Battle of the Year (2013)
Certified: 12A
Duration: 109 minutes
Directed by: Benson Lee
Starring: Josh Holloway, Chris Brown, Josh Peck, Laz Alonso, Caity Lotz, Jon ‘Do Knock’ Cruz, Ivan ‘Flipz’ Velez, Terrence Jenkins, Anis Cheurfa, Weronika Rosati, Dominic Sandoval, Steve Terada, Louis Rosato
KRS release
Jason Blake (Josh Holloway) and Dante Graham (Laz Alonso) had once been teammates in a b-boy (someone who breakdances) dance crew. Dante eventually became a rich and successful businessman, while Jason became a successful basketball coach. However, the latter lost it all after his wife and son were killed in a car accident.
Dante has a problem: he sees a reduction in the following of b-boy dancing which could spell financial problems for him. So he decides to bring his old friend in, get him to coach a crew, and go to Paris for the Battle of the Year dance face-off.
After some time Jason accepts on one condition: that he decides all the actions and business of the crew.
First he brings in Franklyn (Josh Peck), one of Dante’s employees, as his assistant. Then he decides not to take the LA crew and instead build up a team of international dancers.
These all come packaged with their own set of problems: Flipz (Ivan ‘Flipz’ Velez) has a wife and child he has told no one about; and Lil Adonis (Richard Maguire) and Sniper (Sawandi Wilson) do not get along, besides other problems.
Jason hopes that putting them all together and forcing them to be together will bring them in tune with each other. Meanwhile, choreographer Stacey (Caity Lotz) provides additional help.
Their major rival is the South Korean team who has dominated the competition in the past years.
Battle of the Year is aimed fair and square to fans of the hip-hop/rap movie genre, which has flourished with several pictures like You Got Served (2004) and Stomp the Yard (2007).
However, the only film of this genre to really crossover into the mainstream has to be the Step Up series (2006 to 2012) which fused well with the teen romantic and drama genres. Yet, Battle of the Year is not meant to be another Step Up.
Showdowns between the dance teams are very exciting to watch
It has one subplot that is well developed and that can alienate the audience from the dancing: one of the team members harbours a secret and a fellow teammate tries to get him off the group. The actual relationship and respect that follows is well handled and very realistic.
An interesting facet of the picture is the fact that it looks at the 2007 documentary Planet B-Boy by the same director, Benson Lee, for inspiration, and references it throughout the movie as if it were the genre’s Holy Grail.
Anyone who is a fan of the genre will go home with plenty of new moves in mind and will find the showdowns between the dance teams very exciting to watch.