Am I going soft in my old age? I don’t think so — it feels like the opposite actually; I’m angrier and more cynical all the time — but I actually almost liked this silly, cheesy, hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show excuse for a movie, after reacting far less generously to the two previous installments.
It’s all dance-offs to satisfy random dissing, but at this point, perhaps it’s best to concede that the usual standards of cinematic discernment are not required here. We shouldn’t focus on the overly earnest performances, the painful exposition, the couple of deeply weird edits. Instead, we should accept this as a series of amazing music videos featuring astonishingly athletic dancers expressing crazy-hot modern choreography strung together by a flimsy narrative. (It’s pretty much what old-school, 1930s Hollywood musicals were, isn’t it?)
This time, Sean (Ryan Guzman), returning from the previous film, gets together a new crew in Los Angeles to compete in “the Vortex” in Vegas — it “isn’t just another dance competition” — with assists from Andie (Briana Evigan), Moose (Adam Sevani), and other dancers back from earlier installments. (I suspect that’s what the “All In” is meant to refer to.)
Maybe I can be nicer because this time out, no big social issues have been awkwardly shoved into the drama and then handily dismissed in embarrassingly naive ways. Maybe it’s just that nice to see guys who know how to dance, women not wearing stupid shoes while trying to dance, and lots of nonwhite people and lots of nonmale people doing anything at all onscreen.
see also:
• Step Up 3D movie review: stumbles and missteps
• Step Up 4: Miami Heat (aka Step Up Revolution) movie review
