Hmm...

It was actually quite good...

8.5/10 B

STEP UP stars Channing Tatum as Tyler Gage and Jenna Dewan as Nora Clark. Tyler Gage is a foster child who lives in the wrong side of the neighborhood. He best friends are Mac (Damaine Radcliffe) and Mac's little tag along brother Skinny (De'Shawnn Washington), and one of their main activities is stealing cars and bringing them to a friends garage to be sold. After Tyler gets ina fight at a party and a gun is a pulled, the three quickly leave. In the street, they start fooling around and Tyler accidentally throws a bottle into the window of a building. Skinny says it is a performing arts school, but Mac and Tyler don't believe him. This leads the three of them to crawl through the broken window and explore the school. They find themselves in the auditorium where a massive set has been constructed on the stage. They decide to trash it, picking up the pillars and throwing them across the room, trying on the costumes, etc. A security guard runs out and catches Mac, and Tyler, who is hiding, tells Skinny to run. Then, he tackles the security guard, allowing Mac to run and himself to take the fall. In court, the judge decides that Tyler will complete 200 hours of community service at the performing arts school.

Enter Nora Clark. She's a senior at the school and preparing for her senior showcase. Her partner Andrew (Tim Lacatena), however, has just sprained his ankle and cannot rehearse with her for the showcase. Thus Nora sets out to find a new partner to practice with until Andrew is better. She auditions sophomores and freshman for the part, but none of them are good enough to pull the routine off. Tyler, who has been cleaning the school as his service, witnesses her tryouts. He offers to be her dance partner knowing that she saw him dancing in the street the other day. She at first refuses and he shrugs it off, saying he was just trying to help her. As he begins to walk away, she calls for him to wait, and tells him to catch her as she runs toward him. He does it without missing a beat, lifting her in the air and bringing her down, and asking "What now?" This is all the confirmation Nora needs. She takes Tyler to Director Gordon's office (Rachel Griffiths) and convinces her to allow Tyler to be her dance partner as his community service. After much hesitation, Director Gordon agrees.

The movie starts from here as the boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the prima ballerina begin to rehearse together for her big number. The two stars can actually dance, and it's refreshing to see full body shots as opposed to shots of their feet and upper body. Their chemistry is not the greatest though, and the dialog can sometimes be a bit cheesy. They go through the plot points that other dance movies have done so many times before - struggling to get the dance down; incorporating hip hop and ballet; the two falling in love with each other, despite the fact that Nora already has a boyfriend; the friends that don't understand why Tyler would rather dance for the school than play basketball or steal cars; the mother who doesn't want her daughter to dance, but comes around in the end and says she's proud of her. And, of course, the final dance scene where everything comes together. However, although the movie hits all the same plot points that we've seen done in movies like Save the Last Dance, it still manages to somehow come together and work. You care about the characters and you care about what happens. You want to see Tyler change from the reckless thug and finally realize that he loves to dance and that just might be his calling. And you want them to succeed at the end of the move, at the final dance scene where the heads of dance companies are coming to see Nora dance.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and I'm glad it's going to have a good opening. I will definately see it again on DVD and more than likely even add it to my collection.

B+

So I was dragged/tricked into seeing Step Up tonight...

And I liked it a lot, surprisingly.

Great soundtrack, good chemistry between Tatum and the new love of my life, Jenna Dewan. Step Up is a pretty fun film, although basically Save the Last Dance 2.

B

You didn't laugh when ChipMunky saw it...

It was very similar to Save the Last Dance, except that Save the Last Dance was much better (imo). I could not picture channing tatum as a high schol student. He just didn't fit. Though he was believable in She's the Man as a high schooler, but not in this movie. maybe it was the baggy clothing.

The dancing was okay, but i liked the dancing more in save the last dance and the best dancing movie (imo) was you got served.

The movie was pretty good though.

That's because I know ChipMunky probably got some pussy after it. You however....

I got some Taco Bell after it.

And you obviously missed the "TRICKED/DRAGGED" part.

Hmm, Taco Bell is right up there with pussy. So I give you a little leeway now.

And I'm sure you were tricked into seeing it. Like you couldn't say, "no bitch let's see SoaP again."

C-

I said something early this year, mentioning that sometimes a movie can be cliched and conventional if it ultimatley can work through that to be enjoyable and entertaining, but there is a line. With Step Up, my god does it ever cross it. This is probably the most cliched movie I have ever seen, it's definitley right up there, and when it just gets that predictable, it becomes a bit of a bore. Like seriously, the special view she discovered as a child? The little urban brother who gets shot? The friend who breaks off for him because he ditched him to dance with the girl? Man. And don't get me started on the relationship between the leads, I won't go there much. One thing in specific that irked me for example was that upon first meeting him, she automatically shows big time animosity towards him, but why? He never made fun of her, he never talked down to her, he never insulted her, in fact he was friendly and nice every time they had met, and in fact she was attracted to him. But yet she just talks mean to him, mostly for again the cliche of leads disliking each other before obviously, hooking up.

The acting was mostly poor, wooden and you never felt any real chemistry between the two. Screenplay was awful. And above all else, the movie was shallow, it never had the ability to really create these people as characters. Again, these things could be looked over if the movie was entertaining and fun, but it just isn't. There isn't even any humor, it actually takes itself seriously. Dancing was decent, but I've seen better. Overall, a forgettable and lame mess of a movie, that takes no steps to try and make it.

Not enough dance numbers for this kind of movie and the love story wasn't great as well. The choreography and music are really good here.