STEP UP 2: THE STREETS - DVD review

Teen dance movies are a little like porno flicks or slasher movies. To get to what you really want to see, you often have to endure a lot of drivel: cardboard characters, cookie-cutter plots, and a script that's just an excuse to showcase the good stuff. And that leaves you wondering, Why not show MORE of the good stuff?

That's the case with "Step Up 2 the Streets." When the dancers are on, so is the movie. But then, unfortunately, there's the rest of it. With dance movies, the structure is always one of three things: A gotta-dance young person pursues his/her dream, despite one or more Debbie Downers grumbling they'll never make it, or a humdrum life and dead-end job that holds them back--as in films like "Flashdance" or "Breakin'"; or else a dancer and others compete at school or in a win-at-all-costs contest ("You Got Served"); or a would-be dancer is opposed and suppressed by one or more authority figures, whether it's Daddy in "Dirty Dancing" and "Billy Elliott," the sheriff in "Footloose," or a guardian and the head of the Maryland School of the Arts in this not-quite sequel to "Step Up" (2006).

I say "not quite sequel" because the director is new and the cast is different. But both films take place at the Baltimore "Fame"-like school of the arts, and both are opposites-attract tales about a troubled street dancer and a dancer who's classically trained. In "Step Up" it was a female "good girl" hooking up with a troubled street-dancing bad boy. This time it's Briana Evigan as the troubled street urchin who's being cared for (kind of-though we never see any evidence of it) by her late mother's best friend, who promised to raise her. Meanwhile, in the opening we see her doing a "prank" video dance on a subway car which combines street-dancing choreography with Fagin-style pickpocketing. Her guardian sees it, and says she just doesn't know what to do with the girl, though one thought instantly comes to mind: either she starts attending the Maryland School of the Arts and does well, or else she's being shipped off to Texas to live with an aunt.

Huh? Andie (Briana Evigan) looks like a college student, and is legally an adult. So how is this authority figure holding any sway? Then again, I guess she's supposed to be a high school student, and I guess it's as easy to get into a select performing arts high school as walking in the door.

Andie has been dancing with a street "crew" calling themselves the 4-1-0--a kind of combined street gang, terrorist group, and dance team, who we're told is the only "family" that Andie has. And yet, Mom's friend seems awfully nice, and always in control of Andie, so it's hard to fathom either Andie's sense of alienation or her need to rebel.

But we're not thinking about things like that when Evigan is onscreen. We're thinking about her midriff, which is bare throughout most of the film, with pants riding so low you wonder how the laws of physics keep them from slipping off. But it's an equal opportunity teen titillation film, because there's beefcake too. The 4-1-0 leader is pretty buff and takes of his shirt to showcase his own abs (and bling), but that's not where Andie's attention lies. She's instead drawn to cocky Chase (Robert Hoffman), the top student at the Maryland School of the Arts, a "player" who's the most popular and the most talented of the "kids" whose specialty is modern dance. But what he really wants to do is what Andie is doing: dance in The Streets. And I capitalize "the" because it's the title of a competition that takes place at a subterranean-looking dance club.

"Step Up 2 the Streets" is a curious film insomuch as it tries to have it both ways: "cool" and clean. Clearly, the target audience is high school aged viewers, and so every attempt has been made to hold the line for a PG-13 rating. The raunchiest language comes in a "West Side Story" moment when Andie's friend dresses her up and observes, "You've got titties!" And there's one brief episode of violence, when the 4-1-0 leader and his gang mugs Chase. Other than that, it's a pretty tame film, despite all the attitude that fills the screen. The thing of it is, some parents might object that the message being sent here is that it's okay to defy authority, and even okay to be expelled from school if it means "being true to your heart" and following your dream of winning The Street.

Evigan reminded me somewhat of a thinner Demi Moore, while Hoffman--especially when he smiles wryly and acts charming as hell--resembles Jay Mohr. And Will Kemp, who plays the school's headmaster (coincidentally Chase's older brother, a legendary ballet dancer)--unfortunately reminded me of the Joey Tribiani "smell the fart" method of acting. I swear that one of his reaction shots seemed straight out of that hilarious "Friends" episode--and there were plenty more unintentionally funny moments in this film, though not enough to recommend it.

The acting is generally pretty two-dimensional, and the structure is such that you can leave for 15 minutes and pick up right where you left off, without missing a beat or wondering what's going on. You can see this "Revenge of the Nerds" plot coming the instant that Andie is kicked out of 4-1-0 for two-timing it at the school and Chase suggests they form their own "crew" out of the school's talented misfits--including the clown sidekick (Adam G. Sevani) that's become a staple on Disney Channel shows. There are the predictable jealousies, fights, and reconciliations, and none of it makes for much entertainment except for the dances . . . and those bare midriffs.

Video:
This 98-minute film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and "enhanced" for 16x9 televisions. The picture looks very good, though the edges have a noticeable loss of detail in some segments and night scenes often become engulfed in shadows. But the colors are true and the level of grain is minimal.

Audio:
The soundtrack is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, with French and Spanish options and subtitles also in French and Spanish. For a dance and music video it's not the kind of soundtrack that blows you away. The bass isn't as thumping, the reverb not as pulsing, and the rear speakers not as involved as you might expect. It's a clear and well-balanced track, though, with no real apparent distortion.

Extras:
If you felt music and dance-starved watching this, there's some relief in the bonus features. Eight deleted scenes include dances by Jabbawockeez and West Coast Riders, and there are five music videos: "Low" (Flo Rida, feat. T-Pain), "Ching-a-Ling"/"Shake Your Pom Pom" (Missy Elliott), "Killa" (Cherish, feat. Yung Joc), "Hypnotized," feat. Akon, and "Let It Go" (Brit & Alex). There's also a short (under 15-minute) bonus feature on "Outlaws of Hip Hop" that introduces you to the 4-1-0 dancers individually, showing them in a studio doing their thing and talking on camera. For those into "making of" features there's an equally brief "Through Fresh Eyes: The Making of Step Up 2" that covers familiar bases, and for lovers of outtakes there's a slow-ballad performance of "Is It You?". Rounding out the extras is something that will probably inspire hundreds of people to do similar things. The "Lead Actor Robert Hoffman Video Prank" shows a "Candid Camera"-style episode in a convenience store where the actor puts his arm around his woman and points, asking for something, and on a single-word cue he and everyone else in the store freezes. Cameras roll as the Indian proprietor looks on, tries to talk to them, gets no response, and then reacts as they suddenly break into a moment of dance and then get back to normal, acting as if nothing happened.

Bottom Line:
It's not a complete waste of time, but if you're not in the target teen age range you won't find much to admire (except those bare bellies) in "Step Up 2 the Streets."