A product that does what the packaging says it does but doesn't innovate, excite or appear to have had much creative input into it apart from the final packaging

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2009)

Tyler Gage is a white kid from the wrong side of the tracks. Helping his friends escape, Tyler is caught red handed smashing up a school of the arts and is sentenced to community service there. While doing janitorial work he sees the ballet students doing their routines and he himself is later observed by one of the students (Nora) doing his street moves with his friends. When Nora's partner goes out with an injury she turns to Tyler to help her, since he has basic skills. Both have their struggles with this working relationship but while Nora opens up Tyler to the possibilities through dance, he brings an unique urban feel to her routine – but as romance blossoms things become harder.
I never bothered with this film when it came out but the rising star of Tatum made me step back and take a look at this. What I found was a film that struck me as being a mass produced product rather than being a film that someone created or that the makers really wanted to make. What I mean is that didn't seem to be much in the way of passion or inspiration behind it. The story is a predictable mishmash of other films and you can see so many things from Breakin' through to Save the Last Dance all in the mix here. It is definitely something that knows what it needs to do, does it and doesn't worry too much about making it special, different or anything like that. And so it treads the path you know it will from the first minute and as a story it never rings true so much as just meeting it with a shrug.
In fairness though the dance routines are reasonably good and the soundtrack does give it an energy that helps it but both of these things are the type of things that will fade with time as other films supersede it. The cast do the basics as well. Tatum is good in so much as he manages to carry off a white urban caricature without looking ridiculous. In the normal terms he is not "good" but on these terms he does the job. Dewan is attractive but you never feel the heat between them and their relationship (working or romantic) never seems real. The rest of the cast are pretty much doing what one expects as well – and when even Six Feet Under's Griffiths or The Wire's Lovejoy is calling it in, it hardly seems fair to expect Mario to be doing much.
Overall this is a product more than it is a film and as such it is one of those things that does what the packaging says it does but doesn't innovate, doesn't excite and doesn't appear to have had much creative input into it apart from the final packaging. It is a solid genre film for the viewers it was made for but it is unlikely to stand the test of time well at all or indeed have much appeal to those that want it to do more than tick boxes.