MOVIE OF THE WEEK (7/27/12): STEP UP: REVOLUTION
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Ryan Guzman, Kathryn McCormick, Misha Gabriel, Stephen "tWitch" Boss, Cleopatra Coleman, Mari Koda, Chadd Smith, Mario Ernesto Sanchez and Peter Gallagher
WRITER(S): Jenny Mayer
DIRECTOR: Scott Speer
THE PLOT: Step Up: Revolution finds the franchise taking its talents down to South Beach. It's here that we are introduced to a group of classic car enthusiasts driving down Ocean Avenue before they all get stuck in what would seem to be an ordinary but-no-less inconvenient traffic jam.
Except this is no ordinary traffic jam - this is going to be the public coming out part of "The Mob," a very well-trained, in-shape dancing flash mob led by Eddie (Misha Gabriel, one several dancers featured in the rehearsal footage in the Michael Jackson documentary This is It) and Sean (MMA fighter/model Ryan Guzman in his feature film debut). Staging such public displays is the way Eddie and Sean plan to have The Mob win a YouTube contest where the first video to reach 10 million hits wins $100,000.
By day, however, Eddie and Sean are employees at a very posh South Beach hotel ... Which just so happens to be the place the latter runs into Emily (So You Think You Can Dance season 6 finalist Kathryn McCormick). An aspiring dancer who is in town prepping for an audition with a prestigious company, Emily and Sean instantly hit things off ...
Problem is, Emily's dad Bill (Peter Gallagher in yet another suit-and-tie businessman role) is not a big fan of her career choices. In fact, he would be a lot happier if she would just come work for the family business in Cleveland once he leaves Miami. Why is in he in Miami, you ask? Because his company is seeking to purchase and build up an area of land in town ... Which of course just so happens to be the same area where Sean lives and he and the rest of the mob hang out at the bar run by Ricky (Mario Ernesto Sanchez).
Once the plans of Emily's dad become known, it seems The Mob will have to shift its focus from winning the YouTube contest to saving the strip - and she wants to help. But can Sean keep Emily's true identity a secret from his friends long enough to win ... While she at the same struggles to hide her involvement with The Mob secret from her father and pursue her dreams of being a dancer at the same time.
It looks like the time has come for Sean and Emily to "step up" ...
Except this is no ordinary traffic jam - this is going to be the public coming out part of "The Mob," a very well-trained, in-shape dancing flash mob led by Eddie (Misha Gabriel, one several dancers featured in the rehearsal footage in the Michael Jackson documentary This is It) and Sean (MMA fighter/model Ryan Guzman in his feature film debut). Staging such public displays is the way Eddie and Sean plan to have The Mob win a YouTube contest where the first video to reach 10 million hits wins $100,000.
By day, however, Eddie and Sean are employees at a very posh South Beach hotel ... Which just so happens to be the place the latter runs into Emily (So You Think You Can Dance season 6 finalist Kathryn McCormick). An aspiring dancer who is in town prepping for an audition with a prestigious company, Emily and Sean instantly hit things off ...
Problem is, Emily's dad Bill (Peter Gallagher in yet another suit-and-tie businessman role) is not a big fan of her career choices. In fact, he would be a lot happier if she would just come work for the family business in Cleveland once he leaves Miami. Why is in he in Miami, you ask? Because his company is seeking to purchase and build up an area of land in town ... Which of course just so happens to be the same area where Sean lives and he and the rest of the mob hang out at the bar run by Ricky (Mario Ernesto Sanchez).
Once the plans of Emily's dad become known, it seems The Mob will have to shift its focus from winning the YouTube contest to saving the strip - and she wants to help. But can Sean keep Emily's true identity a secret from his friends long enough to win ... While she at the same struggles to hide her involvement with The Mob secret from her father and pursue her dreams of being a dancer at the same time.
It looks like the time has come for Sean and Emily to "step up" ...
