Step Up All In (2014)

The goal this year is to try to review everything I watched.  I did a fantastic job of that in the first two years of blogging and eventually it kind of fell apart as the versatility grew.  However, this year, I’m trying to step up  my game (no pun intended). The other night, I was sitting by myself after a long day of shovelling and cleaning and all that fun stuff winter and the holidays brings and I decided to relax so I pulled out Step Up: All In and gave it a go.  For the record, if you are new here, I’ve reviewed all the previous Step Ups already. I really enjoy them even though I very much know that they are not strong in their stories but the dance routines and the music are always what I go to this for, and well, Adam Sevani’s character.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and check out the synopsis first! 😉

Step Up All In (2014)

Director: Trish Sie

Cast: Ryan Guzman, Briana Evigan, Adam G. Sevani, Misha Gabriel Hamilton, Stephen Boss, Stephen Stevo Jones, David Schriebman, Mari Koda, Alyson Stoner, Isabella Miko

All-stars from the previous Step Up installments come together in glittering Las Vegas, battling for a victory that could define their dreams and their careers.-IMDB

 After the first Step Up with a decent storyline, the rest of the Step Up movies are very much about the dance, choreography and upbeat music that keeps it going.  Most of the times, the story is just extras to give it a little story in the background even if its very much predictable and cliche in every way. However, I don’t mind it at all.  The point is, I went in and came out with a skip to my step and started dancing and moving during the movie and being mesmerized by the energy of the dance and the originality of the choreography.  The dance talent on screen is really awesome.  Step Up Revolution was all about the dancing and Step Up 2 The Streets was all about finding the courage to embrace your talent and this is where the main guy, Sean (Ryan Guzman) and Andie (Briana Evigan) respectively come together.  The best part is that between these two coming together and of course, falling for each other in the process, Adam Sevani playing one of my favorite characters Moose gets a much bigger role. Except, its about how dance is hard to be a profession and it doesn’t matter how hard it is to reach your dream and how impossible it seems, you just have to remember that its what you love and not make it into something that you dread, in a way.  The message is there, as it is for every other Step Up movie: follow your dreams proudly and live out your passion no matter how hard it is.  Its because of this message that I love these Step Up movies also.

Honestly, Step Up All In is the first movie that does feel a little empty.  It tries to focus more on a plot and giving us the story of Moose and Camille while building on Sean forgetting why he danced in the first place and his relationship with Andie making him see the light and not turn into a jerk who forgot where he came from. Fact is, the story could have been simplified much more and kept to the normal formula.  I applaud the effort of trying to get something more in there but you know what it sacrificed? The amazing dance choreography that the previous installments had. In the first 30 minutes of the movie, I actually started feeling a little sad that they had taken this path because the dancing was really bad and the music was lackluster.  However, once the group does get together and it heads into their training phase, it really picks up much more and the dance portion becomes much better and very engaging to watch.  They still try hard to put that story in there but the chemistry between the dancers, especially Sean and Andie start to shine.

I think its time to dive a little into the cast. I’m not a huge fan of Step Up 2 so I have my reservations for Briana Evigan however, it has nothing to do with her dancing abilities.  I actually kind of really liked the dancing and even acting and whatever chemistry they had between Andie and Sean.  Moose and Camille (Alyson Stoner) are really great as well. They give it a lot of drama and its okay because I do like their characters even if its unnecessary.  I can get pass even that forced plot but my main issue was the stupid leader of the Grim Knights and the host of the dance competition Alexxa Brava (Isabella Miko). The latter wins it for parts that I wanted to fast forward because it is just over the top ridiculous.  And some of you know how much over the top ridiculous I can handle. She was just plain annoying when it could have been entertaining.

Overall, Step Up All In adds in too much unnecessary plot to try to make this dance series into something more, in turn causing it to lose what I truly love it for. However, it is only the first little bit that has that issue and when the group LMNTRIX crew gets together, the chemistry and dance choreography take a turn for a very positive path uphill and turns into a rather engaging Step Up movie.  Its still very much a dance movie that is really nothing special but bringing back familiar characters from the previous installments and keeping the emphasis of following your dreams and passions is one that I truly love, appreciate and find rather inspiring. Although, unless you do love this franchise, I don’t think you will like this one a lot, in fact, you might as well go back to watch some of the earlier ones.

Have you seen Step Up All In? Are you fan of the Step Up franchise? Which is your favorite?

