Pump It Up: The Ultimate Beach Body Workout

Introduction

Woo! Yeah! Really feel that burn!! Really bounce those hips!!..and let`s go!! WooOO!!!

This is the story of six young girls; Fiona, Victoria, Ashley, Janine, Danielle and Stephen. By night, they are just mild-mannered models and dancers looking for their big break, but by day they are whisked away to Florida to indulge in some of the most mind-numbingly painful dancey fitness routines known to man…at least to me anyway.

In my role as a reviewer I feel I have to make sure every disc I receive is treated with the respect it deserves and so when I read "If the thought of getting into a bikini this Summer is filling you with dread.", and to be honest, it does, I knew there was no turning back. I had to try some of the routines…and was particularly looking forward to the advertised "Extended bums, tums and thighs section!" as mine are extending a little too much. After a quick shift of DVDs and piles of newspapers my exercise space was ready.

Being Florida, and being sunny, the girls very wisely wear very little. After 5 minutes of the `Pump it Up Hi energy dance section" I wished I was a little less clothes-heavy as well…and mishearing `Let`s see some lunging!` for `Let`s see some luncheon!` made me think I probably would after much longer.

I sat down and had a beer.

Fiona and the girls however kept on going, being the troupers that they are. "Open both your legs!" she cried...being very anatomically aware, and strangely enough so was I during a couple of the stretchier routines. The rest of the workout carried on in much the same vein as they all dutifully followed Fiona`s orders, from `Really push your bums out and squeeze your cheeks!!"...Stephen took it literally once or twice leading to more squeals from Fiona, though I think she was safe, to "Really keep yourself nice and straight!!".yes, well can`t have everything Stephen me old mate.

Video

The picture quality is absolutely fine, which would be expected from such a recent production. I was also happy that the direction (what there was of it) didn`t send the cameras flying around cutting to different people every 2 seconds so you can concentrate on the dancing.

Audio

As this is a Ministry of Sound DVD, we should expect high quality, and luckily we get it. The main `feature` is presented with or without `commentary` (by the delightful Fiona) and so if you decide not to have all the whoops and shouting the music volume is increased slightly and you can have your own little club in the privacy of your own home. All the songs are mixed seamlessly and I haven`t given my sub-woofer a good going over for a while. I suspect this annoyed the nearest neighbours, two floors below me.

Features

Extras include videos chosen from 5 of the songs used in the dance routines although I think this would be a more popular DVD if they were able to include Eric Prydz - `Call on Me` in this selection, but Fiona and her girls give it a shot while they`re dancing! I was impressed by the overall production standards on these videos, not only as they all feature scantily-clad women (I sense a pattern emerging here), but they are far more inventive than some videos you see nowadays. `Owner of a Lonely Heart` is hilarious, and there`s far more than a passing resemblance in `I see girls` to the `Death of a Sexist` scene from `The Meaning of Life` (so no marks for originality here.good song though!)

There is also a short behind the scenes montage with sections on `Casting`, `Costumes`, `Rehearsals` and `The Shoot` together with a page letting you know of a URL you can get to to pay for some associated ringtones, should you wish to do so. A shame they don`t have examples of these on the disk so you can hear beforehand what you`re paying over the odds for.

The health aspect is well looked after as well, as the warnings at the beginning and end of the disk on what to do before and after exercise cannot be fast forwarded or skipped, and this is also emphasised before the routines start.

Conclusion

I was pleasantly surprised by this disk, despite that fact that it`s a workout job demonstrated by people who quite plainly don`t need one, but then I would much rather have Fiona Fagan showing me how it`s done than.someone like me.