Step Up

Director: Anne Fletcher
Starring: Channing Tatum, Damaine Radcliff, De'Shawn Wasington
Genre: Romance/Drama
Rating: 2.0

Looking for a different movie experience? You need not search anymore. Step Up is a movie filled with dance moves bursting with energy and just the right pizzazz.
Choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher made this movie possible with a little help of the one thing that she knows best: dancing. It all begins with the seditious Tyler Gage(Channing Tatum) together with his gang Mac(Damaine Radcliff) and Skinny(De'Shawn Washington) living the very life of a bum. Growing up in the gritty streets of Baltimore has been a harsh experience for Tyler. Once the trio barged in the Maryland School of Arts and trashed the place, but unfortunately, the gang was busted, and Tyler ends up working as a janitor in the school as punisment. There he met Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan), a dancer left in frustration after her partner broke into an ankle sprain. Here is where Tyler moves into the scene to replace Nora's partner. As soon as the two begins their training together, sparks flew in all direction and before they knew it, they are already into something more than just being dance partners.
Although the movie has that follow-you-dream undertone, Step Up misses on some points on being a two-thumbs up kind of movie. It has the best dancers, but just mediocre actors. Both Tatum and Dewan revealed signs of stiffness and awkwardness towards their own role. Other noticeable flaws of the movie are the sudden changes of heart and shifting of scenes, which left so many sub-stories hanging and the audience wondering. Because of this, viewers might have tendencies of being bored and confused as the film progresses on. Fletcher could have done a better job by polishing the filmsy storyline of Step Up for it to be a decent dance movie. It's not just the flashy productions that make such kind of movie striking to the viewers. Rather, it must be a combination of a sensible plot and, of course, showy numbers so as to keep the attention of the audience from floating away. The movie focused too much on the dance aspect that Fletcher overlooked the lacking of substance in the film's story.