Just another formula "teen talent" flick

Rating: 4/10 (25 March 2008)

It's silly that I have to point out that this review contains a spoiler, as once you know the basic plot and genre, you already know everything that's going to happen in this movie.
But, so as not to be too harsh, it should be said that the dance scenes are quite good, the characters likable, the performances credible, and the team does a good job of keeping you engaged and suspending disbelief if you're willing to let them. So the film is certainly worth renting if you've seen everything else in the store you want to see and are looking for a pleasant-enough mindless diversion for 90 minutes.
My complaint with the movie is that it's a shameless, clueless, formula plot trotted out for us yet again, just with a hodgepodge of plot cliché's that are just as hackneyed as the "good up-tight girl meets bad cool lost boy" romance conjoined with "the big performance which will make or break our heroes, both as people and as a couple" plot.
The script wasn't as rife with plot cliché's as say, BOOTMEN, but it comes close, and even shares a good dozen with this other lamentable "dance classic". Well, at least our heroes in this flick aren't putting on their big "do-or-die" finale dance performance to raise money to save the farm/school/mill/town/hospital/youth-center/etc., but only to win an offer from a professional dance troop (and of course the approval/blessing of the disapproving, real-world career-minded mother) for our heroine, and a scholarship to the performing arts high school (and a ticket out of a life of crime in the "hood") for our hero.
Gee. Can you feel the suspense? Can you bear to wait to know how it all turns out? This ending is such a shocker that no one should be seated during the last 5 minutes.