn't think too highly of it. I didn't think it was terrible, yet I came out feeling dissatisfied. Maybe I was in a bad mood. Who knows? Well, it was Free Preview Weekend on Starz, so I checked this movie out again. And I watched it all three times they showed it. This time I had a lot more fun!

"Sugar and Spice" is far from great, and is certainly no gem, but it's enjoyable teen fluff with some good laughs. And let's face it, it centers on five sexy, scantily clad cheerleaders. If you're a guy...how much more can you ask for? This is the type of film that is made to satisfy both male and female viewers alike, kind of like "Coyote Ugly." The girls enjoy the dynamics of the female characters, the guys enjoy the beauty of the female characters. This is not as sexy as "Bring It On," but I'm still satisfied.

The humor is sometimes lame and heavy-handed, and the characters are all caricatures, but I never reached the point where I wanted to croak. The movie is overall pretty harmless. And there are some funny moments, including one where Mena Suvari goes to visit her mother (Sean Young) in prison. She asks her Mom for advice on robbing a bank. Her Mom blushes and says, "This is like asking me for help on your homework." And I have to give this movie credit: the teen characters aren't as dumb as they are in most of these movies.

"Sugar and Spice" is cute, lightweight entertainment and enables you to see five hot babes in short skirts. Sweet!

My score: 7 (out of 10)

`Sugar and Spice' is a superior black comedy about a high school cheerleading squad who robs a supermarket bank branch. Sharp and, and at times, wickedly funny, this is the movie `Legally Blonde' was supposed to be.

Marley Shelton who plays Diane, the squad leader, looks like a cross between Heather Graham (minus the prominent frontal outcroppings) and Reese Witherspoon (minus the `Howdy Doody' jaw). Shelton's comic delivery is every bit as deft as Reese's and she lacks Witherspoon's slight air of superiority. She's the acting glue that hold's this movie together. Also, very effective in far fewer scenes is James Marsden, playing the sweetly lunkheaded quarterback and Sean Young (SHOCK) as Mena Suvari's murderous mother. Melissa George, Mena Suvari (AMERICAN BEAUTY), Rachel Blanchard and Alexandra Holden also give solid support. The only weak link is Marla Sokoloff as the squad's nemesis. Even with her "work," she barely registers compared with the other girls. Also, the film is slightly marred by an abrupt, though reasonably plausible (for a satirical farce) ending, `Sugar and Spice' delivers the goods. It's `Legally Blonde' without the political correctness; or, as the squad might chant, `LB without the PC'.

Sugar & Spice is almost a caricature of a teen movie. It is not, because it's not making fun of teens or teen movies, but has that slightly over the top smiley attitude that pushes you to that laughing place where you don't take things too seriously. Those who didn't like that movie didn't get that vibe. It is quite fun.

Now, it's not a perfect movie, the subject matter is treated very lightly, but the story, the dialogs, and the characters are all very entertaining. It doesn't bring anything new, per se, to the table, but it does it with flair, and laughs. The girls are beautiful, but not plastic perfect. The acting is simple, but sincere and adorable in certain cases.

One of the scene, when they announce they're getting married, is the perfect example of the quality and tone of the film. It and its followup scene in the car are hilarious.

If you want to see a good little known teen flick with an adult mask, that would to it.

This chick flick had lot to offer, especially the fact that desperate times lead to desperate measures. I loved this movie- to me it was like Clueless meets Point Break. It was amazing, and i thought all performances were great.

This new line cinema film, may have been a low budget one, but it was brilliant. Marley Shelton's character of Diane Weston, may not have been the perfect protagonist for this kind of movie,but she was sweet and funny- what i found good was Rachel Blanchard's portrayal as Hannah. We saw her before playing Cher is the unsuccesfull 'clueless' TV series, and in Road Trip as Tiffany- well though those were just inconsiderable, this performance was something different. Mena Suvari made a really good Kansas. Her partial sweet/tough looks, made her seem the perfect casting decision.

