All hot chocolate poured over cold steel.I know the concept, I write stories myself.This one? Underperforming. While the story premise held promise, and I expected something cute, this came in very low, a major disappointment.The girls are 'there' without really being made much of. They are just there, like they are filling in the positions set out for them. Not much zing to them. Okay, I hear ya, I hear ya, I am not trying to pretend to be some disaffected cool dude on this subject. I am far from that. Very far. I am grading against what I have seen in all my years (check out my list of DVDs in my collection if you go to my IMDb home page) and compared to rival Hollywood standards, nothing special about these girls. Nothing especially exciting. The camera-work doesn't do much to create buzz, hell, not even some tantalizing leg shots... okay, in the few cheerleader scenes, there was... But I'm talking about the sorority house...Let me tell you something else. They're also verging on sliding down the evolutionary ladder. Slacker attitudes. Post-modern attitudes re body piercing and tattoos. Hell, according to Roland, chewing bubble-gum is the symbol of declining attitudes in the modern world? I don't mind that. That's just some chewing. That could be spat out. No, look at the decline caused by, gee what am I gonna sum it up as? A sorta funky look. Yeah, that's it.That Kelli girl has a doll-face. And Monica I've been watching in other movies. Why would pretty things wanna besmirch their faces with crappy red designs that look like open sores? Ugh.Standards are slipping, people. Listen to this old guy. The zenith of excitement was the Nineties with the Soft Look. Now every adventurous girl is tattoo and body-piercing mad. Just one thing about that: HIGHLY UNATTRACTIVE, and attractive only to the lowest of the lower classes.Okay, after all that, now, to get back to the movie. I think, despite that this could have been something, Tommy must have seen the script and knew it wasn't exactly a wonderful project, and he took it to supplement his income. Okay, there is also having to come and work every day with lotsa young people around. But this movie... Hell, people, that bad it ain't, BUT think about what this could have been. Could have been. But is not.And, for those of you who don't agree, LOOK AT IT AGAIN. Burt Reynolds in CLOUD 9, hoo boy, I zapped that one here on IMDb too, but WHEN IT CAME TO PRETTY GIRLS, THAT ONE KNEW THE MAGIC KEY!Yeah, compare it to CLOUD 9. And weep.I rest my case.

I cannot believe all of the negativity on this board about this film. Is it perfect? Not at all (There is a tremendous distance between Austin Tx, and Brownsville, Tx (The Mexican Border), and it takes 5 & 1/2 hours to get there), and the point is overlooked in the film. That said, two of the keys to any film, are characters you like (Or don't like in certain cases), and did these characters grow during the film and the answer in both cases is yes. Spoilers: As much as Roland Sharp (Tommy Lee Jones), did for the girls (Saving them when there was a bomb attached to the van, and saving Anne (Christina Millan) and Teresa (Paula Garces) from guys trying to hit upon them it a nasty way in a bar), and introducing them to Percy Stevens (Cedric The Entertainer (Who is outstanding in this film), who is able to improve their dancing. However, the girls did far more for him. But how they are able to fix him up so he can go on a date with Prof. Molly McCarthy (Anne Archer). He did not even realize he should give her flowers (Although he did get it right by cooking and playing and dancing to Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain." (Molly acknowledged how she liked Willie Nelson)). Four of the girls were the ones who rescued his daughter from being kidnapped by Ranger Holt (Shea Whigham). Note: After Holt forced himself to be handcuffed and the keys thrown away, it was Teresa who freed him. At the end, his daughter decided to attend The University of Texas (Austin), instead of going away as she planned, and he was able to marry Molly, so he gained quite a bit, gaining a wife and keeping his daughter close to him. I really loved this film. Easy 10/10 Stars.

I saw this in theaters with my mom and brother because it sounded pretty good. Only I was wrong. I thought that there'd be a lot of action since it was about a bunch of cheerleaders -- who were your totally average lean, dress skimpy kind of girls -- witnessing a murder. I thought there'd be at least ONE person trying to kill them numerously like in The Terminator or even Die Hard. Nope. Nada. Then here comes Tomym Lee Jones as this sheriff who takes the girls too seriously, making them live with him. The movie got boring. I even asked my mom when the movie was supposed to be over.Yeah, it was that boring.The movie was a little cheesy, since the girls weren't taking the situation seriously (they weren't the girls who saw one Cops commercial on TV to know that they were in a serious situation.) The only action was at the end, but it was lukewarm -- just like the movie.

Texas Ranger Roland Sharp always gets his man but on this occasion the pursuit of his subject sees his partner shot, his man murdered and the killer on the run. His only witnesses are a set of high-school cheerleaders whom claim to be able to identify the killer despite none of them being able to agree on the description. With the girls identified as possible witness, the killer has to kill them to tie up all the loose ends – a fact that Sharp is all too aware of. With two of his men in tow, Sharp sets up a safe house with the young women and moves in to provide protection.As much as many of us would like to pretend that we come home and watch art films and documentaries like Woody Allen in Annie Hall, the truth is a lot of the time after a long day at work nothing eases away the pain than an undemanding film. This is why films like this make money and it is why I ended up watching it – just too plain tired for those subtitled Argentinean movies or existential German films about the nature of the soul. This doesn't mean that I am easily pleased because I can't forgive much of this for how basic it is, because it is. The plot is essentially an odd-couple scenario expanded to a group and stuck into a thriller narrative to provide a start, driver & ending and it doesn't offer more than you expect it will produce.The writing is pretty obvious but it is not without charm and I mostly found it to be quite amusing. Whether or not this is sufficient is dependant on your mood I suppose, certainly there are few significant laughs to be had and little of interest in the story (characters or thriller aspects). What the film does benefit from is a great bit of casting. The "grumpy stern man" role is simple but when you put someone like Tommy Lee Jones in the lead role then it does lift it a little bit. I say a little bit because he can only do so much but the film does really benefit from his strong presence and surly delivery. In support the girls (not that they are anywhere near the age they play) are all lively and fun. I will be honest and say that I felt a little uncomfortable being invited to ogle girls who are supposedly underage but some of them make it easy. The actresses do quite well considering they are just clichés with tight bodies – Milian is sassy and fun as the sassy black girl for example, while we also get a fiery Hispanic, a bad girl, a weepy girl and so on. Garcés is OK but is much better (and looks a lot more like an adult) in The Shield. Ferlito, Garner and Keena are OK but Ermey and Archer are wasted in small roles. Cedric the Entertainer (more and more sounded like an ironic name) is not so much wasted as he is a waste – he is unfunny and seems to have been forced into the film because someone thought a fat black man would be funny in a dance-off. Overall then this is a basic film that has plenty of poor aspects about it and doesn't aspire to much but, thanks to casting as much as anything, does have a reasonable amount of charm. Will suffice for the tired man in the mood for a comedy that will not make you think or laugh too hard – but don't expect it to be memorable or "good" in the traditional sense.