'Dance Flicks' get served in latest Wayans' comedy

[rainnyday]

The Wayans Brothers' latest genre parody Dance Flick – like some of the team's other recent spoofs –

may not be the ingenious piece of work that their Scary Movie was in 2000 but it never fails to

entertain.

Whether you laugh or not is not really the issue at stake here. However, for the record, the film

carries a few successful comedic moments with the rest being mildly chuckle-worthy. But the real

concern is whether the flick is worth watching.

After all, moviegoers have seen all of these characters and stories before (hey, it is a spoof). It is what

the Wayans Brothers do to these characters and stories that matters most. Fortunately, Dance Flick

does the genre that it is parodying proud by extracting some its worst cliches and exposing them for

their shortcomings.

Adapting the primary plot of Save the Last Dance and mixing in some elements of Step Up (and its

sequel), You Got Served, Hairspray, High School Musical, Fame, Dreamgirls, Ray and Honey, Dance Flick

introduces audiences to Thomas Uncles (Damon Wayans Jr.), a street dancer from the wrong side of

the tracks who is attending classes at Musical High School by day and participating in underground

dance competitions by night.

Meanwhile, a rich suburban girl named Megan White (Shoshana Bush) gets rejected by a renowned

dance academy on the same day her mother dies in a horrific traffic accident. Megan winds up at the

same school as Thomas and, although she claims dancing is no longer a part of her life, he pulls her

back into that world.

While Megan is struggling with painful memories of her past, Thomas has his own set of problems.

After having lost an important underground dance competition, Thomas must come up with the cash

he owes mobster Sugar Bear (David Alan Grier). It all comes down to one final dance-off that depends

on the talents of everyone involved.

Like the Wayans Brothers' other genre-parodies, Dance Flick works best when it is revealing the

blemishes of the movies it is spoofing rather than simply making fun of them. The filmmaking team

occasionally forgets that their primary audience loves those movies despite knowing they are – in

some cases – cinematic garbage.

But much of Dance Flick is devoted to exploiting real dance flicks' weaknesses. Whether it is the odd

puddle-stomping scene in Step Up 2: The Streets or the racial dynamic of the characters portrayed in

a vast array of these flicks, the movie certainly knows where to aim its arrows. Oh, and the Wayans

Brothers throw a few random movies in the mix, too, including Twilight.

On the other side of the coin, Dance Flick does not work when it is trying be be funny on its own

merits. Most of the gags that appear to come out of nowhere not only fall flat, but they make you

question whether you have made the right decision to see the feature in the first place. The Wayans

Brothers should leave the creative comedy to Judd Apatow and instead focus on what they do best –

spoofing.

So, if you do not mind sifting through some stupid humor and got a kick out of the Wayans Brothers'

other parodies, Dance Flick should have you stomping the yard with glee. Roll bounce your way to the

nearest theater and enjoy a few – that is the key word here – laughs and a consistently entertaining

cinematic experience.

[toastedbagel]

I want to see this movie - I love the original one.