All in all- this mix of comedy and drama, makes this movie a great film for all teenagers. The famous pose of the 6 girls at the police station, is certainly unforgettable.

Who would not want to see a movie about bank robbing cheerleaders? The movie isn't so concerned with the cheerleaders themselves as it is with the classic "what if?" scenario of the captain of the squad becoming impregnated by the captain of the football team. And where to go from there? Why, rob a bank, of course. They have the finesse, they have the ability and, most of all, they have the grooviest disguises (All-American Dolls) since the Ex-Presidents in Point Break.

What stood out is the performance of Mary Shelton in the role of Diane, the cheerleader captain and mastermind. She does a wonderful job of keeping a positive attitude when her life starts to crumble around her. And, as her polar opposite, James Mardsen does a great job of portraying the clueless jock Jack. Mardsen has cluelessness done to a T, especially when failing to realize the stigma of having to work at a video store. While it's nice to see that the stereotypes are not being limited to just the popular people, is it really necessary to have them at all?

The rest of the squad, however, only fall into the aforementioned stereotypes. The cast does their best to overcome them, but there are only so many cheerleader jokes you can do in a feature. Mena Suvari does look like she's having fun, though, as the bad girl cheerleader. And Rachel Blanchard does look pretty as the morally upright cheerleader.

When the robbery comes, it's almost a non-event. But it does come with quite a few laughs. What the film needed to show more of is the aftermath. How does it affect their lives immediately after? Sure, there's a recap at the end, but it would have been better to see those events unfold than to just read about them. Maybe New Line didn't like the first cut of the film and had it pared. Given the 83 minute running time, that is likely.

However, this is the best film with a January release date since Jackie Chan's First Strike. The photography is arid yet striking. The cast is game, the screenplay does have some great laugh out loud moments and it's nice to see a film that shows the many uses of cheerleader athletics.

Coming into Sugar and Spice, I have to admit I wasn't exactly expecting much- if anything. I was guilty of wanting to see it (hey any movie about cheerleaders that go on a crime spree has my vote of wanting to see it), but mostly because it seemed like it would be nevertheless enjoyable. Well, when sitting down to watch it I won't lie in saying that expecting it to JUST be enjoyable wasn't enough for me. I wanted to have the mind to like it (I love dark comedies, and especially ones they aren't afraid to poke fun at themselves), and you know what? I loved this movie.

I will say the moment "Sugar and Spice" opened I leaned back in my seat, preparing myself to be disappointed. The movie has a very simple (yet perhaps appropriate) opening, and they immediately were jumping into story. Usually I don't fly with that, and even in this movie case I didn't immediately. Then when they started to crank up the cheer leading routines I thought: "Great, they have this great premise, but they're going to focus more on the cheer leading than the plot." Thankfully- they didn't. What made it start to click for me was the realization that all the characters were going to stay in character. I'm so glad they didn't do the typical cheerleader mean girl, but instead did poke fun at the dim witted head cheerleader (and football star), but keep them on that level where they don't become annoying, too over-the-top, but instead make them likable. This film was hilarious, and you love these girls so much that you want to see them prevail in their life of crime. You feel sympathy for these girls (in particular Marley Shelton's lead character, whom you want to see achieve the all American dream), and they're enjoyable to watch as they are to laugh with.

Sure this movie has it's cutesy, almost implausible moments. Plus like I said this movie opened (and perhaps ended) very simple, and for that I wish this movie has been slightly longer. I'll admit that they sort of milked this story as far as it would go without starting to become annoying or TOO over-the-top where it becomes annoying, tiresome, or even embarrassing. The film is very funny, extremely enjoyable, and is a very dark treat.

Sugar and Spice is actually a pretty funny movie. Sure it's stupid, mindless, and unrealistic, but it does have a few parts that are truly laugh-out-loud funny. These rare gems are tarnished, however, by the film's many homophobic remarks. A male cheerleader is called "fag" repeatedly, Kansas has a fit and when she thinks her mother has a girlfriend in prison and calls her a dyke, snide comments are made about the group of close-knit girls being lesbians, among other things. That kind of stuff just isn't funny. Sugar and Spice's cheap-shots against gays and lesbians aren't necessary and, in fact, ruin an otherwise cute film.

