Review for Step Up 2: The Streets

This film feels like a combination between “Flashdance”, “My Fair Lady” and “Eight Mile”, with a smattering of ballet thrown in for good measure. We loved it; it gets your feet tapping and your arms wanting to do a wave. This is the best dance film for many a year.

For dance fans this will be a five star, for mass appeal a four star.

Andie (Briana Evigan) a young Baltimore girl gives a monologue describing her mother and how she told her to live her life “Be yourself, life’s too short to live it as somebody else”.

The opening scene takes place in a subway station. We see a guy getting on the train looking suspicious, then as the other passengers stare at him, suddenly music starts, he whips off his jacket and dons a brightly painted mask and begins to dance in the aisle. With the unsuspecting commuters agog he jumps on chairs next to other passengers, who also become masked dancers, until there are at least six people dancing in the subway car, much to the amazement and consternation of the innocent passengers.

We see that it is all being filmed on a handheld camera. As the train pulls into the next station the transport police are waiting, leading to a spectacular dance chase as acrobatics and free-running are used to evade the police.

Andie returns to the home of her guardian (her mothers’ best friend) to be greeted by the news that the antics of her and her friends are all over the news and that they are being branded as public nuisances and criminals. Her guardian says that she has had enough and is packing her off to stay with her aunt in Texas.

With this news she heads off to the local Hip Hop club, The Dragon. Here she meets an old friend who is now a famous street dancer. She tells him of her woes and he explains that her guardian is willing to give her another chance if she agrees to attend the MSA (School of Arts). She resists, but agrees that if he beats her in a dance off she will try it out.

We now see a stunning display, with the use of small floor trampolines which are just the width of a fit dancer (all I can say is there must have been a lot of sore body parts in rehearsals!) with somersaults and spectacular jumps. Andie loses and heads home after meeting with a stranger in the crowd who tries to compliment her but fails miserably. Her friend explains to her guardian about the MSA, and she agrees that this is her very last chance to stay at home.

Now the story begins in earnest, as she starts at her new school and has to battle with lessons and a not very supportive teacher on the one hand, and on the other her commitments to the 410 (her ‘crew’) and the forthcoming “Streets”, the local dance competition.

Andie and the stranger from the club, Chase (Robert Hoffman) team up with the school misfits to challenge her old crew in the street wars. Throughout failure and angst they battle for their right to dance, culminating in a spectacular dance finale.

The special features on the disc are very good too; the deleted scenes show that the middle of the film could have had a very different context: the film is far friendlier with these scenes on the cutting room floor; it shows very well how the editor can make the film.

The making of takes us through the cast selection and rehearsals, not easy for a film of this nature and also shows the full versions of the dances performed at ‘The Streets’.

All in all this film is brilliant fun and a must see for any fans of dance movies out there!

by: Roadrash (roadrash at live dot co dot uk)