Video/DVD Review: Sugar and Spice
Rated by 1 member
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that the dialogue is very graphic and
raunchy. A typical comment from one of the girls is, "Just
hoping we can finish this up before menopause sets in." One of
the girls says she's not a virgin anymore because she had an
orgasm while riding a horse at church camp. Another says that a
picture of Jesus "made me hot." There is an explicit scene of
an animal giving birth. The plot centers on a pregnant
teenager. (She and the father are devoted to each other and to
preparing for the baby.) Another of the cheerleaders is
surprised that she is not the first to get pregnant -- her
mother has the same reaction. One parent is in jail because she
shot her husband for having sex with someone else while she was
in labor. The girls buy guns and rob a bank with no adverse
consequences.
Families can talk about the way that Diane shows
responsibility, leadership, and organization. She is
relentlessly optimistic but practical. When she sees the broken
pieces they recieve from the gun dealer, she chirps, "I see a
craft project!" The girls show a great deal of loyalty and
resourcefulness. Unfortunately, these efforts are directed at
robbing a bank, with no sense of any adverse consequences for
the people whose money they are stealing. Diane does not feel
that she can confide in Jack about their plans. What does that
say about their relationship? Why does she feel that only she
is capable of doing what she believes is necessary to help her
baby? What other alternatives did she have? Parents may want to
talk about how families should react if a teenager becomes
pregnant. The movie's final twist shows another moral
compromise that families may want to discuss as well.
Diane Weston (Marley Shelton) is the head cheerleader, relentlessly peppy and optimistic. She and the new quarterback, Jack Bartlett (James Marsden), fall in love. Their parents are thrilled when they say plan to get married, until they explain that it will have to wait until after the baby is born. Their parents kick them out, and Diane and Jack have to find jobs and a place to live. Diane decides that they will have to rob a bank to get the money they need for the baby, and the other girls agree to help. The girls rent movies with robbery scenes to get ideas and then go in with "Betty Doll" masks and what they think are non-working guns.
SUGAR AND SPICE is supposedly a cute story of a pregnant teenage cheerleader and her friends who rob a bank. Lisa (Marla Soloff) a bitter rival of the cheerleaders, narrates the movie. In the first few minutes, she calls a male cheerleader a "fag" and accuses the cheerleaders of being so close they must be "lesbos." The movie begins by helpfully assigning each member of the cheerleading squad one characteristic, to help viewers keep them straight. There is "the rebel," "the brain," "the mastermind," etc. The girls have nothing in common other than cheerleading, and yet are completely devoted to each other. As one of them says, "you're the only family I have." Parents are hopelessly out of touch or otherwise useless.
The movie wastes the talents of some able performers, and it is almost painful to see this lively and energetic cast struggle with the lazy grubbiness of the script. When the best the director can do to add energy to a scene is to play Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part II" (the successor to "I Feel Good" and "Bad to the Bone" as the most overused soundtrack song), you know they've run out of ideas and just don't care anymore.
Bring It On
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