Sugar and Spice was a lot better than I thought it would be. I thought it would be just a clone of Bring It On. But it turned out to be a good satire (not great) on cheerleaders and more importantly on bank robberies. Here, a hot cheerleader (Marley Shelton) gets pregnant from her fiancee (James Marsden) and needs money, so she and her A team girls (Mena Suvari, Rachel Blanchard, Marla Sokoloff and Sarah Marsh) to rob a grocery store bank. The events leading up to the climax and some afterwards are actually quite funny. My favorite- one girl has an incredible crush on Conan O'Brian. B+

Diane 'Mastermind' Weston (Marley Shelton) is the leader of the Lincoln High School cheerleaders with Hannah 'religious virgin' Wald (Rachel Blanchard), Cleo 'Conan O'Brien stalker' Miller (Melissa George), Kansas 'Rebel' Hill (Mena Suvari) and Lucy 'Brain' Whitman (Sara Marsh). They are arrested and the jealous leader of the B-squad Lisa Janusch (Marla Sokoloff) is ratting out the girls to the police. Jack Bartlett (James Marsden) is the popular school football jock who gets Diane pregnant. They get their own apartment but she is stressed out about money. After watching 'Point Break', Diane has an unlikely idea. To get a gun, they have to include the criminal's daughter Fern Rogers (Alexandra Holden) in the squad.

The movie is deliberately quirky. The problem is that the main cheerleaders are not that funny. They aren't comedians and fail to deliver the humor properly. Some of it works. The funniest potential is actually Sokoloff. She could be the overly paranoid, jealous and ambitious lead like Tracy Flick in 'Election'. This movie has a great idea on the surface but fails to deliver the laughs.

I'm not going to go into detail, as the movie really doesn't really deserve it.

At first, I found the film to be quite satirical and funny in a self-deprecating way. I thought I was in for a humorous look into high school culture, a la "Breakfast Club".

Good God, how wrong I was.

There was some low toilet humor, and maybe a few more sophisticated jokes (ones that didn't draw any laughter from the crowd I was with, BTW)...and this is coming from a girl who is a self proclaimed "laugh whore". I laugh at pretty much anything.

But I draw the line at pregnant teens farting and eating Snickers smothered in ice cream.

Mena Suvari, what have you done? And don't even get me started on James Marsden.

*sigh*

However, maybe this is just a factor of me seeing 2 cheerleading movies in one week (I recently saw "Bring It On" which was slightly funnier). This is NOT a dark comedy. It's a waste of money and an hour and half. At best, if you are cheerleader or like the culture, rent it to laugh at that, but...if looking for a crime story with humor in it, go see "Snatch". Much better bang for your buck.

A high school cheerleading squad robs a bank in order to support the burgeoning family of one of their own. They get the idea watching the Keanu Reeves movie Point Break and then watch movies like Reservoir Dogs and Dog Day Afternoon to figure out how exactly to pull the caper off.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Sounds like a cutesy family movie, right? The kind that warms the cockles, wherever they are. Well, almost. It's a dead-on, surprisingly hilarious comedy, with perfect off-center performances and a crisp, honest script.

