Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Sharni Vinson *really, she's the only name that rings a bell*
Directed By:
Jon Chu
I wanted to tackle a dance movie for a little while now. America's obsession with dancing is the source of endless fascination to me. From the healthy days where Gene Kelly tap-danced to express his overflowing love for Debbie Reynolds and Olivia Newton-John made this sensual leather-clad face off with John Travolta, the perception of dancing in America (and dancing, period) has come a long way. It's been getting some considerable steam from Hollywood's propaganda machine as a mean of saving youth from itself. Dancing is now the sexy and edgy way of being yourself and find true love. It's a non-violent cure for every ill in existence. Now, unless you're a top-notch break-dancer or a mean tango dancer, you're not going to get laid anytime soon from dancing, which leads the conspiracy theorist in me to believe all these efforts are financed by China, to turn young Occidentals into sissies.
I had the pleasure to "stumble" upon Step Up 3D at the in-laws during the Christmas break. It's a tradition over there to watch wonderfully commercial movies for the Holidays. Two years ago I discovered High School: The Musical, just to give you a point of reference. It's enjoyable as the in-laws give me the right to color-comment. I'm a bit late on the Step Up frenzy as the third installment doesn't exactly let you in the gang innuendos, but it's about that street dancing crew called the Pirates who are lead by charismatic leader Luke (Rick Malambri). They are poor, but pure of heart. They train in a facility called "The Vault" and they have this grudge with this rival crew called the Samurai (*sigh*), who are rich and spoiled and very good dancers too. I think they happen to own "The Vault", but I'm not sure. I was too busy commenting and getting over the Christmas party to care about that detail.
If you think that's a simplistic enough plot, you should hear the dialogs. Luke has this new dancers joining the Pirate, Natalie (Vinson). She's hot and she dances like the devil, but she also happens to be the sister of the Samurai leader Julien (Joe Slaughter), who was once the lead Pirate, but got kicked out for fixing a losing performance. Natalie is Julien's spy, but she happens to fall in love with Luke, because of the way he dances (hot male bod might have helped a little bit, but they keep quiet about that). Well, Natalie doesn't know Julien was kicked out for being a prick. When she finds out, the movie grants us its best one liner (best one liners come from Natalie and Julien): "You didn't tell me you were kicked out for cheating, you told me Luke was jealous". Another favorite of mine was when Natalie leaves with Luke at a party, Julien says: "Don't listen to him. He's a loser".
But let's skim on the plot and go to the movie's main point. Dancing. Step Up 3D, as its name implies, was made for 3D shooting and those movies are notorious for stepping back on plot in order to leave creative room for 3D usage. Those young actors dance good. Very good. No style in particular though, a mix of hip-hop dances, ballet, tap dance. They make it look easy. That's well done. The problem I have with that is that it's selling kids a false representation of something. I have a good friend who's involved in the hip-hop dancing scene and there's nothing like that. People dance in basements and school gymnasiums. There's no choreographed rain style dancing. There's also no World Jam to prove your skills in front of an audience of horny young teenagers. Choosing to be a dancer for a lifestyle will never give you the approbation of anyone as you grow older. Not if you don't have a second job to support you. In a sense it's like being a writer. You don't live off this if you're not the best.
Kudos to Hollywood for sexualizing something non-violent. I'm a bit concerned with the energy they spend covering the subject. After seeing The Fighter a week before, a realistic portrait of boxing, I think it's about time movies stop demonize contact sports. It's not bad to hit people in a controlled atmosphere. It gives you self confidence and makes you a better human being outside. Bottom line, I think I'm not impressed by any attempt to sexualize anything.
SCORE:41%
