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Step Up By David DiCerto Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- Newcomers Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan display both fancy footwork and charisma while dancing around a hackneyed script in the diverting, if inconsequential, "Step Up" (Touchstone). Tatum plays Tyler Gage, a Baltimore street punk who splits his time between break dancing and stealing cars. After an arrest for vandalizing an elite performing arts academy, he serves out his community service mopping halls there. Showing off flashy street-dance moves to buddies Mac (Damaine Radcliff) and Skinny (De'Shawn Washington) in the parking lot, Tyler's obvious physical talent catches the eye of ballerina Nora (Dewan), who is desperate to find someone to replace her injured partner in preparation for the big senior dance showcase. Predictable opposites-attract complications ensue as Tyler "steps up" and gives Nora's stuffy routine a hip-hop makeover. Echoing 2001's "Save the Last Dance," director Anne Fletcher's formulaic, but relatively clean, teen romance is buoyed by some lively dance sequences (choreographed by Fletcher) and appealing performances. The film contains some suggestive dance moves, a scene of vandalism, brief gun violence, including an off-screen shooting, and a few crude expressions, fleeting racially charged rap lyrics and some innuendo, limiting its appropriateness to older adolescents and up. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. - - - DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies. END Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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