Whip It [Blu-ray]
Hang onto your helmet and get ready to break away from the pack! Ellen Page scores huge laughs as Bliss Cavendar, a small-town teenager with a big dream: to find her own path in the world. Tired of following in her family’s footsteps of compliance and conformity, Bliss discovers a way to put her life on the fast track…literally. She lands a spot on a rough-and-tumble roller derby team and becomes “Babe Ruthless” — the hottest thing on eight wheels! Co-starring Drew Barrymore (in her feature film directorial debut), Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis, Daniel Stern and Jimmy Fallon, Whip It is a triumphant, free-spirited comedy loaded with high-speed action and nonstop fun!
- Audio: English: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio / Spanish: 5.1 Dolby Digital / French: 5.1 Dolby Digital
- Language: Dubbed: English, French & Spanish / Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
- Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 2.40:1
Drew Barrymore makes her bow as a director with this Roller Derby coming-of-age number, which shares the spirit of so many of Barrymore’s movies: it’s loosey-goosey, cheerful, and buoyant in waving its “Girls Rule!” flag. On screen, Barrymore relegates herself to a slapstick supporting role, handing the lead to Juno gal Ellen Page. Page plays a Texas teen with a yen to join Austin’s Roller Derby squad, complete with new professional moniker Babe Ruthless, but she’ll have to keep the side career secret from her beauty-pageant-obsessed Mom (Marcia Gay Harden) and football-watchin’ Dad (Daniel Stern). A coming-of-age tale emerges between bouts of skating on the RD track (Jimmy Fallon plays the goofy Derby announcer), with a dash of romance added in the form of a generic Dude in a Band. Kristen Wiig does surrogate-mom duty as a teammate, Juliette Lewis is appropriately out-there as a track rival, and Andrew Wilson (bro of Owen and Luke) gets some hilariously poker-faced lines in as the team’s coach. All the pleasant stuff makes you almost overlook how ramshackle the movie is, and how standard-issue the parental tensions (even if Harden is a total pro, as always). Ellen Page doesn’t offer the innate audience-friendly cuddliness of Barrymore herself–thus her apt casting as Juno’s brittle heroine–but her rapt focus is something to behold. “Babe Ruthless” indeed. –Robert Horton
Stills from Whip It (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great movie…lack of special features hurt.
Saw the movie in the theater…thought it was pretty good even though I haven’t seen a banked track in roller derby since the 80’s. Got the DVD and really did enjoy it again. Since it’s off season for the local derby team right now it’s a great way to get keep the derby spirit alive. My only complaint about the dvd and it’s a small complaint is the lack of special features. I saw that the Blu Ray version has a short making of feature…the standard DVD just has a single disk with a few outtakes. Would have been nice had they taken the time to maybe put a making of feature on the regular version too…and also maybe a history of the sport itself would have been really cool. seemed to be a pretty high priced dvd for what little was included in the disk.
5 Stars LOVED IT SOOOO MUCH!!!
I’ve never rated anything on Amazon before, but I had to with this…I just loved it 
2 Stars A cold and dull Hollywood Product
If you pour heavy cream into a cold bowl and add sugar, vanilla and air, you get one of the tastiest concoctions known to man. If you mix water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut oil, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, some flavors, gums, and glues, and freeze it, you get something that looks like whipped cream but bears no other resemblance.
This film aspires to be whipped cream, but is tepid whip at best. Start with every teenager-as-protagonist cliche: overbearing, obsessive mother, browbeaten father, cute-as-a-button-little sister, no-one-understands me teen. Add quirky best friend. Stir in newly-met sexy person of opposite sex who looks trustworthy, but, oh well. Mix in a bunch of wild and crazy supporting characters (and make sure one of them drives a cool 60’s car, MG if possible, but Karmann Ghia will do in a pinch.) Seen this film a hundred times before?
After the viewer is thoroughly bored, pour in a healthy dose of plodding action. Now, I’ve been to lots of roller derby bouts. They can be very exciting. But those I’ve attended looked nothing like the action shown here. These were both too fast, as our little inexperienced skater scooted through huge crowds effortlessly, and too slow, as the camera tried to create action where there was none. The failure of the roller derby scenes would not doom the film. Heck, this could be a stage play with some Equus-style skating. But since they went to the effort to try to create it, it did not work.
OK, so by now you’ve got a cliche-riddled tepid mixture of overcooked and bland ingredients. But then, just to show your culinary skills, drop in the most silly and outlandish “Lose your virginity” scene ever filmed. Toss in the requisite “parents coming to the teen’s point of view” conclusion, and you have created Bland Whip. Follow your heart, straight to your grocer’s freezer.
5 Stars Babe Ruthless…..
“Whip It” is the most fun I’ve had all month!
An outstanding cast starring Ellen Page Juno as Bliss Cavendar a.k.a. Babe Ruthless, produced by Drew Barrymore 50 First Dates starring as Smashley Simpson . Also starring -
Jimmy Fallon … ‘Hot Tub’ Johnny Rocket Fever Pitch & Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon
Kristen Wiig … Maggie Mayhem Adventureland & SNL
Zoe Bell … Bloody Holly Death Proof
Eve … Rosa Sparks Barbershop & Barbershop 2: Back in Business
Juliette Lewis … Iron Maven The Other Sister & From Dusk Till Dawn
A very smart comedy that will keep you smiling & laughing throughout.
Great cast, smart writing, alot of fun and a outstanding soundtrack, what more could you ask for?
Ellen Page is a major star, she shines bright in every movie she is in & I look forward to her next one!
“Whip It” is based off the novel by Shauna Cross - Whip It, which was originally released as “Derby Girl”!
Enjoy~
2 Stars I must have seen another movie!
I really wanted to like this, but I just never warmed up to it. Three big problems: script, casting & directing. The script falls so flat - how can a movie about women’s roller derby be so lethargic? And yet, it is. Most of the action scenes are destroyed by the horrible casting of Jimmy Fallon who’s play-by-play banter is just plain annoying and grating and … bad. Page is good, but her brittle, smarty-pants schtick is showing it’s limitations in a role that calls for more warmth. Wiig and MGH fare best. Then the directing: She tries, but the energy never gets to where it should be. Especially when the off-track scenes go nowhere you haven’t been 30 million times before. Take a pass. Too bad, really.
Filed under: Blu Ray Movie Reviews