Îè³öÎÒÈËÉú2 Step Up 2 the Streets review by Claudia Puig

Step Up 2 The Streets (* * out of four) is all about impressing us with its fancy footwork. But the dance scenes feel like a diversion, since the story, acting and dialogue are sadly lacking in originality and substance.
The plot feels forced and familiar, largely cribbed from such movies as Fame and Flashdance. At some points a more menacing element is thrown in ostensibly to make it feel edgier, more current and truer to the streets. But that's not going to fool most viewers.

Step Up 2 is one long, clich¨¦d exercise in predictability with a couple of vibrant dance sequences and some unintentionally hilarious bad acting.

Even in an audience filled with kids and adolescents, one actor drew derisive laughs for his emoting with a capital E. Will Kemp plays Blake Collins, the twit in charge of a school for the performing arts. His disdain for street dancing is not only laughable but also pretty unlikely for a former dancer who heads an urban institution that prides itself on cutting-edge arts education.

Andie (Briana Evigan) is a teenage girl with a powerful love for dance that she expresses through pranks and dance challenges with her crew. An orphan taken in by a friend, she's also a little lost since her mom's death.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Chase | Rosa Parks | Moose | Fame | Flashdance | Step Up | Andie | How She Move
Andie reminisces about her mother taking her to watch street dancing when she was a child. "I got a front-row seat to history," she announces in a voice-over. Well, it wasn't exactly a ride on the bus with Rosa Parks, but it inspired her.

She lands a spot at the local arts high school, and sparks fly with Chase (Robert Hoffman), the brother of the obnoxious school director and a privileged kid who yearns to be part of her crew. She also makes friends with Moose (an engagingly quirky Adam G. Sevani) and shakes things up a bit during dance classes. Channing Tatum, who starred in the first Step Up, makes a cameo, lamely urging Andie to keep dancing.

One of the movie's best scenes ¡ª and possibly the only unpredictable one ¡ª comes when Andie's crew stages a stealth performance, rattling the passengers on a subway car. Unfortunately, none of the other dance sequences are as unorthodox or enthralling.

If you saw the recent How She Move, or for that matter, if you've seen any other movie about realizing one's dreams through dance, there's not much reason to hightail it to Step Up 2.

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