The last cheerleading movie I saw (and quick, can you name more than a couple anyway? Didn't think so) was the Kirsten Dunst comedy Bring It On. This one blows that out of the water, out of the atmosphere, and out of the solar system. There's no moralizing. There's no good-girls-are-right, bad-girls-are-wrong lesson. Heck, we're talking about teenage girls pulling off a robbery! And one thing that could have sunk this movie early on was a character change. You've seen movies in which a character, faced with a new set of circumstances, does a 180-degree turnaround on how they've behaved up to that point. In this movie, you'd expect the girls to suddenly become flawless professional robbers. Not so. And while their plan has its faults, it's still a plan, buoyed by the vacant aphorisms of their leader, the pregnant and chipper Diane (Marley Shelton). Sing-songy and ebullient, the kids squabble among themselves but, in the true spirit of cheerleading and gosh-darn Girl Scout-like togetherness, they pull together as a team. Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Decent cheerleading movies are hard to come by. Come to think of it, so are any cheerleading movies. Oh, not that I'm looking, but I can name only two off the top of my head: Bring It On and the legendary, overlooked (okay, just kidding) 1977 opus Satan's Cheerleaders. But the latter's pep squad was in college, so it's different. But I digress.

Truth be told, there's not a dull moment in the movie. Diane's knocked up before the prom by her dimwit football-hero boyfriend. This guy's so stupid he gets himself fired from such seemingly unfireable jobs as fast-food employee and other glamorous retail employment opportunities. See, in the real world, he'd be upset that the luster had worn off his diamond of an image, having to work with geeks at the video store. But he's a dope, blissfully ignorant. He knows but one thing - that he loves Diane - and being such a dullard is supremely helpful to the film (and isn't easy to do; kudos goes to James Marsden in the role).

In short, a real hoot. We've seen many bank robbery movies with their own twists and idiosyncrasies; this one's one of the better ones to come down the pike. Go team go!

While having a group of teenage cheerleaders rob a bank is an interesting and different idea, this satire's one major flaw is its character writing. "Kansas" (Mena Suvari) and "Lisa" were the only characters that came across as believable. The leads, "Jack & Diane" (named for the John Mellancamp song?), are star quarterback and head cheerleader respectively, yet their characters are merely airheads living a gooberful life. James Marsden, who plays "Jack," portrays his role well when compared to his big role as the serious, pragmatic Cyclops in "X-Men." Moreover, the characters who fill the roles of the brain and the Christian girl are completely antithetical with what they are supposed to be.

All in all, while this film has a good plot, good satire, and plenty of sexy gals (*sigh* Mena…), the characters are annoying and completely distracting.

It's a cute idea. he's the super quarterback of the high school football team and she's the leader of the cheerleading squad and together they're a match made in heaven. They're also going to be parents at the ripe old age of seventeen. `Oh, what's a girl to do?' How about gather together your cheerleading squad and rob banks.

Cute it is, but since the bank robbing doesn't take place until the last half of the film you're left with another campy movie about naïve high school kids battling for popularity. There are a few laughable moments but most of the scenes are as boring to watch as actual cheerleading tryouts. Not even a rousing rendition of `We've Got Spirit' could breathe life back into this yawner.

The performances are all quite adequate but nothing more. Marsden is a cliched dope surrounded by swooning girls and ignorant jocks while Mena Suvari, as beautiful as she is, only recreates her role from `American Beauty' as a rebelious cheerleader.

The look and feel of the entire film carries a bit of cheapness to it, emphasizing the fact that this a first time director who may have a long road ahead of her. Only making it worse, many of the interior scenes look as if they take place in a cardboard box.

Sometimes a cute idea is only that... a cute idea.

