Fired Up!

Taking place in Illinois, almost all of the filming shots of the high school in the film were taken at South Pasadena High School in 2008. However, the hallway scene was filmed at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California. To make filming easier, the fictional Gerald R. Ford High School's mascot was made the "Tigers" since South Pasadena High's mascot is a tiger. Some of the South Pasadena Tigers Football team's gear such as pads, were borrowed for use in the film. However, filming for the football game scene took place at Calabasas High School. The filming of the pool scene took place at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. The cheerleader camp was filmed at Occidental College, which incidentally also has the tiger as a mascot. In one of the early scenes, the train passing by is the Metro Gold Line (LACMTA) Pasadena line. The location where the cheerleaders were practicing was filmed in the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

When the film was released, it was screened to negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 25% based on 104 reviews, with an average score of 3.93/10. The site's consensus states: "Though not as raunchy or juvenile as the average teen comedy, Fired Up is also not as funny."[2] Metacritic gave the film a "generally unfavorable" score of 31% based on a normalized average of 18 reviews.[3] A common criticism,[4][5] addressed by director Will Gluck in the film's commentary track, is that the filmmakers "casted a little bit older." Star Eric Christian Olsen adds, "If by 'older,' you mean thirteen years!" Lead actors Olsen and Nicholas D'Agosto were playing high school students at the ages 30 and 27 at the time of filming, respectively. Gluck also points out Roger Ebert's and the New York Times's negative reviews specifically, as well as a mention of the Washington Post. He, however, omits the Washington Post's backhanded compliment that "Gluck directs with frantic, go-for-broke pacing, which is what you do when your reserves of wit are bankrupt." One of the more positive reviews, from Hollywood.com, admits it's satisfying for the audience it's aimed towards: "An outrageous, sex-obsessed teen comedy that’s something to cheer about -- especially if you’re 16."

The film was considered financially unsuccessful. Fired Up! had a budget of $20 million and took in a box office gross of $18,599,102 worldwide before leaving theaters. It opened up to the U.S. box office at number 9 with $5.4 million behind films like Paul Blart: Mall Cop, which was in its sixth week of release at the time, and Confessions of a Shopaholic, in its second.[6] On the DVD commentary, the business it did (or lack thereof) is discussed, with director Will Gluck stating, "In retrospect, we probably should have done R, but I kind of like the idea of doing a movie that everyone can go see, and not just 'over 18 or have to sneak into it.'" It left American cinemas after seven weeks.