Review: Drew’s “Whip It” on Blu-Ray!

Don’t you just luv it when you see a girl (played by Ellen Page from Juno) really “find” herself and ditch the life only her parents want for her? If so, then you’ll really enjoy the Drew Barrymore-directed all-gurl roller derby action drama Whip It.

Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) becomes roller derby queen Babe Ruthless when she ditches the Texas beauty pageant world of her pushy but caring mom and is introduced to the rough sport of femme roller derby, joining a team called the Hurl Scouts coached by Razor (Andrew Wilson) and alongside team members Smashley Simpson (played by Drew), Rosa Sparks (Eve), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell) and the team star Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis).

Bliss also falls for young musician Oliver (Landon Pigg). Will this be the ticket to get Bliss out of her smalltown Texas trap or will it just make her stronger?

Special Features: A few. “Deleted Scenes and Alternate Opening” this group of extended, deleted or alternate scenes does add to the story. At one point coach Razor resigns and it’s up to Bliss/Babe to get him to stay. All the scenes are well worth a watch.

You also get the “Fox Movie Channel Presents Writer´s Draft: Shauna Cross” episode and this is just a Blu-Ray featurette. It’s a short interview with the writer of the script, whose life story is the inspiration for the film. Very interesting but again, short. You also get a digital disc for your other media players in this package.  

Wrapping Up: I really enjoyed this spunky, femme-centric film. It looks and sounds very good on Blu-Ray but colleagues also watching the basic DVD tell me it’s not really that much better if you care.

Drew did a great job shooting the whipping roller derby action and the personal stories are really well-developed and enjoyable. I’d say this is certainly worth a rental if you missed it and worth a definite buy for Drew, Ellen, Juliette Lewis or hey, roller derby fans!