Born to Dance (2015)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Ever since the first "Step Up" I have been TIRED and bored by Western dance movies. It was always the same garbage; guy meets girl, girl does ballet, guy does hip-hop, they kiss, enter a competition and win. That's the gist of every American made dance movie. Enter this quiet little film from New Zealand, and I can honestly say that I was engrossed from beginning to end. It isn't just a movie about dancers with some garbage story tacked on to justify the hour and half run time. This is a real movie, with a plot, relate-able and likable characters, and a really great soundtrack. Every worked their butt off to make this movie the best it could possibly be, and it paid off in spades. The story was entertaining, I cared about what happened to the characters, and everyone was just a pleasure to watch. The really star of this movie is, of course, the dancing. I thought South Koreans were the dancing kings, but New Zelanders could seriously give them a run for their money. These guys can MOVE. Every single dance segment was unique, original, dynamic, and a spectacle in and of itself. I got up a few times and tried to replicate the moves, even though I have no memory for choreography.This movie was great and I loved everything about it, except one of the actors; the female American lead. She was horribly untalented, and I knew for a fact that she couldn't really dance. Then I looked at the credits and she had not 1 but 3(!) dance doubles. Why even cast her if she couldn't dance? Because she is somewhat pretty? She dragged down what could have been a perfect cast, and almost ruined the movie every time she opened her mouth. Aside from this horrible casting choice, everyone was like a good friend you wanted to know more about, and if that doesn't make a good movie, I don't know what does.

Dance movies, a genre that has been done over and over, and generally follows the same recipe. A down on their luck person who is amazing at dancing but is given an ultimatum, if they don't do something with their life there will be consequences, so miraculously an opportunity pops up and they have the shot to try out for their dream, their dancing dream, *insert love triangle here*, usually they do well, then something happens so they can no longer dance, and then as we all know they find a way to dance again and do amazing and everyone loves them and they win, they always freaking win! This movie pretty much followed that exact storyline, which isn't bad of course, but is predictable, it will most likely leave you satisfied, The movie I wasn't sure if it could be classified as a part comedy or really just a music drama, maybe it's the fact some of the acting is below par and that watching other New Zealanders trying to be serious is slightly embarrassing and awkward.....I don't know, maybe I'm over-analysing it. But I'll get into some semantics: Bad points: the accent, I get it, it's set in South Auckland but not all Nzers sound like that, and when they talk like that I don't believe it makes it internationally sell-able, the acting, well, apparently most of the 'actors' are dancers not actors, so that's pretty self explanatory, the storyline - leaves little to the imagination. Good points: It was enjoyable as a whole, I wouldn't be against recommending it, it was light-hearted and easy to follow, but the best thing about it was the dancing! it was sooo 'en pointe'....see what I did there?....dancing reference...no?....sorry haha, but no in all seriousness the dancing was amazing, not surprising considering the choreography was done by Parris Goebel who didn't she win the Hip Hop world champs several times? and name drop, was a choreographer for Jennifer Lopez! That's right, of course that part was going to be amazing! The music was good too, slight request though, if a singer is acting in the movie please refrain from featuring more than one of your songs....it is a little bit cringey, unless the movie is about you, then let it go. You act or have your songs featured, it's not a music documentary...Stan Walker *cough* *cough* Scribe *large cough*....wait, Scribe is still around... he was hosting the event, he's taken up acting, what is this! I also like that they they represented the gay community, slightly over- exaggerated but hey what do I know. To wrap it up, it was good, but not amazing if you want to see a light-hearted movie with fantastic dancing go see this movie, don't hold your breath for any amazing plot twists or any new story lines cause you are not going to get that here.

Young Tu wants to be a dancer, and spends all the time he's not working at his summer recycling job with his friends, the crew 2PK - all the way from South Auckland, New Zealand. Holla Papakura!When Tu gets the chance to try out for their moneyed-up, world- beating, cross-town opposition the K Crew, his father lays down the law about his future, and his friends start seriously losing the plot, Tu finds himself pulled three different ways.Okay, so far, so every reach-your-goals-movie ever. The story is nothing new, though there's a great injection of Kiwi humour every so often to lighten the drama - but the dancing and music are something else.This is what you're really seeing Born To Dance for - choreography by the sensational Parris Goebel, performances by groups like the Royal Family and Black Grace, and the thumping soundtrack put together by P-Money from a mix of local and international artists.The finale of the Regional Finals competition has to be seen to be believed - and it's best seen on the big screen.

I really like the film, it's entertaining and it adds a new feel to usual hip hop films that you see. I understand that some people were not impressed by the acting in certain points, but the creators of the film made do with what they got. The plot line is unoriginal, but they more than make up for it by using the unoriginal concepts in an original way. For example, If you were to compare this to You got served; you can see similarities of people risking their future to win a competition and how they usually turn out to be underdogs but end up winning. In this case, they made it original with the characters that they have and original with the kind way they execute the story.