Step Up All In, English Hollywood Film Movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * 1/2

Step Up All In, English Hollywood Film Movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * 1/2

    

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#StepUp:AllIn(English) Rating: * * ½  the fifth edition of the step up franchise Steps up the heat on the dance floor but the story that’s holding it together is just so flimsy that it becomes hard to get attached! The gravity-defying, acrobatic extravaganzas are visually exciting but the narrative in between begs for a course correction!. #RyanGuzman #BrianaEvigan #StephenBoss #TrishSie

English film review

Johnson Thomas

A step sideways!

Film: Step up: All In

Cast: Adam G. Sevani, Alyson Stoner, Briana Evigan, Izabella Miko, Misha Gabriel, Ryan Guzman, Stephen "Twitch" Boss

Director: Trish Sie

Rating: *  * ½

Running Time: 112 min.

Synopsis:A ragtag dance troupe compete to win a lucrative three-year contract at a Las Vegas casino in this installment of the energetic dance-movie franchise.

 

This is a genre pic and Dance is it’s main ingredient- as expected surely?  But as genre pics go and in particular, the Step-up franchise, this one’s a step down. There’s not much of a story, the plot goes all over the place and the performances are nothing short of static. Too many contrivances make it all so tedious and boring. And the Dance when it comes about, and even though high on energy and acrobatics, is not as spectacular as it ought to be.

Director Trish Sie’s feature debut, with a script from John Swetnam, begins well. Sean (Ryan Guzman) and his pals in the dance crew The Mob, work their butts off at commercial auditions while wearing ridiculous costumes and incorporating various products. It’s  a sorry plight alright. After moving from Miami to Los Angeles with a winning spot in the Nike ad, they move from dance to advertising to earn some bread.Not a happy experience for them. So they decide to go back home- all except Sean. He discovers a VH1 competition called ‘The Vortex’

 

which will give one winning dance crew a three-year gig at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The competition is hosted by the outlandish Alexxa Brava (Polish actress-dancer Izabella Miko).

There are far too many characters crammed in here, to make sense of each of their motivations or remember them for that matter, What matters though is whether they can dance and they can,  The degree of difficulty in the dance numbers increase progressively. And the dancers are all mostly up-to-the-mark. The early dance moves are interesting, their audition concept is visually appealing and the finale is a spectacle that really steps-up the momentum to end in glory. Unfortunately it’s the in-between parts that make the going so heavy laden. Fans of dance will not be disappointed but movie buffs just might!

Johnsont307@gmail.com