If you cut out all of the clichés or time spent watching Bliss and Oliver frolic in the water/wheat/air, 'Whip It' would clock in around 20 minutes. It's a pretty harmless picture, but it has nothing to say that hasn't been said before. It makes no effort to throw you a curve ball. Not to mention, had Bliss just been forthright, the movie may have ended a little sooner. There wasn't even a really good motive to lie about how she spends her nights, until she's forced to back up that original lie.

Ellen Page is really awful. And she's the lead in this poorly-written coming-of-age sports movie. Well, the roller derby scenes are a lot of fun. I suppose it could have been much more of a trainwreck from Drew Barrymore's point of view.

+ highly recommended :: feel-good movie

Not bad, I was surprised.

Mehr.

I really liked the game and the ambiance of the movie, however the movie is slow and the story is ordinary. If you see it, you won't regret it but it's not a must.

It really isn't great except for just how much Drew Barrymore and the cast get out of a relatively straightforward tale.

I liked this movie way more then I thought I would.

reviews, (Ellen Page)

Carried by the honesty of the relationships and the female chemistry it got seriously bogged down by the obligatory romance storyline (although I liked how it concluded.) A nice light/fun touch by miss Barrymore.

Starts a bit slow and is sort of predictable, but the roller skate action is pretty good.

"There's a lot of underlying potential here, but there seems to have been no one around to whip it into shape." - Ryan Stewart

Girl power! The lovely Ellen Page! Roller skates! Woohoo!

The actual roller derbying was way more fun than I thought it would be. I definitely enjoyed myself watching this. I'd pair it with popcorn in a lazy afternoon.

Enjoyable fun... doesn't deviate too much from the usual sports movie and teen coming-of-age generica, but roller derby makes a refreshing change from football movies, and most importantly, the characters are there too. Ellen Page did great and all the supporting cast pulled their weight too. Wiig, Wilson, Shawkat, Stern all gain some more screen cred. And Austin was nicely represented by a Juno-esque alternative vibe in the story which kept it away from bubblegum mainstream territory. Good mix.

The problem with Whip It is that the actual sport of roller derby (the supposed focus of the film) is not explored with any depth and has no real bearing on the plot. You could have replaced roller derby with any other 'unsavory' activity and it would have been almost identical to dozens of other teenager movies.

This is a good first film by Drew Barrymore. Ellen Page is good in the lead role. I think the romantic subplot was not needed but overall I enjoyed this film.

Enjoyable and heartfelt, with good performances all around, particularly from Page, Wiig, & Stern. It's a nice coming of age movie, and unlike a lot of sports-themed movies, has a better message than "winning is everything."