Film Details:
Step Up 2 The Streets (PG)
Drama (2008) 97mins US
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Will Kemp, Jennifer Rouse

After her latest brush with the law, talented street dancer Andie faces the possibility of being shipped off to Texas to live with her aunt, until neighbourhood good guy Ty persuades Andie's guardian to give her one final chance - by enrolling her at the prestigious Maryland School of the Arts. Andie reluctantly agrees but she struggles to fit in, rebelling against the formal teaching methods at Maryland. The one ray of sunshine is a burgeoning friendship with Blake's younger, rebellious brother Chase, who also loves to freestyle.

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LondonNet Film Review
Step Up 2 The Streets

With its high-energy dance sequences, contrived romance and a beautiful cast of lithe youngsters with flat stomachs and even flatter dialogue, Step Up 2 The Streets works up just enough sweat to appeal an undemanding teen audience...

The sequel to the 2006 fairy-tale Step Up boasts many of the same narrative moves as its predecessor - a modern day Romeo & Juliet uniting the worlds of street dance and ballet - choreographing the cliches in quick succession before the inevitable dance-off that sees the underdogs emerge victorious. Screenwriters Ann Johnson and Karen Barna care more about their characters' ability to back-flip and perform gravity-defying gymnastics than their ability to communicate, which explains the stilted conversations. They do, however, deliver one of the finest one-liners in recent memory when the leader of a crew likens the stench of his apartment to an onion-flavoured snack called Funyuns, mixed with broccoli and a particularly fragrant jockstrap.

The dance sequences are undeniably well executed, saving the best for last with a breathtaking routine in a rainstorm; bodies slam into the ground in unison, sending slow-motion plumes of water into the air in time to a pounding beat like a 21st century Singin' In The Rain, but with cargo pants and bare mid-riffs.

Talented hip-hop dancer Andie (Briana Evigan) is a proud member of the competition-winning Baltimore street crew, The 410, which is ruled with an iron fist by leader Tuck (Black Thomas). After her latest brush with the law, Andie faces the very real possibility of being shipped off to Texas to live with her aunt, until neighbourhood good guy Tyler (Channing Tatum) persuades Andie's guardian to give her one final chance - by enrolling her at the prestigious Maryland School of the Arts. "It's like I landed in an episode of The Hills," gasps Andie, surveying her beautiful, rich and pretentious new classmates. She struggles to fit in, rebelling against the formal teaching methods at Maryland, especially the technique-oriented approach favoured by school director Blake Collins (Will Kemp) - a former principal in the Royal Ballet, who despises ill-disciplined street dancers.

The one ray of sunshine is a burgeoning friendship with Blake's younger, rebellious brother Chase (Robert Hoffman), who also loves to freestyle at the local clubs. When Tuck kicks Andie out the 410 because she is spending too much time at Maryland, she is distraught: "The 410 is the only family I got left!" Then Chase daringly suggests they form their own crew, roping in some of the school's most gifted and misunderstood students including gadget geek Cable (Harry Shum Jr), shy girl Fly (Janelle Cambridge), tap dancer Hair (Christopher Scott), Japanese exchange student Jenny (Mari Koda), stunt performer Monster (Luis Rosado), lighting designer Moose (Adam G Sevani) and renegade Smiles (LaJon Dantzler). Together, this band of outsiders takes on the 410 at their own game, showing that you don't have to come from the streets to dance from the heart.

Step Up 2 The Streets doesn't have any unique moves of its own, drawing on Footloose, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing and their kind to establish the various personal conflicts, then resolve them with a synchronized somersault and head-spin. References to the importance of dance as a means of self-expression ("The Streets is about where you're from, it's not some talent show") are sprinkled liberally throughout the 97 breathless minutes. Evigan and Hoffman are both easy on the eye but, curiously, their moves aren't nearly as hot as the supporting cast. Their limitations become even more apparent when Tatum, the star of the original, cameos to provide a clumsy link between the two films and gyrates everyone else off screen. Any flickers of screen chemistry between the leads are well and truly extinguished by the climactic torrential downpour.

- Kim Hu

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