Painfully predictable with a side of really pitiful humor, “Dance Flick” just becomes another one of those spoof movies, leaving no movie untouched from parody, no piece of Hollywood gossip uncovered, and no social stereotype unexposed, to the point of mind-numbing tedium.
The first moments of “Dance Flick” tell all: A street battle where two
opposing dance crews battle it out for fame ““ oh, and for the
multi-thousand-dollar prize. In a nail-biting dance-off, someone on the
side of the “good crew” dies during a dance mishap, making the crew
lose the battle.
It just so happens that the head of this crew, A-Con (Affion Crockett)
and Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.) owe this money to Sugar Bear (David Alan
Grier), who, true to his name, wants his money so he can continue to
feed his enormous appetite.
The film cuts to Megan (Shoshana Bush), whose one dream is to attend
the Juilliard School’s dance department ““ so much so that she pesters
her mother into driving to her audition for moral support, which spoofs
a plotline from the film “Save the Last Dance.”
On the way to the audition, her mother suffers from a rather prolonged death involving rain, a collision with a gas truck, a gas spill and three hit-and-runs ““ all by Hollywood celebrities. Because of this tragic event, Megan vows to never dance again.
Megan is then forced to live with her deadbeat squatter father Ron (Chris Elliott) in the city, where she meets Charity (Essence Atkins) and her brother Thomas, along with other more minor characters whose roles are only there to add more to the spoofs ““ and to tack on more time to the movie.
The film continues with the “Save the Last Dance” plotline: After a little bit of dancing at a night club, Thomas decides to dedicate his time and effort to teaching Megan how to dance again for the school showcase. Through this process, the two fall for each other.
The plotline switches films to “Step Up 2: The Streets” for its ending in which Thomas wants to win the money back in a street dance battle against the same crew from the beginning.
Megan riles up the cast of the showcase to support Thomas in the streets. After another nail-biting dance-off, Thomas’ and Megan’s crew wins.
The flick follows this predictable pattern, and does so very poorly. Transitions between scenes are abrupt, and no substantive plot threads the film together.
Seeing as the movie is a spoof on a wide variety of other movies, this is understandable, but some scenes are just too random.
The comedy is crude at best, taking jabs at everything and anything, from questioning the sexuality of celebrity actors to more racially-tinted jokes.
Other excruciatingly obvious attempts at humor include characters such as A-Con ““ a con-man ““ and Ms. Cameltoe, which is self-explanatory when one watches the film.
“Dance Flick” is just another one of those spoof movies that is bound to get a few superficial chuckles. But other than that, it seems more like a rather poor attempt, making it unmemorable and boring.
““ Catherine Flanagan
Email Flanagan at cflanagan@media.ucla.edu.