Salsa beat
Sequel features great dance moves but lacks heart and soul
Street Dance 2 (2012)
Certified: PG
Duration: 90 minutes
Directed by: Max Giwa, Dania Pasquini
Starring: Sofia Boutella, Falk Hentschel, George Sampson, Richard Winsor, Akai Osei, Tom Conti, Flawless
KRS release
Falk Hentschel plays Ash, a dancer who is humiliated by the dance crew Invincible, led by the pompous Vince (Anwar Burton).
The audience will have to accept some incredulous stuff...- Johan Galea
Ash wants revenge and together with young Eddie (George Sampson), who takes on the role of manager, they tour the major cities of Europe: Berlin, Ibiza, Rome, Lyon and Copenhagen among others.
They gather the best street dancers and bring them back to Paris for six weeks’ training to enter the street dance championship known as The Final Clash.
Meanwhile they try to find a unique style.
When Ash and Eddie visit a salsa bar, they see the very hot Eva (Sofia Boutella), a salsa dancer who performs in a boxing ring. She inspires Ash and the crew to create a mix of salsa and street dance.
The first Street Dance 3D was a minor box-office hit in 2010.
Street Dance 2 was released with a bigger budget, well-choreographed dancing moves but is such an exercise in blandness that it does not even approach the low expectations of this genre.
The film’s main culprit lies in Mr Hentschel who is supposed to be the protagonist.
He is never believable, never seems to be interested in what is going on and apart from an eating contest that he gets involved in, he seems to lack any fire for his role.
He is miles away from being a screen teenage heart-throb and he lacks the necessary presence.
The film’s production flits to and fro in the early sequences in an attractive tourist postcard of some of Europe’s most well-known sites. Dancers are brought from all over Europe but we never really get to know them and there is not even an attempt at character exposition.
The first film showed the crew’s struggles, here it seems that money is not a problem and the crews, apart from some snoring problems, gel well together.
George Sampson, one of Britain’s Got Talent’s products, is lost as he seems to be the only one attempting to act, while Tom Conti is to the only cast member who seems to be having some fun.
Meanwhile, Sofia Boutella may be light on the acting side but her dance moves are steamy, energetic and sensual.
The audience will have to accept some incredulous stuff: dancing in a boxing ring, the dialogue and the final dance battle.
One begs to ask why gather some of the best dancers of the genre from all over Europe and not really give them the chance to shine?
This sequel lacks the first film’s charm and looks too naïve and inane to really make this anything more than a teenage proposal.
The compulsory solo dance sequence plays too much like a Flashdance outtake to actually be taken seriously.