Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower — twice — by convincing a scrap dealer that the Parisian landmark would be dismantled, and then bribing the gullible fool. Charles Ponzi earned $250 000 a day — not bad for 1920 — with his promises of high investment returns. Forty years later, Frank Abagnale successfully passed himself off as an airline pilot, university lecturer, doctor, and attorney, all the while passing bad cheques worth about $2.5-million. And Bernie Madoff lost his investors $65-billion through the "largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person".

Amateurs. This is the greatest con of all time, at least according to two gridiron jocks: pretend to be a cheerleader, go to the annual inter-schools cheer champ, and score with all the chicks. Shooting fish in a barrel.

The only problem: just about everybody is onto their scheme. Not that most of the girls mind, though — having straight men around is a bit of a novelty really. Oh, and then the inevitable happens. No, they don't develop a, uhm, muscle sprain during their extra-curricular activities. Get your mind out of the gutter. Instead Shawn (the brains of the operation) loses his mojo when he falls for Carly, the head cheerleader. Nick (the brawn) starts to get into this dance choreography thing, pompoms and all. And the clichés just keep on coming.

There's, to paraphrase Nick, the "douche bag" boyfriend; always-hot lesbians; camp-as-a-row-of-tents male cheerleaders; final competition showdown with bitchy rivals; and Dr Phil-isms like "you've got to risk it to get the biscuit" and "life's what happens while you're making other plans".

But 'Fired Up!' takes none of these conventions too seriously. The plot may be rudimentary, relying more on individual scenes than an overarching story, but is packed with astute observations, rapid-fire one-liners and — oddly — a general disdain for underdog-done-good and romcom routines. Even the expected boy loses girl routine feels like it was added as an afterthought.

And in this environment, where people mouth along to the dialogue of Kirsten Dunst cheerleading classic 'Bring It On' and chants replace normal conversation, the lead actors quite literally run amok. The cheeky Eric Christian Olsen is especially on form, channelling his inner Will Ferrell as Nick, while that guy from that film John Michael Higgins brings the crazy as the camp camp leader.

Despite the many flaws, it's hard not to fall for 'Fired Up!'

Now that's a good con.