Ah, a new dance-off movie - this time with flash mobs....!
Lionsgate / 99 Minutes / 2012 / Rated PG-13 / Street Date: November 27, 2012
Ah, the subtle delicacy of the dance-off movie....
First off, Step Up: Revolution was a major success at the international box office. The 3D movie may have sputtered in US cinemas, but by some strange fluke, the thing logged almost $150 million in overseas markets, meaning that this franchise is no straight-to-video minor entity: it's a goddamned institution. This doesn't, of course, mean that the movies themselves are any good, but people flock to them anyway - even without Magic Mike architect Channing Tatum as a leading man, Step Up movies somehow keep finding audiences.
When pretty young people aren't dancing in elaborate set pieces in Step Up: Revolution, we follow the beautiful Emily (Kathryn McCormick) as she falls in love with Sean (Ryan Guzman), a dancer and leader of The Mob, a flash mob crew in Miami. Trouble comes when Emily's dad (Peter Gallagher) wants to develop Sean's neighborhood, and in order to save their beloved homes, Sean and team utilize their dancing talents to turn their performances into protest: they want to use dance to keep the businessmen at bay.
The first two Step Up movies are not terrible movies - one can't exactly refer to them as classics in any legitimate capacity, but once the music starts, it's difficult not to at least tap your feet along to the actions on screen - but installments three and now four are empty affairs. Step Up 3D was a pointless, overly-Slurpeed nightmare (anyone who's seen it knows what I mean), but Revolution doesn't even have the peaks and valleys that its predecessor did. Somewhere in the world, people flocked to this movie, but even with a fun, accomplished 3D Blu-ray presentation, it's difficult to understand why.
