I’m tempted to dismiss Step Up as a trite and predictable amalgam of every teenage dance movie ever made. The story goes something like this: Good girl meets bad boy. They dance to catchy music, fall in love, realize all of their wildest dreams, and live happily ever after. The end. I could have told …
We’ve all seen this plot before: Outsider rebel kid gets in trouble one too many times. S/he is going to get sent off to reform school/Japan/Texas unless… said kid proves their mettle in a school/branch of the military where they sure as heck don’t belong. But hey, after a fist-fight/dance-off/car-race, it turns out that the …
It’s kind of funny that there is a formula to dance movies. Doesn’t anyone out there just, you know, dance for fun? To have a good time? Instead, dancing represents your deepest soul, and that ramshackle group of multi-ethnic streets kids in the deepest urban trenches are your true family, especially if you are a …
Now, I’m the first to admit that the Step Up movies are pure formula. Take a gritty/working class/inner city pretty young person and pair them with a hoity toity/rich/snobby/suburban pretty young person of the opposite sex, and have them fall in love because of their love for dancing. Just one of them is professionally trained, …