“Step Up Revolution” is the totally unnecessary fourth installment in a dance movie franchise whose only highlight is launching Channing Tatum’s career in the original back in 2006. Sure, all of the performers in “Revolution” would be contenders to win on “So You Think You Can Dance?” – but if they went on “So You Think You Can Act?” they wouldn’t have a chance.
Sean (played by Ryan Guzman) is a waiter at a ritzy Miami hotel. He’s also the leader of a street dance group that participates in Flash Mobs. The group starts posting their routines on YouTube in hopes of getting 10 million hits so they can win a contest and the $100,000 first-prize. Sean meets Emily (Kathryn McCormick) who’s practicing to become a professional dancer. They quickly fall for each other.
Emily’s father (Peter Gallagher) just happens to be a construction tycoon who plans to build a new hotel complex in the area where Sean and all his family and friends live. Emily decides to join “The Mob” so she can add some excitement to her dancing but soon she has to decide whether to support her father or help Sean stop the development project and save the neighborhood.
Unfortunately the biggest urge I had during “Step Up Revolution” was to step out of the theater and get as far away from this mess as possible. Combine a basic and cheesy script with the performances and this movie is often very embarrassing to watch. The highlight, as it is with all the “Step Up” films, is the dancing. However this time there’s way too much of it and each of the Flash Mob events are pretty much the same, except for the costumes. Director Scott Speer has found a way to make the only semi-exciting thing these movies have to offer – the dancing – tedious and boring.
Speer also stubs his toe with the filmmaking: The camerawork is uninteresting, the editing is very rough and the story lacks structure. Having an introductory montage of all the main dancers HALFWAY THROUGH THE MOVIE was a bad decision.
There are several funny moments in the “Step Up Revolution”, but none of them are supposed to be. The highlight in this category is a close-up of Gallagher tearing up at the end of the film while watching Sean and Emily dance. And I like five-second celebrity cameos to add realism to a movie as much as the next guy, but even this is overdone: Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Mario Lopez, and several others are featured in a montage that’s supposed to lead us to believe that this group is becoming a national phenomenon. And yet they’re still able to sneak into buildings without getting anyone’s attention over and over again.
“Step Up Revolution” is rated PG-13 for some suggestive dancing and language. It’s appropriate for kids 12 and up. If you’re a fan of this type of street dancing you might enjoy it but everyone else needs to stay far away.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Step Up Revolution” gets a D.
My plot for the next film in the series: “Step Up High-5” tells the story of two rival NBA dance teams as they battle-it-out during halftime while their respective teams are playing in the NBA finals. Of course, the male lead from one squad and the female lead on the other squad meet at a nightclub one night and fall in love. And the mascots have to have a “dance off”. Now all we need is Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson do cameos and we’ve got ourselves a movie!