A high school football team has a longstanding tradition of bringing their team good luck by sleeping with virgins and then crossing their names off of a secret list. Three girls on said list figure out the football player’s plan and decide to strike back with pranks and some feminist rebellion that is supposed to be inspired by Lysistrata.
First and foremost, let me immediately address any connections to Lysistrata this film claims to have. While Lysistrata is about women withholding sex from men because of they have gone to war (to put it in simple terms), Wild Cherry is more about the girls seeking revenge over a sense of humiliation that their boyfriends may not like them as much as they’d hoped. Lysistrata empowered its female characters while the three protagonists of this film are ultimately still just trying to be liked by the popular boys. The rebellion they stage builds to nothing more than a couple juvenile pranks and a lame speech made at a the most sparsely attended football match in cinematic history.
There are a few supporting elements that try to beef up the lackluster main story, but do not have anything substantial to offer. One is a side plot were one of the girl’s is desperately trying to achieve her first orgasm, which leads to what could have been the most jail-baiting montages I have ever witnessed had the writers not gone to nauseating lengths to include her yelling her age (18!) every 5-10 minutes or so.
Also trying to help boost interest are Rob Schneider and Tia Carrerre, who appearances as guiding adult figures to the young girls. While both deliver the best performances they can muster, their roles are largely peripheral. Schneider has some effect as a lonesome father suffering from empty-nest syndrome, but his scenes are repetitive, and only serve to reinforce the same character motivations and reactions without adding anything new each time.
The film is peppered with interviews with random high school characters about their experiences losing their virginity. Each of these interviews add no insight into teen sexuality, other than the fact that sometimes losing your virginity is a disappointing experience, while others just feel like embarrassingly unfunny improv monologues.
This film did have the good sense to include one person who was interested in someone of the same sex, but it’s filtered down to being just a token twist moment at the climax when it could have been a far more poignant and interesting subplot. A fine example of how the rest of the film represented itself: 80 minutes of lost potential to tell something real, replaced with lame gags and cookie cutter teen romance.
Video
Widescreen 1.78:1. This film actually had a very nice presentation. The scenes at night are clear, there is no haze under bright lights and all colours look clean. Very well transferred.
Audio
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 All speakers get some decent activity via the music, but the voicework and post-production are painfully obvious at many points. Often a character’s voice sits right on top of everything else when it should be blending in. This problem is not throughout, but frequent enough to become just that: a problem.
Subtitles available in English and Spanish.
Special Features
Trailer
Final Thoughts
The hijinks in this film are familiar territory for teen sex comedies, the story has no real teeth, and any sense of feminism is sadly drowned in typical boy-crush scenarios.