Step Up: 3D (2010)

Since I was on vacation, I had lots of time to watch movies but not as much to do any workouts.  Not that I didn’t want to but the internet I had at the hotel was really slow and I couldn’t load any vids and most of it was hiking.  So because there is no Weekly Workout Roundup, I decided to put up an extra review on a motivating and energetic flick 😉  Step Up marathon continues! Now I’m just missing the 4th one and that might take a while to get unless my tablet lets me rent it for free! Lets do this: STEP UP: 3D! I did not see this in 3D though, just normal tablet 🙂

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Rick Malambri, Adam G. Sevani, Sharni Vinson, Alyson Stoner, Keith Stallworth, Joe Slaughter

High school is over and its time to move on to college, Moose, from the Step Up 2, (Adam G. Sevani) agreed to focus on school and give up his dancing and go to NYU to continue his education with the company of his best friend, Camille (Alyson Stoner).  To his surprise, before he even starts, he gets mistaken to be competing against the street dance crew lead by Julian (Joe Slaughter) and winning.  After the mess he made in Central Park, he gets saved by Luke (Rick Malambri) who takes in passionate dancers who have nowhere to go and has his own original street dance crew Pirates.  While having a hard time to make ends meet even with his club downstairs, their only chance to keep their home is to win the World Jam Competition with the help of additional dancer and love interest, Natalie (Sharni Vinson).

Lets look back at the past few.  Step Up was a great start with great dance sequences and a pretty good story.  The second one didn’t have as many dance parts but had more background story to it.  Now, we get to the third one and even though the story isn’t anything new or strong (which isn’t particularly the reason of these movies as I say over and over again), it was kick ass dancing ALL THE TIME. I had a lot of fun with this one and it kept me amazed by all the pumping music and the frequent fun dance moves.  The story was fast paced because of that and it was just so entertaining.

Moose was one of my fave characters in Step Up 2 and I was really happy to see him come back with a larger role in this instalment.  He has great dance moves and in this, his story is our focus as he juggles through the actual life of choosing between his passion and the reality.  Can these two things converge and work out? How do you balance everything to make it all work? Everyone’s story is predictable but I tend to empty out my mind and just let it flow when I watch these.

All of the new cast are talented dancers and they were energetic and lit up the screen. Whats nice is how the Step Up series tries to pull together the previous flick to give it a bit of connection. The dance choreography and the visuals were just so great to watch.  I loved it!

There isn’t really anything else to say but that Step Up 3D is my fave (even if I didn’t see it in 3D).  It was upbeat, energetic, fun and just pure awesome entertainment!

Step Up 2: The Streets (2008)

A few weeks ago, I watched Step Up (HERE is the review if you missed it)! I have this whole marathon mindset going on these days and since HMV had crazy deals the last few weeks, I went and bought Step Up 2: The Streets to continue.  Just saying, this starting to turn out to be more like a Channing Tatum overload because the next review going up is also with him in it.  This one luckily (or maybe not) had a little cameo of him in the beginning as a link to his last character. Lets check out how Step Up 2 did 🙂

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Robert Hoffman, Briana Evigan, Adam G. Sevani, Cassie Ventura, Danielle Polanco, Harry Shum Jr., Will Kemp

When Andie’s always supportive mother passes away, she lives with her mom’s best friend Sarah and her little boy Charlie.  Her passion has led to be a part of the street dance crew 4-1-0 who has been the 5 year reigning champion of The Streets annual competition.  As her grades aren’t holding up in school, Sarah is making her go to Texas to live with her aunt instead, so to lessen the burden.  One night, when she goes to a neighborhood dance scene, she sees long time friend, Tyler (Channing Tatum from Step Up) who convinces her to go to Maryland School of Arts and put her dance skills to proper use and think about her future and also successfully convinces Sarah to give her one more chance to prove that she can be better.  At the school, the director Blake Collins tries to change her style to the how he views a successful dancer should do and at the same time, the director’s brother Chase, who wants to be part of The Streets gets together and together they gather a group of students to joint he MSA crew.  With her 4-1-0 kicking her out and not accepted by the street dance scene, and the Director telling them to not do The Streets, the MSA crew needs to find the strength to do what they believe is right.

Man, I could’ve talked about the plot in 3 sentences instead of that draggy paragraph up there.  Again, like my last review, these stories are quite simple and super predictable.  Step Up 2: The Streets doesn’t really have the same spark as the first but it still has its fun moments.  There are a lot of dance scene and the music is more mainstream rather than the fusioned type in the first one.  Its not completely two styles coming together but rather a story to encourage and inspire young adults to follow their dreams and believe in their own talents.  MSA crew was about a group of students who aren’t noticed for their actual potential or misplaced and misunderstood in the school.

I’m not familiar with most of the cast either.  The only few exception is Robert Hoffman that I saw in She’s The Man as the douchebag ex-boyfriend.  Lets just say he’s impression isn’t completely awesome in my mind.  In this one, he plays the lead actor and he’s okay.  He’s no Channing Tatum, of course but he has a cute face.  He has decent chemistry with the lead actress.  My favorite character has to be Moose played by  Adam Sevani.  He was awesome and at times, hilarious.   Second mention goes out to Harry Shum Jr. because he’s an awesome dancer and he’s one of my faves in Glee :).  I was pleasantly surprised that he was in this dance flick! The rest of the cast was actually pretty funny and did alright!

Simple dance flick, cool music and decent cast makes this an enjoyable movie to just relax! It does struggle at times to be hitting boring area but they pick it back up with some nice beats! 🙂 As usual, the final dance scene is always the best and most awesome part of it all!

Step Up 3 soon!! I have it, just need to watch it!