capsule review
WHIP IT
Thinking I had had about enough meat and potatoes, I thought I’d finish up my recent movie binge with a little dessert. Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, is probably just what you would expect: a no-frills, simple, frothy, back-to-the basics crowd-pleaser. There were many missed opportunities and so many paint-by-numbers moments, but, overall, you really couldn’t expect anything more. It’s a movie about women’s roller derby, do you really want or need anything more than action sequences with hot chicks in tight outfits rolling around a rink elbowing each other? The most fun I had with this picture were the clever names of the teams and the characters. If they had only given as much thought to the screenplay as they did with coming up with those names, this film could have been so much more. As it is, it’s nothing more than a decent way to ride out a rainy Friday night.