MOVIE REVIEW: Step Up - All In

Published Jul 25, 2014

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STEP UP – ALL IN

DIRECTOR: Trish Sie

CAST: Briana Evigan, Ryan Guzman, Alison Stoner, Stephen Boss, Adam G Sevani and Izabella Miko.

CLASSIFICATION: PG 13

RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes

RATING: ****

THERE are things in life that do not need critical analysis because you take away the fun in a good thing. If you watch WWE, the one thing you need to get over is that it is a scripted show, so things will appear too good to be true because they aren’t. But you watch it for the amusement.

The same goes with all the Rambo films: before you even know how it is going to go, you know at some point an angry muscular man with with a red bandanna is going to blow stuff up and kill a lot of men. But that doesn’t stop you from watching it, does it?

That’s how you should approach Step Up – All In. The story is never their strongest point and perhaps that’s a good thing because that would just get in the way. The franchise is about dance, it’s culture, what it means to those in it, what they are willing to do just to stay dancing and how it makes them feel to be on the dance floor.

You may be tricked into thinking the film is about hip hop dance, but as you patiently go through it, you will pick up that almost all dance genres are included. This swiftly takes us to Beyonce’s Who Runs The World video, where she fused some Pantsula in her routine. That’s the biggest lesson in Step Up – All In. The story amalgamates people from different walks of life.

Since the format is not a documentary, the production people in the movie have to come up with a story that we can get to care about. So if you look at it from that perspective, you will not go in there looking for Oscar-winning performances, but you will see people who are likely to be on the next Chris Brown or Usher video. They are taking over where Omarion and Marques Houston left off in You Got Served.

Now to the plot. In the previous Step Up film, we last saw the protagonists win a big dance-off with their dreams of moving from their small town to big California for their big break. Their leader Sean (played by Guzman) has managed to find a gym which his crew uses for everything between home and practice.

Soon, bills drown them and auditions are not giving any of them a chance and the reality they have to face is that they should go back home. Feeling let down by his group, Sean decides to join forces with Moose (played by Sevani) and they form a team made of old dancers from previous movies. They all train hard to prepare for a big dance-off in Las Vegas, where the winner gets to perform for three years as a headlining act in Sin City. The movie boasts twists that will keep you guessing right till the end.

If you liked the previous Step Up movies, You Got Served and a bit of Bring It On, you will enjoy this.

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