"Step Up"
Director: Anne Fletcher
Fien Print Rating: 28
In a Nutshell: So, um, I *think* the movie I saw last night was called "Step Up," but I may be confusing it with "Stick It." That brings me to today's pitch... It's the story of a beautiful gal from the suburbs whose father loses everything in a shady real estate deal (thing Ione Skye in "Say Anything"). The family has to move to the ghetto somewhere -- her life goes from a pop soundtrack to something with a pounding bass beat. She's a fish out of water. As a result, she loses her sense of self-worth. In the ghetto, she meets a young hood who does convenience store robberies. She sees his swagger and wants to recover her mojo. After one botched robbery, she thinks she'll never be a good thief, but he encourages her not to give up, to never give up. In the end, they fall in love and she uses the proceeds from her heists to buy the family home in the burbs back. I call it... "Stick It Up." As my co-worker Rick observes, it's "Save the Last Dance" meets "Bonnie and Clyde." I'm prepared to quit my job tomorrow to write this one for the right deal. Any takers? Oh... What did I think of "Step Up"? Well, it's impressive how few cliches they manage to miss in the course of a 99 minute movie and also impressive how little chemistry leads Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan have. The fact that both actors are, indeed, attractive, athletic and physically gifted and the fact that both seem to be able to dance, doesn't mean that there are any sparks when they do it together. Also, both leads are 25+ and they both look EXACTLY their ages, which makes the idea of either of them being high school students seem really really really funny at times. And only Rachel Griffiths and her agent know what she's doing in this movie. Tis a mystery. I was also really disappointed that at no point did any character urge another character to "Step Up!" I assure you that in "Stick It Up," characters will constantly be telling each other to "Stick It Up!"
There may be a review of this one up on Zap2it on Friday, Aug. 11, but it may not be worth it.
Am I weird? I wanted to see Stick It and now I want to see Step Up. I am not weird, I think, but more...mentally unbalanced. Although it does pain me to find out that no one urges anyone else to "step up" during the entire film. What a missed opportunity.
ReplyDeleteBut I want to see Stick It Up more than anything. Can you make that happen?
I think I'm going to write a screenplay called "Step It Up" about a guy named Johnson who's last three performance evaluations have been decidedly underwhelming. If he doesn't improve before his next evaluation, his bonus will be judged on scale C instead of scale B!!!
ReplyDeleteBut I will buy a ticket to your movie too.