Ray reviews STEP UP 2 THE STREETS: THE DANCE-OFF EDITION!

As I said in my review of HOW SHE MOVE, I just don't understand the whole dancing movie phenomenon. Angry urban kids, faced with tough choices in life and love, decide to settle their problems by dancing at each other. WOW. NEAT. The latest attempt to cash in on the craze is STEP UP 2 THE STREETS, a quasi-sequel to the surprise hit of 2006. THE FILMSTEP UP 2 follows the exploits of a young street dance names Andie (BRIANA EVIGAN), a promising classical dancer who falls in with a group of street performers who call themselves 410. The group is led by a sociopathic overlord named Tuck (BLACK THOMAS), who jealously attempts to thwart her success as she goes to a ritzy college full of snobbish rich kids. Wanna guess how it turns out? The original STEP UP benefited from being the first of the modern dance films to achieve success. It also contained a magnetic, charismatic performance by studly newcomer CHANNING TATUM, who graciously lends this sequel a bit of his presence for good measure. The original also had potent chemistry between Tatum and JENNA DEWAN. This film has none of that. Despite the brief and welcome appearance by Tatum, this film has almost no memorable characters or performances. The only actor even trying is Thomas, and even he is hampered by a poorly-written, cliched villain character. Frankly, I even thought the dancing - the lifeblood of films like this - was lackluster and unimaginative. While I certainly cannot move like the people here, the dancing seemed fairly standard. The net effect of this is to undercut the drama necessary in a film like this. I have no idea who is watching these movies, but please stop. EXTRAS Mostly the extras are concerned with music videos of some of the songs in the film, as well as some boring outtakes. Two behind the scenes docs examine the urban dance genre, as well as the making of this film. Nothing too exciting, really. OVERALL I can't recommend it to anybody except hardcore dance movie fans - I can't believe I even insinuated that - who simply must have every single dance film ever made. Other than that, skip it.