2 out of 5

It's been only five months since we've last seen a cheerleader shake fest with the successful BRING IT ON. Girls went to see the film since it was a girls story, guys went to go see it since it showed girls shakin' their charms. Now imagine BRING IT ON, just more darker and a bit more humorous, and it's called SUGAR & SPICE. And quoting one of the other user comments, it's not bad for a January release. SUGAR & SPICE's story is told by the very jealous Lisa (Marla Sokoloff) as she is speaking to federal agents. Lisa is on the second squad of the cheerleaders, and has been overlooked for so many years. Her peers known as the 'A' squad are popular, smart, and pretty. Then when a new quarterback moves into town, Jack Bartlett (James Marsden), Lisa and the rest of the female students have a crush on him, even the cafeteria lunch ladies! But Jack has his eye on Diane Weston (Marley Shelton) who made a strong impression when meeting Jack, by doing flips and accidently kicking Jack in the face. When they see eye to eye, it's love at first sight, which leds to dating for homecoming, and Diane announcing that she is pregnant with Jack's baby, and they are getting married. But in order to get married, Jack and Diane need to live on their own. They can't get any bank loans, and not being a high school graduate yet, Jack can only get evening jobs at either fast food restraunts or Video Update with geeky clerks. Diane takes a job as a bank teller at the brach adjacent to a grocery store. And it's one evening when Diane along with her cheerleader friends are watching POINT BREAK, that Diane gets an idea that her squad should rob the bank and get the money. There's Kansas (Mena Suvari) who is the rebellious cheerleader, she speaks her mind and is sort of the leader of the squad. Kansas goes to the state prison and gets bank robbing advice from her mom, Mrs. Hill (Sean Young, with no make-up). Then Cleo (a very hot and beautiful Melissa George) who is the glamorous member, who is the only girl who doesn't have a crush on Jack, because she has a crush on Conan O' Brien! Lucy (Sara Marsh) is the brains behind the group who gives second thoughts to this robbery fearing that it will cost her the Harvard scholarship that she's working on. And Hannah (Rachel Blanchard) is the religous zealot who is very worried about doing the heist for both parental and religious reasons. The girls watch classic heist movies to learn the film character's mistakes, that way they won't make the same mistakes. Classic crime movies like RESIVOR DOGS, HEAT (1995), and APPLE DUMPLING GANG are the films watched for homework. Can the girls pull off the heist and not get caught, or will Lisa, who witnessed the heist will give the girls identification away to get on the 'A' squad? I found SUGAR & SPICE to be a surprise! It was very funny and enjoyable. It's the kind of movie that doesn't praise or show the excitement of the teenage life like CAN'T HARDLY WAIT, CRUEL INTENTIONS, or SHE'S ALL THAT. Na, instead it makes fun of it, the dopey personality of Jack. The crush on a major celebrity of Cleo, the loud mouth and vulgar Kansas, the religious worried Hannah, and the constantly studying Lucy. These are the characteristics of modern teens, not "who's going to take me to homecoming?" or "will I win that boy's affection?" I knew more cheerleaders in high schoollike the ones featured in SUGAR & SPICE, than BRING IT ON, or other teen flicks. The humor in it is quite clever. A example would be Jack's job at Video Update, where he works with two teenage geeky clerks. They hire Jack because of his popularity at school, and they also want to hear his sex stories with Diane. It's like a twisted version of SHE'S ALL THAT when you think about it, but it's more realistic. And the robbery scene at the bank is without a doubt the funniest bank robbery since George Clooney did his in OUT OF SIGHT. And the acting is also done very well, all of the girls do a good job playing teenage cheerleaders, when all of them are old enough to legally drink! I personaly enjoyed Melissa George, her character crush on Conan was quite funny, and did I mention how beautiful she was? I also enjoy the dim-witted performance of James Marsden who proves that he's a good actor, after being Cyclops in X-MEN, he can show his acting talent even further. SUGAR & SPICE is a enjoyable dark comedy, it's the kind of movie that people who already graduated high school would enjoy. That's because teens in high school now won't get the jokes since they either act like that, know people like that, or it's too witty for them. But for those who remember the wanna be's, the pretty girls, and the idiots in school, SUGAR & SPICE is a treat! And not to forget the heist is also funny itself. **** (out of five)

This movie was to emphasize the side of us that wants to do evil, bad, and our desire to support "Bad Guys". While that's a good idea, as a story it was very typical and predictable. While the way the film was made is pretty funny, we had no pay-off from the movie (something that made our moneys worth). It has a very long intro of a bunch of cheerleaders, one of which is pregnant. And it had an ending that ruined the whole movie. It's the fact that there wasn't much an ending at all. This story lacks a twist and has no particular theme other than "doing bad is good".

