Michael Lown
BartoStep Up 2 the Streets: but please hold hands as you cross the road
March 31st 2008 03:40
If we are to be frank, no one anywhere was crying out for a sequel to the 2006 film Step Up. But sometimes people just don’t know what’s good for them, which is why there is a special brand of people called the ‘movie executive’. They are here to make all the tough necessary choices. One of those choices that the world apparently couldn’t do without was to bankroll Step Up 2 the Streets.
For those above the age of 13 that will admit to having seen it, Step Up was a guilty pleasure. It had neat choreography, charismatic leads and little plot. It all culminated in ‘the dance’, the one everyone has been building towards for the length of the movie, and happy endings all round.
Step Up 2 the Streets is exactly the same… minus the charisma. Also, if it is possible, I would go so far to say it has even less plot. I do in fact believe that before throwing together the five pages that must have been the script, writers Toni Ann Johnson and Karen Barna first listed the soundtrack – it does have more dialogue than any individual character.
That, of course, is why people will see this. Pretty people dancing well to hip-shaking music. The dancing is certainly of the highest quality, more impressive than the first movie.
The ludicrously white bread Andie (brought to us by Briana Evigan) is getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. To remove her from all the crime and violent dance outbursts she is sent to an elite school of the arts (upon the suggestion of Channing Tatum from the original flick, dropping in long enough to establish the one tenuous link of continuity, before disappearing to beat up Ryan Phillippe in some war movie). At the school she forms a dance crew with other outcasts, finds love and competes in The Streets, an illegal dance competition (inexplicably illegal, the last time anyone tried to make dancing seem dangerous was in Footloose).
Now add a dance sequence between every word of the above sentence and you have yourself a movie.
While the dancing will strike awe into the hearts of many (myself included), the acting may cause even more to cringe for the length of the film. At least it’s not the worst, most ill-advised sequel to a dance happy movie. That honour goes to Grease 2 (Save the Last Dance 2 does exist and is stupid, but no one really knows about its existence – a saving grace).
For those above the age of 13 that will admit to having seen it, Step Up was a guilty pleasure. It had neat choreography, charismatic leads and little plot. It all culminated in ‘the dance’, the one everyone has been building towards for the length of the movie, and happy endings all round.
Step Up 2 the Streets is exactly the same… minus the charisma. Also, if it is possible, I would go so far to say it has even less plot. I do in fact believe that before throwing together the five pages that must have been the script, writers Toni Ann Johnson and Karen Barna first listed the soundtrack – it does have more dialogue than any individual character.
That, of course, is why people will see this. Pretty people dancing well to hip-shaking music. The dancing is certainly of the highest quality, more impressive than the first movie.
The ludicrously white bread Andie (brought to us by Briana Evigan) is getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. To remove her from all the crime and violent dance outbursts she is sent to an elite school of the arts (upon the suggestion of Channing Tatum from the original flick, dropping in long enough to establish the one tenuous link of continuity, before disappearing to beat up Ryan Phillippe in some war movie). At the school she forms a dance crew with other outcasts, finds love and competes in The Streets, an illegal dance competition (inexplicably illegal, the last time anyone tried to make dancing seem dangerous was in Footloose).
Now add a dance sequence between every word of the above sentence and you have yourself a movie.
While the dancing will strike awe into the hearts of many (myself included), the acting may cause even more to cringe for the length of the film. At least it’s not the worst, most ill-advised sequel to a dance happy movie. That honour goes to Grease 2 (Save the Last Dance 2 does exist and is stupid, but no one really knows about its existence – a saving grace).
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