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'Step Up': A remarkably predictable bore

By BOB LONGINO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If dance is such a big, rediscovered pastime and overrunning reality TV, then why is Disney's "Step Up" such a lengthy bore?

Buena Vista Pictures

'Step Up'

C-

The verdict: The leads can dance, but when not on the floor they're a bore.

Director: Anne Fletcher
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Rachel Griffiths, Mario, Drew Sidora
Run time: 98 minutes
Release date: August 11, 2006
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, brief violence and innuendo.
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Easy answer. Here we have street thug "A" (Channing Tatum as troubled Tyler), who throws down hip-hop steps. After a run-in with the law, he meets up with hoity-toity-school dancer "B" (Jenna Dewan as nervous Nora), who's all ballet and pointed toes. Soon they become modern-dance team "C," but unfortunately for us, without any of the suggestiveness and sexual-healing songs that made "Dirty Dancing" popular.

"Step Up" is so predictable, so remarkably so, you might wonder how such a movie got made.

Easy answer. Tatum and Dewan are attractive and both can dance. There's one brief nightclub scene where "Step Up" steps up its energy level. And the expected dance-performance finale at Nora's school will certainly nudge an audience awake.

But these two spend too much time not dancing. There's at-home issues for both, an egotistical boyfriend and soon-to-be ex for her and friends in need for him. And, yes, before it's all over, a gunshot and tears.

It's also a shame to see the great Australian actress Rachel Griffiths ("Six Feet Under") reduced to playing the school's headmistress and serving as support for two little-known leads (Dewan has toured as a dancer with Janet Jackson and others and is in the upcoming "The Grudge 2"; Tatum is a model who appeared in "Coach Carter" and "She's the Man.")

It all pulls "Step Up" down when it should be up.