"Step Up 3D"

There was a screening of "Step Up 3D" last week, but I had chosen to see "Charlie St. Cloud" instead, so I was glad when another screening was available for this week. This is the third film in the "Step Up" series, though I had only seen the original, which featured Channing Tatum as the main dancer. It didn't matter that I missed the second, as "Step Up 3D" can be considered a "stand-alone" film, and the 3D and the dancing in it were fantastic.

Moose (Adam G. Sevani, "Step Up 2: The Streets") and Camille (Alyson Stoner, TV's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody") are freshmen at NYU, and they are at an orientation tour when Moose spots a pair of Nike shoes he likes. When he follows the owner, he gets drawn into a street dancing competition, in which he competes and is spotted by another dancer, Luke (Rick Malambri, "Surrogates"). Moose had been a dancer in high school but is now determined to study engineering at NYU and give up dance; however, Luke brings him into his dancing "family" and Moose can't resist going back to his old ways. Their dance crew must win Worlds for the $100,000 prize money, as their house is about to be seized by the bank, and Luke believes that Moose can help them achieve this. Luke also recruits Natalie (newcomer Sharni Vinson) as part of his dance team, and they end up falling for each other; what he doesn't know, however, is that she has a big secret she's keeping from him.

This is not a movie that you go to because you are expecting a diverse and intricate plot, but the dancing (mostly hip hop, though a mix of all sorts) was insanely good, and the 3D effects were among the best I've seen all year. Moose struggles to balance his NYU studies with his dancing, and he eventually succeeds; there are often scenes that show the crew dancing without him, and him in his classes, which were often humorous. There's a classical dancing scene as well that is pulled off beautifully.

Yes, see this movie, and definitely see it in 3D! Like I mentioned, the plot is fairly predictable, but it's the dancing that really makes this movie. Curiously enough, the lead (Luke, played by Rick Malambri) looks a lot like Channing Tatum, star of the first "Step Up"; I wondered if this was intentional. Also, Moose's character (Adam G. Sevani) was apparently in the second "Step Up" movie, which I have yet to see - I may check that one out on DVD now, though I'm sure that it will pale in comparison to this movie's 3D and dance moves.

"Step Up 3D" will be in theaters on August 6th.

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