Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

PodBill Just what I expected

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Mark Turner I'm not sure that I actually saw this film at the drive-in, where movies like this were a constant staple, but I did see a few like it. All of them seemed to have on goal in mind, to take the tops off of eager young women. At least that's the only thing I thought they were about back then. I found most poorly made and boring. But in watching this one I was surprised that there was actually a decent movie here although one made with a nearly non-existent budget.The story here revolves around the cheerleading squad at Mesa State. Kate (Jo Johnston) is the reporter for an underground newspaper on campus (face it all universities had them in the late 60s/early 70s). To get the gritty on the cheerleaders and how they are being taken advantage of by the team and alumni she goes undercover and becomes one of them. What she doesn't count on is discovering that they are just normal young women like here and that not all of the jocks are the jerks she assumed they were.She also didn't consider the fact she might find love with star quarterback Buck Larson (Ron Hajek). Buck is already involved with the head cheerleader Mary Ann (Colleen Camp) whose father is the most influential member of the alumni around. To cross her might mean the end of his scholarship. But this isn't the worst of the problems faced here.There is cheerleader Lisa who is romantically involved with her Professor Thorpe, her math teacher. They two plan to run off together as soon as he divorces his wife. Then there is Andrea, a virginal young cheerleader who can't quite seem to commit to a sexual involvement with her boyfriend who she dearly loves. We are also presented with a problem involving Thorpe, Mary Ann's father and the coach who are gambling on the team to make big bucks, so much so that the coach is willing to throw the game to advance their position.Kate's editor is a pot smoking radical who wants to do nothing less that stick it to "the man". When she begins to see that things aren't what they thought he doesn't take kindly to her new viewpoint. When Andrea goes to the newspaper's office to talk to her she's not there but he is. Taking out his frustration he rapes Andrea.The feminist viewpoints on display here, the sexual revolution that discusses both end of the scale from random sex to commitment, the discovery that the "straights" aren't as straight as thought and the "radicals" aren't nearly as progressive as they pain themselves all combine here to make an honest to goodness movie rather than a simple T&A drive-in flick. Yes, some of the jokes fall flat and are corny, yes the sets leave much to be desired at times, yes the acting ranges from solid to ludicrous but in the end the movie ends up being, well, a decent little movie. It has an actual story even if it is dropped down the most simplistic possible. But when you're shooting a movie in 12 days intended to do more than titillate teens what do you expect? That something good came from that is the most amazing thing.The Arrow Video release of this film is jam packed with goodies, like almost everything they are bringing out on blu-ray these days. I've hailed them for their quality product time and again and this time is no different. The movie looks beautiful on screen using the best possible print they could find. Extras include an audio commentary track with director Jack Hill made just for this release, a brand new interview with director Jack Hill, an archive interview with cinematographer Alfred Taylor, an archive interview with Jack Hill and Johnny Legend, a Q&A with Hill and actors Colleen Camp and Roseanne Katon recorded at the New Beverly Cinema in 2012, TV spots and a reversible sleeve featuring artwork by Graham Humphreys.If you have fond memories of going to the drive-in then by all means you'll want to add this one to your collection. It turns out to be more fun than you would expect and a better movie than most in the genre offer.

Scott LeBrun "The Swinging Cheerleaders" may not be one of cult filmmaker Jack Hills' best, but it's still a solidly engaging film of its type. It probably won't be nearly trashy enough for some people, but for others it should prove to be an agreeable way to spend just over an hour and a half.Hill and David Kidd wrote the story (using female pseudonyms), about the cheerleading squad for a college football team. Their newest recruit is an uptight gal named Kate (Jo Johnston), who initially is only becoming a cheerleader so she can get inside information for an expose that she wants to write. Among other story threads, the coach (Jack Denton), an alumnus (George Wallace), and a stats professor (Jason Sommers) are lured by the prospect of big winnings and begin to bet on the outcomes of the games.Once again, Hill does understand that there are requirements for this sort of entertainment, and some of the lovely young ladies do take off their tops. The yarn that he and Kidd spin here is actually pretty straightforward and enjoyable, and things never, ever get overly serious. Not that characters come out unscathed, however, as the virginal Andrea (ever adorable Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) is taken advantage of by lowlife guys, to use one example.The performances are uniformly solid from the whole cast. Of the main cheerleader performers, sexy blonde Colleen Camp (playing the catty Mary Ann) went on to what is easily the most notable mainstream career of any of them. Future Playboy Playmate Rosanne Katon rounds out this foursome. Ron Hajak and Ric Carrott are fine as personable jocks Buck and Ross, Ian Sander is perfectly odious as creepy and arrogant campus radical Ron, John Quade and stunt coordinator Bob Minor are good as nasty security guards Belski and Ryan, and Mae Mercer is memorable as Professor Thorpes' scary wife.An amiable if somewhat mild example of 70s sleaze.Seven out of 10.

