What a mess. With a name like _The Swinging Cheerleaders_, you'd expect a fun sex romp, but what you get is ninety minutes of chaos. The only reason I watched this was because Cheryl Smith is in it, and for that reason alone, I do not regret it. Just like with other movies I have watched, this one suffers from not knowing what it wants to be. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it just an excuse to show some boobs? Yes, the acting is bad. Yes, the direction is horrible. Yes, the writing is way too dark for a movie that tries to be funny in other parts. I'm honestly struggling to know where to begin with how much is wrong with this film. Okay, maybe the writing: what is the story about? Hot cheerleaders? A second-wave feminist journalist? College faculty rigging football games? There are three movies here, and it never comes together. Our main group of cheerleaders are nice, and I wish the movie would have simply been about them - mainly Andrea (Cheryl Smith), whose nude scene is the only reason to watch this trash; I've seen Cheryl Smith nude (may she rest in peace) in other films and I couldn't figure out why her breasts were so damn big here, turns out she was pregnant at the time. Cut to some stock footage of football. Then we have Kate - oh boy. Kate is the lead, I guess. She's such an over-the-top caricature of a liberal college girl that she could only have been written by an old republican. Just for the sake of example, in one scene she's at a diner and the lead football player, Ross, sticks his hand up her skirt, and this is while he's talking to his girlfriend Mary Ann. Keep in mind Kate is fine with this. The next time they're on screen together, Ross asks Kate if she wants to have sex, and she's upset about this. Why? They go back to Kate's dorm, and she's complaining about Ross feeling entitled to sex with her... and then she has sex with him. What? By the way, Kate has a boyfriend, who she asks if he's on his period at one point - you know, like a second-wave feminist would. Cut to some stock footage of football. All the characters in this movie are garbage, if that's not already clear, I hope to make it unequivocal soon. Lisa - another one of our cheerleaders - is having an affair with her professor (Thorp). More on that later. Andrea - our only likable character - is a virgin, and she's reluctant to have sex with her football-player boyfriend, so he dumps her. What do her friends, Lisa, and Kate tell her to do? Why, to fuck the first guy she sees, because that's what men do to women, thereby making it a great idea. Andrea ends up having sex with Kate's boyfriend/ex-boyfriend - who knows? Do these terms even apply here? - this leads to the films' most inexcusable moment: it is heavily implied that Andrea is gang raped, we don't see it, but come on. And how do her friends, Kate, and Lisa react to this? They ask her how it was. I don't think I need to say any more about that. Cut to some stock footage of football. The movie tries to be a raunchy sex comedy, but fails. The best moments - that is when Cheryl Smith is clothed - are when the drama can play out. Granted the acting cannot support the subject matter, but I can condone that. The best example of this is when Professor Thorp's wife confronts Lisa about having an affair with her husband, switchblade in hand! Wow, that scene was intense, and out of nowhere. The movie actually takes itself seriously for a while after that. Then, in the third act, it goes full-on goofy comedy. Yet fails, again. The ending? Well, it involves our group of cheerleaders. Andrea is talking to Mary Ann, but there is no dialog. It's like it was cut out in post. So, we just see Mary Ann reacting to Andrea's silence. Then it just ends. What was learned? Nothing. No punishment, no retribution, no consequences.

The Swinging Cheerleaders were much better than I feared. Although it had a lot of politics and serious topics for a 70s sex comedy, it was still entertaining enough to come out slightly above average... At least when compared to other such comedies from the 70s.

Rather anticlimactic exploitation flick. There's some corny fun to be had, but for the most part it's just a bunch of random moments strung together, that lead to a sinfully abrupt ending.