In Theaters

“Bring it On” 95 minutes, PG-13, directed by Peyton Reed, written by Jessica Bendinger.

Just as Alexander Payne’s “Election” officially put Reese Witherspoon’s career on the map, Peyton Reed’s “Bring it On” will do the same for Kirsten Dunst. The film comes as a big surprise – a teen-age flick worth getting excited about that will appeal to a broad audience.

As edgy as “Election” and often as funny as Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless,” the film was written by first-time screenwriter Jessica Bendinger, a woman whose smart, honest observations of teen-age life – cheerleaders in particular – is as sharp as Heckerling’s best work.

As predictable as its story is, what matters here are the small details and the close attention to character, which Reed and Bendinger clearly spent considerable time making right. The film may initially feel like an attack on cheerleaders in its hilarious opening cheer, but it wisely never gives itself over to cheap condescension. It walks a tricky line. It bases its comedy on some of the vacuous, brain-dead and bitchy stereotypes associated with cheerleading, but it nevertheless respects cheerleading as a challenging sport – and not simply pompom fluff for dummies.

The film features Dunst in a terrific turn as Torrance Shipman, a plucky girl who’s the new captain of her high school’s award-winning cheerleading team. With nationals only weeks away, it’s up to her to whip her team into shape, a difficult task considering Torrance has just learned that in previous years, her team’s routines were stolen from the East Compton Clovers, an inner-city squad who warn Torrance to “bring it on” when they duke it out at the national convention.

The film’s premise is hardly new, but that doesn’t matter – it’s not dependent on its plot to make it work. Instead, the film leans on its snappy dialogue and its likable cast, a lively bunch of young actors – Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union and Jesse Bradford in particular – who infuse “Bring it On” with so much edge, wit and spunk, audiences at my screening were literally cheering with laughter.

Grade: B+

On Video

“I Dreamed of Africa” 112 minutes. PG-13, directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Paula Milne and Susan Shilliday, based on the book by Kuki Gallmann.

Initially, Hugh Hudson’s “I Dreamed of Africa” comes off like a television miniseries by Judith Krantz. You know the type: A beautiful woman is swept off her feet by a handsome stud and whisked away to all sorts of romantic danger in another country.

In Krantz’s world, the woman is always bold, part of the fashionable jet set, yet nevertheless restless and looking for a change that will result in some sort of personal growth that goes beyond a mere shopping spree at Gucci or deciding not to buy a $1,500 pair of Prada slingbacks.

Thankfully, “I Dreamed of Africa” shakes off that chilly feeling within 20 minutes. The film is no “Out of Africa,” to which it was unfavorably compared, but a movie that, to quote its characters in their description of Africa, “moves in its own rhythm.”

Based on a true story, the film follows Kuki Gallmann (Kim Basinger), a woman of privilege whose life in Italy is interrupted by a nasty car wreck that results in a hot romance with Paulo (Vincent Perez), the man who nearly killed her in the accident. Let’s just say that Kuki is forgiving.

She’s also ripe for adventure. In a flash, she’s married Paulo and fled with him and her son, Emanuelle (Liam Aiken at age 7 and Garrett Strommen at 17), to a run-dwn ranch in Kenya. Kuki’s snob of a mother, Franca (Eva Marie Saint), disapproves, but there’s no holding back Kuki, who is soon fighting off elephants pillaging her herb garden, building mud dams with bravada, dealing with too much personal loss and pain for one person to bear, and getting a whole lot stronger because of it. Good for Kuki.

Thanks to a great deal of restraint from his cast, Hudson’s film isn’t nearly the melodrama it seems. It’s actually a good film, a drama tempered with fine acting and lifted throughout with Africa’s stunning, sprawling, wide-open landscapes.

Grade: B

“The Next Best Thing” 110 minutes, PG-13, directed by John Schlesinger, written by Thomas Ropelewski.

What immediately becomes clear in John Schlesinger’s “The Next Best Thing,” is that Madonna can’t do vulnerability very well. She can’t play a victim, she can’t do sentiment and God knows she can’t play a needy woman.

The problem isn’t just that we know too much about Madonna and her iron will, but that she simply isn’t a strong enough actress to make us believe that she would be crushed quite so easily after being dumped by a man.

That’s precisely what happens at the start of this unfortunate film, which wants audiences to believe Madonna as Abbie, a yoga instructor who can’t for the life of her get a man and keep him.

A straight man, at least. You see, Abbie is so convinced she’ll never find the marrying type, she goes for the next best thing, her gay best friend Robert (Rupert Everett), and has a child with him.

Things go swimmingly until Abbie meets Ben (Benjamin Bratt), a strapping businessman who sweeps her and her son, Sam (Malcolm Stumpf), off their feet – and who eventually turns this film into “Kramer vs. Kramer” lite.

Indeed, when Abbie tells Robert she and Ben are getting married – and hitting the road with their son – Robert decides to fight for custody of Sam in court.

None of this is interesting to watch unfold, and that’s because, in spite of the close friendship shared between Madonna and Everett off screen, they have zero chemistry together on screen. Madonna always seems to be playing catch-up with her co-star, watching him perform while she herself tries to spit out someone else’s words.

Still, the real shocker here is that this film came from John Schlesinger. What was the director of “Darling,” “The Day of the Locust,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Midnight Cowboy” thinking to make this, a film that showcases none of his sharp instincts because it doesn’t know what it wants to be – a light, effervescent comedy about the unique relationship between a gay man and a straight woman, or a film that seriously and thoughtfully tackles how gay people are discriminated against in our culture.

Grade: D

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, and Tuesday and Thursday on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” and “NEWS CENTER at 11.”

THE VIDEO CORNER

Renting a video? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

I Dreamed of Africa B

The Next Best Thing D

The Tigger Movie B-

Supernova D-

Erin Brockovich B+

The Cider House Rules A-

Here on Earth D+

Reindeer Games C+

Princess Mononoke A

Romeo Must Die C-

Whatever It Takes B

The Beach D+

Drowning Mona C-

The Ninth Gate C+

Angela’s Ashes B-

The Ninth Gate C+

Ride with the Devil C-

The Whole Nine Yards B+

All About My Mother A

Down to You D

The Hurricane A-

My Dog Skip B+

Scream 3 B-

Hanging Up F

The Talented Mr. Ripley A

Anna and the King A-

Topsy-Turvy A

Sweet and Lowdown A-