gavin6942 In order to write an expose on how cheer-leading demeans women, a reporter for a college newspaper (Jo Johnston in her only role) infiltrates the cheer-leading squad.By 1974, Jack Hill was looking to escape being typecast as a "blaxploitation director" after making "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown" for AIP. They were pleased by the success and gave him a script called "Rape Squad", which he turned down. This film was given to him with financing attached, although he was only given a title and had to develop the script from scratch (with help from David Kidd, who ironically also re-wrote "Rape Squad").According to co-writer / director Hill, the film had a 12-day shoot, which meant every inch of film shot ended up in the final product. They started work on the script at the end of January 1974 and the movie was in theaters by May (at other times he says February and June, but the idea remains the same). The original title of the script was "Stand Up and Holler" so actresses would not think the film was about cheerleaders.I do love Jack Hill, and the fact he is called an "exploitation auteur" really sums him up. But this has to be one of his few misfires. The primary plot of the undercover cheerleader is not very interesting, though the booking subplot makes up for it to a point. You might expect this to be nothing more than an excuse for cheerleaders to get naked, but even in that department it is arguably tame compared to many 80s comedies. This more or less amounts to a cheesy made-for-TV movie that probably was never shown on TV.Arrow Video offers up a deluxe 2k restored blu-ray of the film. While the movie itself is not great (sorry), the Arrow Video version is worth picking up simply for all the extras, because it's always good when we have Jack Hill doing new interviews and providing new commentary. If he hasn't already, he really ought to write a memoir, because he is full of stories about Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola and many others. (The disc also has a 2006 archive interview with DP Alfred Taylor, archive interview with Johnny Legend, and a Q&A with Hill, Colleen Camp and Rosanne Katon recorded at the New Beverly Cinema in 2012.)

HEFILM The commercial success of this lead to Jack Hill getting to make the much more fun,though maybe even more poorly made and much worse acted, Switchblade Sisters right after this. So something good, or well, better came out of this film getting made.The budget for this films is just too low to even have the cheerleaders do any full routine. The credit sequence of them is all you get to see, though you get to see those same shots and same stock footage football footage over and over again. Very little T and A for a plot that is a set up for a porn movie that never takes place. Smith was pregnant when she made the film and one fan of hers told me the appeal is that her breasts are huge. Well they are and her armpits are unshaved. Can humor still be found in her being excited about being gang banged as a way to lose her virginity? That's up to you. Why bring this up? Well that's about all that's worth noting. This is an exploitation film without much exploitation and by the time this was made the stakes were pretty high on exploitation. This is almost like a 1950's B and W nudie movie only it's in color and made almost 20 years after that was the style for these things.The girls give decent performances, considering the crap material, most of the male cast members are awful and it just goes no where for a long time. Only real highlight is a confrontation scene with the wife of a teacher who confronts one of the cheerleaders and threaten's to "carve her name into one of the cheerleaders tits so when she flops them out for him he'll know she knows." Or words to that effect. What the movie needs is more outrageousness like this, the plot is too thin to be taken seriously but sort of is and really it just seems like the story is on life support until it can finally quietly die.Flatly made by the usually flat director Hill. He can't be blamed for the lack of money that is heavily in evidence, but shows no real imagination in getting around those problems the way other better directors of the era did.The film is dated but not enough so for it to be fun on that level either,though perhaps the way it depicts men is actually more dated than the way it depicts women. Look elsewhere for something entertainingly trashy not here.