A teen comedy. From The Asylum. If anyone else saw American Virgin thenthey'll already know what to expect, a teen comedy bawdier than mostbut with a script that's not as sharp. #1 Cheerleader Camp is actuallychock full of much more nudity than American Virgin so may prove to beeven more popular among hormonal, male teens. Yeah, I thought it wasokay too.

The plot is quite simple. Young Sophie (Erica Duke) really wants to winan annual cheerleading competition that could help her to get ascholarship but her nemesis, Britt (Harmony Blossom), keeps findingways to break up her squad. Lucky for Sophie, a young lad working atthe camp over the summer (Michael, played by Jay Gillespie) reallylikes her and thinks up a plan to get her a replacement squad . . . . .. . . . . made up of strippers. This pleases one of the other ladsworking at the camp over the summer, Andy (played by Seth Cassell).Andy is on a masturbation diet which means he has to "burn off" morecalories than he has eaten by, you guessed it, a rigorous solo workout.And he's never had such great motivation. Oh, and a series ofmisunderstandings lead to everyone believing that Michael is gay.

From an opening credit sequence that features a number of topless womenjumping up and down to the frequent appearance of . . . . . . toplesswomen, it's obvious that this movie has been geared to the young malewho finds his libido racing ahead of his confidence.

The acting is all actually fairly decent for this kind of thing, aimingas low as it does. Jay Gillespie and Erica Duke make a cute pair ofleads, Seth Cassell is really quite funny though the script could havebeen tweaked to improve things somewhat and we get some decent supportfrom the likes of Paul Logan, Deanne Meske and Charlene Tilton doing anon screen version of Charlene Tilton.

Naomi L. Selfman keeps everything in place in a script that holds nosurprises but that throws enough moments of amusement amongst thevulgarity to provoke a few proper laughs. The ridiculously contrivedmoment when the character of Andy misunderstands a foreign-accentedgirl describing her love of chocolate covered peanuts led to a payoffthat had me laughing almost as much as any of the American Pieset-pieces.

Mark Quod directs with a bit more competence than we usually see in anAsylum production. He keeps things moving, throws in plenty of nudityand light, fizzy tunes and keeps things on a par with the look of anyother teen comedy of this type.

Everyone will think, as usual, that I'm being far too generous and Ican see that point of view. I was originally going to mark the thing as5/10 but then I realised that it works very well for what it sets outto be. Which is why it edges just above average.

"#1 Cheerleader Camp" is a stereotypical teenage comedy, but in myhonest opinion, it seemed more like an excuse to show off fully orsemi-naked women. It was actually reaching the point where it wasbecoming too much. When I watch a movie, I watch it to be entertained,and in this case to be entertained with laughs, not having to sit thereand look at the female body being shown off in that manner.

The story told in the movie was simple and easy to follow. However,there weren't too many hilarious moments where you were left laughinghard. Those moments were sporadic at best. But in a way, the storyactually kept me in the chair to see the end of the movie. And thestory is, of course, very predictable. You know the ending well beforeyou are at the actual end of the movie.

The characters in the movie were sort of generic and uninspiring. Youhave a guy with way too much teen hormones, who has to masturbate inalmost every scene he is in. Sure it was funny at first, but it quicklybecame tedious and irritating. Then you have four exotic dancers (orstrippers, if you will) who leave their job to go train forcheerleading? Yeah, very plausible. The main character is perhaps theone who is the most interesting of all characters. He choked at agymnastic performance and have performance anxiety, so he will have toovercome this fear in order to help the cheerleading squad.

As for the actors and actresses, well they were actually doing a goodjob, and I would say all of them. Sure, it is not award winningmaterial, but their performances were well enough. And it is no secretthat the female cast was selected with the purpose to be shown off.

All in all, the movie is not too shabby, and I am sure that teenagersfrom 14 and up to reaching early adulthood will find this movieparticularly nice. It appeals more to that audience with its humor andcheesy lines. But be warned, there is a lot of nudity in the movie.Just for a comedy of this type, I found it had too much focus onshowing off women and nudity, so the comedy came second in line, andthat was a shame.

When you think of The Asylum, you immediately think cheap, repetitive,dull, badly acted. However #1 Cheerleader Camp is not that bad thingsconsidering. It actually looks decent, has some good cheer-leadingsequences, an upbeat soundtrack and some refreshingly likable turnsfrom Charlene Tilton and Seth Cassell(in fact the acting generally iswell above average). On the other hand, the story is incrediblypredictable and the pacing is often too rushed. The writing is vulgarand contrived with not very much that out to me as funny, while thecharacters are stereotyped and bland.

All in all, not bad but not all that great either. 5/10 Bethany Cox