I don't recommend Sugar and Spice to anybody. Unless you have an hour and a half time to burn.

The movie was okay and better than worse. But if my daughter hadn't been an extra and on camera, I might not have gone to see it. The acting isn't bad, but the language gets a little rough for PG-13. When will the ratings match what the movie really contains.

The storyplot was okay by itself, but the film felt very bubbly and fake. It also had the worst ending. They were probably going for a surprise ending, but all it did was leave me the question of what the whole point of the story was. All other teen movies are better than this one.

I did not think i would like this movie, that's why i avoided seeing it for a while, but, it was on starz 2, the station that plays the same 4 movies for a week, and i thought, what the hell, i'll give it a shot. And, I have to say, while it wasn't anything amazing, it was certainly entertaining and i think that people should at least give it a shot. Some very funny momenets. 6/10

Sugar &Spice is one of the worst movies of 2001. The film tries to cross Heathers and Bring It On and fails . When I saw last January I was so disgusted by the film that I walked and talked on my cell phone to my girlfriend for the last half hour of the movie. I've heard that the DVD has a director's cut maybe I'll check it out, but this PG-13 trash movie is s*** and the worst kind of s***. Maybe if the film had some T&A that would've have made it okay. But the gags are lame and the acting is horrible. Worse than a Troma film.

I had an opportunity to go see this movie for free. As a 30 year old I figured, "Well, it's free, might as well see what teenagers are watching." Not expecting much, I must say that I found myself laughing an awful lot during the movie. The writing was great and done in such a manner that it needed to be delivered seriously, but was very witty and funny. They over pushed the idea that each girl was different (i.e. "the optimist", "the sex-driven", "the tom-boy", "the pure", "the realist", etc.) but they all still had their humorous inputs and they all did a great job delivering the well written lines. All in all, no Oscars in the future, but very entertaining.

When their teammate becomes pregnant and has trouble raising money to support her new family with her football captain husband, a band of high school cheerleaders get together to pull of a bank heist. Except, a cheerleader reject could break their cover.

The story may have been a decent idea if this were a cheap 80s movies, (even Troma could do with class), but simply acting as a star vehicle (as evident by the cast which features James Marsden, Marla Sokoloff, and Mena Suvari) , this is movie is short on story and humor, among other things. If you're sick of braindead teen comedies (especially about the stereotypical, upper-middle class W.A.S.P. teen sect) made in the late 90s and later, then skip it. You're not in for anything new.

An entertaining comedy with Marley Shelton as the head cheerleader who gets pregnant with the star quarterback's child. Then, while watching that classic of modern cinema, "Point Break," on tv she hatches a plan that wouldn't it be great fun if her and her cheerleader buddies (including Mena Suvari) robbed a bank? Wouldn't that just help her with her financial problems? This is all very silly and the filmmakers wisely don't take any of this seriously, producing a very funny comedic take on cheerleading, high school and bad movies. GRADE: B+

It was kinda funny but loved the outfit and the story but at the end it was kinda bad bc they didn't explain much it was just like boom plot twist and end.

I wanted to see this movie ever since it was first advertised on TV. I went to Tinsel Town to see it Last Night at 7:40. I regret the day that wasted my ticket on this trash when I could of saw something better. The beginning was all a bunch sex trash and cliches. They exaggerated the way love works in reality. All of the girls were stereo types. The boyfriend was too stupid for his own age. The passing gases that the pregnant girl kept having barely got any laughs. The bank robbery was completely boring with gags that have been used in other movies. Their getaway car was an old beat up Chevy van that they claimed that had no breaks. Hey why didn't they get nice girlish vehicle for the robbery instead? It might have boosted the audience opinion about the movie. This movie was very low low low low low budgeted since nothing in there was damaged or destroyed. This movie had a lot of stuff in it that would drive Christian people nuts. Hey I even expected a car chase scene because all bank robbing movies have car chases but I but there was never any. So I rate this movie b which stands for low budgeted and 1 out of ten stars.