Step Up

Who:  Amber
What:  Step Up
Where:  @ home on cable
Why:  I love hip hop!

I saw Step Up 2 on an airplane, so I figured it was about time I saw Step Up (1).  Plus, I love watching hip hop dancing.  I'm amazed at how fast they move, and the crazy acrobatics they can do with their bodies (like holding themselves up on one arm).

This movie has been made 100 times:  troubled attractive teen who can hip hop dance meets a 'rich' teen who can also dance.  They dance together, and learn lessons from one an other.

This time, troubled rich kid is Tyler.  He and his friends break into an art school, and find an auditorium with tons of cool props.  They do a little nuts playing around with the props, and end up breaking about half of them.  A rent-a-cop catches them, and Tyler gets hauled off to court.  Shocker of all shockers, Tyler must work off his debt by being a janitor at this art school from 2-5:30pm every night.

This is where Tyler sees Nora.  She's such a cutie!  Not your typical "hot movie chick", she's kind-of short, she has crazy redd-ish hair and a pushed up nose.  I just love seeing normal girls in movies.  It makes normal girls like me feel good!

Nora is a senior, working on her senior dance routine every evening.  Her dance partner hurts his ankle ... and nobody is available to set in ... or is there.  Tyler to the rescue!

At first he's awkward because he's never really danced a routine before, and Nora is annoyed with him.  Plus the other kids in the school are hesitant.

Yadda, yadda, yadda ... you all know the ending!

There is a side story about Nora's family and Tyler's foster family.  There are 2 other great side stories about other kids in school, and Tyler's ghetto friends.  Everybody learns some lessons, and lives happily ever after (well, kind-of).

This movie was so much more than dancing (but it also had some great dancing).  I highly recommend it!

One bummer was Tyler's foster sister - Allyson Stoner.  She's the little girl from the Missy Elliot video, the sporty girl in "Cheaper by the Dozen", and she was a Disney movie watcher kid for a while.  Anyway, in this movie she's about 12, and I know she can bust a move (she was a hip hop little tyke in the Missy Elliot Video "Work It").  I was dying for Tyler to go home, practice his dancing, and she works it along with him.  Alas, they didn't focus on Tyler's home life very much, so she never got a chance to dance.