Peter Bradshaw 

Step Up All In review – street dance takes a tumble

Set in LA and Las Vegas, the fifth instalment in the Step Up franchise lacks the zip of the previous Miami-set film, writes Peter Bradshaw
  
  

Briana Evigan and Ryan Guzman in Step Up All In
Tired … Briana Evigan and Ryan Guzman in Step Up All In. Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Photograph: Allstar Picture Library

One day, there will be a street dance movie that doesn't finish with the lovable underdog crew winning a televised competition. And the sheer outside-the-box modernist freakiness of that innovation will cause uproar; there will be a riot, like the opening night of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. But anyway, the world is not ready for these radical departures and street dance movies are evidently still sticking to the template. Here is Step Up All In, number 5 in the Step Up franchise, a series of films that, lest we forget, originally gave us Channing Tatum, now a hero of indie and commercial cinema alike. This one follows the heroes of the last movie, Step Up 4, a punchy entertainment set in Miami. Now they are following their dreams in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, by – guess what? – entering a reality TV competition. This really doesn't have the fun or the zip of that earlier Miami adventure. The dialogue is even more tired and, crucially, the dance sequences themselves are looking less fresh this time around.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*