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(About Our Ads) "STEP UP 2 THE STREETS" (2008) (Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman) (PG-13) If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button. Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film. QUICK TAKE: Drama: A young woman finds herself torn between her new friends at a prestigious performing arts school and the street-based dance crew she considers as her only family. PLOT: Andie West (BRIANA EVIGAN) is a Baltimore City high school student who feels her only family is that of a street dance crew known as the 410. Following her mother's untimely death, Andie has lived with her mom's best friend, Sarah (SONJA SOHN), but that hasn't been going well, what with the teen skipping school and staying out all night hanging with her friends, Missy (DANIELLE POLANCO) and Felicia (TELISHA SHAW), and the 410's leader, Tuck (BLACK THOMAS). Things are so bad that Sarah is planning on sending Andie to live with her aunt in Texas, but a successful childhood friend convinces Andie that she should audition to gain admittance to the Maryland School of Arts. A prestigious institution, it's run by former professional dancer Blake Collins (WILL KEMP) whose younger brother, Chase (ROBERT HOFFMAN), is one of the star pupils. It's the latter who sees something in Andie and convinces the board to admit her. However, the brash teen isn't exactly pleased to have her unlikely benefactor seemingly putting the moves on her, which also holds true for his ex-girlfriend and fellow student, Sophie (CASSIE VENTURA), and after school know-it-all Moose (ADAM G. SEVANI) informs Andie of Chase's reputation as a "player." Andie tries to balance her new school and rehearsals with the 410, but when the former interferes with the latter, Tuck kicks her out of the crew. Accordingly, and desirous of gaining some street "cred," Chase convinces Andie that they should form their own dance crew to compete in an unsanctioned, underground tournament known as The Streets. As they put together a ragtag group of dancers and prepare for the big competition, the two must contend with their growing affection for each other, the adverse reaction of Tuck and his 410 minions, as well as Blake not being pleased with this new extracurricular activity. OUR TAKE: 3 out of 10 A common observation about adult entertainment business (a.k.a. porn) offerings is that purveyors of said materials often try to instill some degree of storytelling into their movies, when the consumers of that could care less about such "art." The fact that the artistic merits of the direction, writing and especially the acting are mediocre at best only adds insult to injury. While not in the same league as that specific industry, the same can sometimes be said about certain genre offerings that came out of mainstream Hollywood. Take, for instance, the dance movie. Although there are exceptions to the following "rule," most viewers watch them for what the dancers can do with their feet and the rest of the body attached to them, rather than the accompanying story. That's particularly true nowadays where the past traditional work of Astaire & Rogers, Gene Kelly and the like has now transformed into far wilder and more gymnastically challenging street moves. Viewers don't show up at the multiplex, rent the DVD or turn on the TV for the story or related character interaction, etc. Instead, they want to see the dancers do their thing, and the more of that and the less of the accompanying storytelling baggage, the better. Such is the case with "Step Up 2 The Streets," the unnecessary (except for financial consideration) sequel to 2006's "Step Up" where Channing Tatum played a troubled youth sentenced to 200 hours of community service after trashing the Maryland School of Arts. There, he met a young dancer (Jenna Dewan) and ended up partnering with her for the fall senior showcase performance, with nary a plot surprise at any point in the film that I noted was "fleet-footed during those (dance) moments but otherwise suffers from two leaden left feet that constantly trip over the far too familiar and predictable dramatic material." In fact, I could and, well, will say the same about this pic, although save for a moment or two, it even flounders with that material. With the exception being an infectiously played out impromptu salsa number during a backyard party sequence, most of the dance numbers and moves suffer from the same affliction infecting the rest of the film. Simply put, we've seen it all before, not just in this film's immediate predecessor, but in countless other similarly plotted and/or themed flicks. I suppose that won't really catch anyone off guard, not just from this being a sequel, but also due to cinematic rookies being behind the camera (that being director Jon M. Chu and screenwriters Toni Ann Johnson and Karen Barna) and the fetching Briana Evigan making her "major feature debut" (wording courtesy of the official press kit) as their lead. The torch is passed from Tatum to her as the troubled protagonist, while Robert Hoffman completes the other half of the gender switch taking up where Dewan's dance school character left off. Beyond the lack of any novelty regarding their character arcs, the onscreen chemistry between them is tepid at best, although they fare much better than Black "I Look Mighty Fine With My Shirt Off" Thomas as the obligatory villain and especially Will Kemp who chews up the scenery to such a degree that it's obviously too late for the Orkin Man to salvage anything. There are also the standard best friend characters, the funny sidekick, the doubting Thomas mother-type persona and, of course, the plethora of dancers. Yet, like the rest of the film, we've seen all of them -- or at least some sort of derivation thereof -- so many times before that none of them stand out from the crowd and certainly none of them jump off the screen. It's too bad that the cast and crew are unable to capture the simple magic that briefly occurs in that aforementioned salsa scene, figure out its cinematic composition, and then liberally apply that to the rest of the offering. As it stands, those looking for "dance porn" might enjoy some of the visual treats, but even most of those don't offer the thrills they should. Throw in some melodrama, mediocre to bad acting, occasionally stilted to awful dialogue, and less than seasoned work behind the camera, and the rest won't have many viewers shaking their groove thing. With its title being the most creative thing it has to offer, "Step Up 2 the Streets" isn't good enough to warrant the making of a third installment, let alone "Step Up 4 Some More." It rates as a 3 out of 10. Reviewed February 11, 2008 / Posted February 14, 2008