Step Up 2 the Streets: Movie Review (2008)

Directed by Jon M. Chu, written by Toni Ann Johnson and Karen Barna, 98 minutes, rated PG-13.

Stripped of surprises and coasting on cliches, the new Jon M. Chu movie, "Step Up 2 the Streets,” is a sequel to 2006’s “Step Up," which pinned much of its hopes on its two leads--former model Channing Tatum, whose Tyler Gage was a Baltimore tough with a hard-knock, hip-hop life, and Jenna Dewan, whose Nora was a well-to-do dancer finishing her senior year at the Maryland School for the Arts.

Essentially, it was up to these two to generate whatever interest and tension the movie had, which wasn’t much since each actor was given the burden of making something out of nothing. And yet for the movie--and for audiences--the good news was that both Tatum and Dewan were enough to best the bum script. They were likeable, their dance talent was undeniable, and their modest chemistry went some way in lifting the movie above the mediocrity it otherwise courted.

The same proves true for the sequel, which takes a giant leap of faith by offering audiences something absolutely new.

In this case, the female lead is the one with the tough exterior and the male lead is the one who comes from a place of academic privilege. That’s a radical stretch, I know, and the writers must have fallen off pointe in their struggle to come up with the premise, but there you have it. And here’s something more--the movie also recalls elements of Mariah Carey's ill-fated 2001 movie "Glitter.” Yes, “Glitter,” which for months put that star’s career in the gutter.

In that film, Carey’s Billie Frank cuts loose vocally at a crowded club, where her champion, a DJ named Dice (Max Beesley), eventually works his magic to change her life. In "Step Up 2 the Streets," Briana Evigan's orphaned Andie cuts loose with some kick moves at a club, which catches the eye of Chase (Robert Hoffman), who is so impressed by what he sees in Briana’s crazed crunk that he works his own magic to get her admitted into Maryland’s coveted School for the Arts.

And that’s where trouble ignites. Who wants to bet that abrasive Andie isn’t exactly a seamless fit amid her stuffy new peers? And that by going to school, she’ll have a falling out with the members of the 410, a street dance team known for causing dancing chaos in public and with whom Andie belongs? Also, could it be that drama awaits Andie and Chase as they grow closer? And what of Chase’s own dreams--might they flourish as he and Andie…err…step up 2 the streets for a dance showdown?

As predictable as all this is and as shameless as the movie is in how it overlooks the realities of race in the inner city, it only really lags when its characters are asked to speak and act--not dance. So, the good news is that they mostly do the latter--and quite well, as the ending of the movie proves with a street dance in the rain that’s fun to watch, as is another scene of salsa that occurs, naturally, at a barbecue.

All of this feverish bending, twirling, twisting and snapping of the body is so infused with attitude, in fact, that it allows the film and its characters to live and breathe in ways that run counter to the movie’s otherwise rhythmless script.

Grade: C+

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