Long on jokes but short on funny
It's official: If "Date Movie," "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" didn't already kill off the spoof-flick genre (thanks to directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer), "Dance Flick" is the final nail in the coffin.
I was so eager to see Dance Flick for several reasons: the trailer was hilarious, and this movie was created by the Wayans Brothers. It's a movie you’d expect to be so silly and off the wall to the point that it's funny, but it ended up being a complete disappointment. That's a shame since the Wayans are best known for creating the hit show “In Living Color.” They also made Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2, spoofs that were actually funny.
Dance Flick brings together all of the dance movies from the past several years: “Save the Last Dance,” “You Got Served,” “Step Up,” etc. They also rip off musicals like Hairspray and High School Musical, and they even manage to throw in a dig at Twilight.
The main story follows the one from “Save the Last Dance”; Megan (Shoshana Bush) is a lovely white girl who moves to the urban part of town and goes to Musical High School. She meets Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.) and they bond over their love of dance. Unfortunately, an overweight thug named Sugar Bear (David Alan Grier) and a rival dance crew threaten Megan and Thomas' relationship.
The movie's jokes are nonstop and thankfully it's fast paced, so they never spend too much time setting up or delivering any one joke. The problem is most of the gags aren't funny at all. The slapstick starts off entertaining, but gets old after a few minutes. Dance Flick also spends too much time making fun of severely outdated pop culture references. It's 2009; if you're still poking fun of Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton I'd say you need to update your gossip magazine collection.
In all the randomness going on, Essence Atkins plays clueless single mother Charity, and she's the only actor in the movie who provides any sort of consistent funniness. At times, what's happening in the background of any scene is more interesting than what the characters are doing.
There were a few moments that made me howl, but that's about it. I had such high hopes and wanted to love it, but it ends up being another movie where all of its funny parts are in the trailer. Dance Flick feels more like a bunch of different skits stitched together instead of a real movie. That's not a bad thing, but within each one it's like the Wayans decided to throw a barrage of jokes at the wall, and barely any of them stick.
Dance Flick's only job is be entertaining and funny. Sadly, it fails at both.
LoLz Factor: I can count exactly three times where I laughed hard during Dance Flick. That's a shameful drop in the bucket compared to the number of attempted jokes during this movie.
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