Who would have thought back in 2006 that the innocuous, predictable hip-hop musical Step Up would have given rise to two sequels (with a third on the way) in the years since its release? Nevertheless, the dance is the thing in this original film in the series as the hokey romances and misfit-finding-his-way storyline has been done to death in numerous musicals stretching all the way back to the birth of talkies. Some talented players (not all dancers) make the most of their opportunities here even if the musical sequences are really the film’s only reason to exist, and even they have their shortcomings.
Step Up (Blu-ray)
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Studio: Touchstone
Year: 2006
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 103 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish, French
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A-B-C
MSRP: $ 20.00
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Review Date: July 10, 2012
The Film
2.5/5
Restless teenager Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) spends his off time getting into trouble with his homeboys Mac Carter (Damaine Radcliff) and Mac’s little brother Skinny (De'Shawn Washington). When they break into the Maryland School for the Arts and trash the scenery and props on the theater stage, only Tyler gets nabbed earning himself two hundred hours of community service at the school. While doing his janitorial duties, he becomes intrigued by talented ballerina/jazz dancer Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan) who’s preparing her senior dance project performance but is in serious need of a partner once Andrew (Tim Lacatena) gets injured. Tyler volunteers to step up, and as they work together, they begin to incorporate some of Tyler’s hip-hop moves into her routine. But Nora’s boy friend Brett (Josh Henderson) is none too happy to see the burgeoning relationship developing between the two, and Tyler’s pals begin to resent that he’s spending all of his free time at that “rich school” instead of riffing with them stealing cars and shooting hoops.
Duane Adler and Melissa Rosenberg seem to have captured the monosyllabic, putdown lingo of friends communicating that seems popular in high school-set films of today, but it doesn’t offer much opportunity for characters to explore depths of emotions as they work their way through the angst of late adolescence, so the scenarists must rely on their trite, overly familiar storylines to fill in the blanks for the audience. (That includes a series of breakups and make-ups and naturally a drive-by shooting.) Director/choreographer Anne Fletcher begins the film neatly contrasting the worlds of ballet and hip-hop as she switches back and forth between routines and emphasizes the grace, power, and muscularity that both disciplines require set to the tune “Show Off That Body.” But in the film, she often makes the mistake of not showing her dancers in full figure thus robbing us of seeing their fancy footwork, quite often shooting them from the waist up. Of course, that helps mask the absurdity of Channing Tatum doing intricate dance routines in baggy jeans that are halfway down his hips and which he must constantly tug at to keep from sliding all the way down and which partially cover his feet as he moves. Even when he dons sweats to dance in, they’re unaccountably baggy and ridiculous. (There is a running gag about his resistance to wear tights, but there are jazz pants which allow free movement and allow the dancer’s frame and his unique flexibility to be seen and appreciated.) The climactic dance is what the film has been leading to (naturally the heroine’s mother disapproves of dance as a career for her daughter), but the climax dances in both of the sequels far exceed the routine delivered in this film.
Channing Tatum moves well and exudes masculinity in spades throughout the movie, but the writers have done him no favors giving him such an underdeveloped character with his minimal acting skills at this period of his career. Jenna Dewan can dance circles around her co-star and proves as adept at the emoting as she is with the terpsichorean routines she’s asked to perform. Rachel Griffiths plays the starchy head of the Maryland School for the Arts, someone the viewer knows will eventually thaw into admiration for her newest wunderkind. Damaine Radcliff and De’Shawn Washington as Tyler’s two buddies seem to exhibit not the least bit of remorse for Tyler’s paying the price for their lawbreaking and even have the effrontery to become incensed when he ditches their heisting cars to work off his debt to the school. Mario Lucy and Drew Sidora play two more talented arts students whose on again-off again personal relationship extends the writers’ banal treatment of teen romantic angst.
Video Quality
4/5
The film’s theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio is presented in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Sharpness is very good to excellent throughout, and color saturation levels are also strong. Flesh tones always seem realistic and never oversaturated. Black levels aren’t the best though, and nighttime scenes don’t show the image quality in its best light. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix uses the rich soundtrack of rap and hip-hop music well threaded as it is through the fronts and rears. But otherwise, ambience is a fleeting thing in the mix with the rear channels being especially ignored during much of the movie. Dialogue has been nicely recorded and has been placed in the center channel.
Special Features
3/5
The audio commentary is provided by director Anne Fletcher, hip-hop choreographer Jamal Sims, and co-stars Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan (who later married Tatum), all of whom are in different locales and talking via speakerphone. Though there are some facts shared about making the movie, it’s too much of a laughter-filled party/reunion to fully satisfy those who want to know more about the making of the film.
All of the video featurettes are presented in 480i.
There are seven deleted scenes which can be viewed separately or in one 4 ¾-minute bunch. The viewer can also turn on or off audio commentary by director Anne Fletcher on the scenes.
A blooper reel runs for 1 ¾ minutes.
“Making the Moves” is a fairly superficial overview of the film featuring brief soundbites from director Anne Fletcher, choreographer Jamal Sims, stars Channing Tatum and Drew Sidora, and producer Adam Shankman. It runs 4 ¾ minutes.
There are four music videos: “Step Up” by Samantha Jade (3 ½ minutes), “Give It Up to Me” by Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole (4 ¼ minutes), “Say Goodbye” by Chris Brown (4 ½ minutes), and “Get Up” by Ciara (5 ¼ minutes).
There are 1080p promo trailers for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Frankenweenie, and The Avengers.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average)
The sequels to Step Up feature much more exhilarating dancing, but this is the one that started it all, and it looks and sounds just fine on Blu-ray even if the storylines and characters don’t feature anything that previous movies haven’t done before and better.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