THE TAKE: When any film franchise enters its fourth chapter, it's pretty much bound to become a bit of a parody of itself. Be it any of the Star Wars prequels, any of the Police Academy or Halloween sequels, it seems that once a film ventures past trilogy territory, it has a hard time not completely falling off the proverbial rails. And while the Step Up series - which help give rise to Mr. Magic Mike himself, Channing Tatum - has never been about the acting, I must say this about Step Up: Revolution: The film as a whole is fairly entertaining ... It would just be a lot better if it weren't riddled with cliche after cliche after cliche masquerading as original work.
Whereas the current queen of musicals, Julianne Hough, has shown her love for bringing a more extroverted flair to the role of the small town girl in her recent musical outings, McCormick does a nice job in making Emily more than a one-note character. She's more like Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance than she would likely be compared to, but she's good in her role. Likewise, Guzman shows he has options if he doesn't wish to continue attempting to put other shirtless men in a rear naked choke for a living, bringing a natural charm to his role as Sean. The chemistry between Guzman and McCormick is palpable and they work together better than a lot of recent romantic/first date movie duos have lately.
The dancing sequences are fairly on point for the most part. Director Scott Speer maximizes the talents of his cast to the utmost of their potential choreography wise, coming up with some really - dare I say artistic - intriguing routines throughout the film. (The inevitable ending dance blowout scene, however, actually pales in comparison to the innovation and overall enjoyment of the previous sequences.) To his credit, Speer brings out some beautiful visuals to the film, making South Beach Miami and active, featured player in the film with the 3D creating a better cinematic experience than many of its competitors.
Here's where Revolution falls apart: Cheesy dialogue, predictable, stiff antagonists and a plot essentially ripped right from the pages of Breakin' II: Electric Boogaloo.
Really, if you switched out the music and removed some (OK, most) of the 80s cheesiness, you have the same movie almost down to the dance steps. Peter Gallagher is the as about as stiff and clichéd as his character could be, the dialogue actually detracts from the effort the actors put forth and for some inexplicable reason, Speer switches the tone from somewhat serious to a Saved By the Bell-like level of storytelling during the film's last 25 minutes. It almost ends up undoing the film as a whole ... But chances are good that if you paid to see Step Up: Revolution, you're going to be fine with those last 25 minutes anyway.
Whereas the current queen of musicals, Julianne Hough, has shown her love for bringing a more extroverted flair to the role of the small town girl in her recent musical outings, McCormick does a nice job in making Emily more than a one-note character. She's more like Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance than she would likely be compared to, but she's good in her role. Likewise, Guzman shows he has options if he doesn't wish to continue attempting to put other shirtless men in a rear naked choke for a living, bringing a natural charm to his role as Sean. The chemistry between Guzman and McCormick is palpable and they work together better than a lot of recent romantic/first date movie duos have lately.
The dancing sequences are fairly on point for the most part. Director Scott Speer maximizes the talents of his cast to the utmost of their potential choreography wise, coming up with some really - dare I say artistic - intriguing routines throughout the film. (The inevitable ending dance blowout scene, however, actually pales in comparison to the innovation and overall enjoyment of the previous sequences.) To his credit, Speer brings out some beautiful visuals to the film, making South Beach Miami and active, featured player in the film with the 3D creating a better cinematic experience than many of its competitors.
Here's where Revolution falls apart: Cheesy dialogue, predictable, stiff antagonists and a plot essentially ripped right from the pages of Breakin' II: Electric Boogaloo.
Really, if you switched out the music and removed some (OK, most) of the 80s cheesiness, you have the same movie almost down to the dance steps. Peter Gallagher is the as about as stiff and clichéd as his character could be, the dialogue actually detracts from the effort the actors put forth and for some inexplicable reason, Speer switches the tone from somewhat serious to a Saved By the Bell-like level of storytelling during the film's last 25 minutes. It almost ends up undoing the film as a whole ... But chances are good that if you paid to see Step Up: Revolution, you're going to be fine with those last 25 minutes anyway.
PARTING SHOT: A film where the acting and dancing are far better than the dialogue and plot they are working with, Step Up: Revolution isn't one at all ... But it is a fairly entertaining entry into the film franchise's ongoing chapters of ripped bodies making hot moves to upbeat hip-hop/dance music.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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