Battle of the Year (2013)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Simply A Masterpiece

Best movie ever!

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I love dance movies because I like watching the choreography and talented dancers, but I never expect good acting or a well crafted storyline. But this movie is one of the few within the genre that gives you those as well: not only it showcases incredible dancers, amazing choreography, but it is also a good story about hard work, discipline, friendship, and team work. The acting is surprisingly good for this kind of movies and the story is entertaining and has an unexpected end. Although the screenplay follows a bit of the formula you would expect for a dance competition movie, it doesn't fall into every single expected cliché. For instance, there is no cheesy love story among dancers! If you like the genre, this movie is a must.

The producer Dante Graham (Laz Alonso) promotes a group of b-boys expecting to bring the Battle of the Year Trophy back to the USA that have not won it in fifteen years. He hires his friend and former basketball couch Jason Blake (Josh Holloway) that grieves the loss of his wife and son to prepare his team. Blake fires the whole team since they do not have motivation and decides to select a new group of dancers under the nickname of Dream Team. He also hires the youngster Franklyn (Josh Peck) and the choreographer of break-dance Stacy (Lotz Caity) to help him. Along the months, Blake tries to implement teamwork and works hard with the group. In the competition in France, he has a great surprise. "Battle of the Year" is a disappointing and predictable collection of clichés. It is amazing how many times this storyline has been used in different environments and sports ("decadent couch hires a team of losers that in the end surprises in a competition") with a corny message in the end. Fans of break-dance and hip-hop may enjoy a little more but this movie is terrible. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "A Batalha do Ano" ("Battle of the Year")

SPOILERS!To be honest the only reason I watched this movie was for the delightful Josh Peck. He is such a great actor. Great comedic timing but he can also do drama as shown in "The Wackness". But I was VERY disappointed when I saw that abusive Chris Brown pop up!Wow I could feel the fear in the female actress that was hired to work with these guys. Chris Brown's character kept making advances and so on. Disgusting. Stop rewarding his bad behaviour! He raised his hand to a woman! He violated all kinds of laws and is probably in jail/rehab/picking up trash/committing more crimes right now.Not only did he ruin the movie, and any good morals this society has left in it, but he took ANY suspense out of the movie all while overacting. When they were picking the members of the final 'crew' he was worried he was not going to get picked. WHAT!? He is a famous (sadly) person, why would they only have him in a couple scenes. OF COURSE they are going to pick him. Therefore having him get picked last to build 'suspense' made no sense. As per his unfortunate fame we already knew he would get picked.Also horrible racial stereotypes abound in this movie. As if ppl are defined by their race! Very backwards thinking. Your race does not define you, your ACTIONS do. So sick of this racist crap.The movie basically turns out exactly the way you assume it will. Very boring. Worst of all the dancing was crap. Most of the moves are unoriginal and did not deserve the uproarious applause they got. And there is a conflict in the movie that makes no sense other than to further the plot.Avoid this movie and don't support Chris Brown and/or any project he works on. To do so would be to condone his abusive behaviours.

Saw this at advance screening back in July and was I very surprised at how good it was. I didn't expect anything other than some amazing chirography but at its heart the film is a classic underdog story. Josh Holloway really impressed me in the lead role as the coach and I hope he gets more work soon. The trailer doesn't really do the film justice and the 3D wasn't needed but all in all this is classic crowd pleasing entertainment. Chris Brown, Laz Alonso and the rest of the cast really shine in their roles. If there's one issue I had with the film it was the 3D. Even Ray Charles could see this movie didn't need to be 3D. All in all a good film that shouldn't have flopped.