Step Up (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Step Up | |
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| Directed by | Kelsey K. |
| Produced by | Cassandra Pooh and Jordan R Jennifer Gibgot Adam Shankman Patrick Wachsberger |
| Written by | Duane Adler Melissa Rosenberg |
| Starring | Channing Tatum Jenna Dewan Mario Drew Sidora Alyson Stoner Rachel Griffiths |
| Music by | Aaron Zigman |
| Cinematography | Michael Seresin |
| Editing by | Nancy Richardson |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures (USA) UIP (UK, France, Switzerland) |
| Release date(s) | August 11, 2006 |
| Running time | 98 min |
| Budget | $12 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Step Up is a 2006 dance/romance film directed by Anne Fletcher starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.
The movie follows the tale of the rebel Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) and the ultra-privileged ballet dancer Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan), who find themselves paired up in a showcase that determines both of their futures. Realizing that they only have one chance, they finally work together.
Its official website is not hosted on its own domain; rather, it is hosted through MySpace, and it serves as a community that encourages social networking and discussion about the film.
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[edit] The cast
Channing Tatum - Tyler Gage
Jenna Dewan - Nora Clark
Damaine Radcliff - Mac Carter
De'Shawn Washington - Skinny Carter
Mario - Miles Darby
Drew Sidora - Lucy Avila
Alyson Stoner-Camille Hewett
Samantha Norman - Bethany Morrowsky
[edit] Plot
The movie takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. The film begins with scenes switching back and forth between a graceful ballet practice in the afternoon to a group of people street/hip-hop dancing at night. The next scene shows Brothers Mac (Damaine Radcliff) and Skinny (De'Shawn Washington) and their friend Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) are at a house party. They leave the party after a fight broke out between Tyler and PJ (DeLon Howell) because Tyler was dancing with PJ's girlfriend.
Tyler accidentally breaks a window of a building which Skinny sneaks into, forcing Mac and Tyler to follow him. They discover that they are in the Maryland School of Arts, which they believe only rich stuck-up kids attend. They move onto the performing arts stage and vandalize the props on stage. A security guard arrives after hearing the noise and grabs Mac. Tyler frees Mac from the guard but is captured himself.
At court, Tyler is sentenced to 200 hours of community service. His record states that he has been in trouble before and that he lives in a foster home. He returns home with his foster mother, where there are two younger siblings and an unemployed alcoholic father. He meets the principal of the school, Director Gordon (Rachel Griffiths), who assigns him as a janitor as part of his community service. As Tyler carries out his janitorial tasks, he watches a dance class and sees Nora (Jenna Dewan), a student and dancer.
Tyler goes outside and Mac and Skinny arrives in a stolen car. They make money by dropping cars off at the chop shop for Omar (Heavy D), or hustling people in basketball. After questioning Tyler about how the school is, he begins dancing for them. Nora, meanwhile, is talking with Lucy (Drew Sidora) about stressing out over her piece, with Miles ([[Mario]) giving another beat for Nora to use in her piece. She sees Tyler dancing outside through a window.
Nora is a senior at the school and she is practising a dance piece for a performance which dance scouts will attend. Her partner Andrew (Tim Lacatena) ends up spraining his ankle and so she sets up auditions for a replacement. As Tyler continues doing his janitorial work, he overhears Nora talking to her boyfriend, Brett (Josh Henderson), seeing if he would help her dance. He declined because he wanted to focus on his music. Nora looks for a new partner during the auditions, but none of them were adequate for the role.
After the auditions ended and Nora is resting, Tyler approaches her and offers to replace Andrew. She is reluctant at first but decides to give him a chance, challenging him to catch her, which he does. Nora asks Director Gordon if Tyler could be her replacement for a few weeks until Andrew recovers. Director Gordon is a little hesitant but allows it.
Days go by as Tyler and Nora learn the routine together. Lucy is surprised that Tyler is Nora's new dancing partner and jokes about Nora liking Tyler even though she has a boyfriend, Brett. Nora jokes about Lucy liking Miles who mixes beats for Nora even though Lucy has an older boyfriend.
One day Tyler misses practice by an hour after messing round with Mac and Skinny, and finds Nora listening to Brett and Miles' recording session. She is angry at him for being late. Brett asks Tyler to leave the studio because everyone's working and they are taking their music and art seriously whereas Tyler doesn't seem to take anything seriously.
The next day shows Nora waiting for Tyler again. When she finally gives up and leaves, she finds him back in his janitor uniform sweeping outside. She asks him where he's been and he says that he doesn't think this whole dancing thing is for him and that she was doing fine on her own. Nora becomes worried now because she has no dance partner for her show-piece.
Mac, Skinny, and Tyler are playing video games and Mac mentions how Tyler always gives up on everything he does. Tyler takes that into consideration and ends up going back to Nora and apologizing. He says that he'll do anything to dance with her again and the following scene shows him practising ballet with children. They both get closer as they dance together everyday. Because of this, Tyler spends less time with Mac and Skinny which irritates Mac.
One day, Nora breaks up with Brett after finding out that he got a recording deal only after he ditched Miles, saying how Brett just uses people and throws them away once he gets what he wants; she breaks up with Brett. Also Tyler goes and asks Director Gordon if it's possible if he could finish out the rest of his school year at the Maryland School of Arts. She says he has to earn it and show her that he really wants to be there.
At a party, Lucy' boyfriend is singing with his band. Tyler and Nora dance when Miles and Lucy sing on stage. While Miles and Lucy are getting closer to each other, Lucy has an older boyfriend who they see later kissing another girl; Lucy abruptly leaves the party. Tyler and Nora have their first kiss outside on the pier.
In one of their practices Mac comes in and finds Tyler dancing. He gets upset over Tyler ditching him and Skinny hanging for dancing sessions and for a girl. Tyler walks back into the school to find out that Andrew has recovered and is ready to dance again. Nora doesn't know what to do because Andrew is also a senior and this dance recital means a lot for him too. Tyler is angry and says that she is just like Brett, uses people and then ditches them and so he leaves.
There are scenes of them moping around; Nora phoned Tyler's house phone, but he pretends that he is not at home. Andrew, being a more artistic dancer, is uncomfortable with Nora and Tyler's routine, which includes some hip-hop dancing. Eventually he hurts himself again and says that he can't dance with Nora which leaves her without a partner again.
Tyler reunites with Mac and Skinny. Tyler and Mac went to a house party hosted by Omar and left Skinny at home because his mother had forbidden him from going out. Skinny does show up because he didn't want to be stuck at home. After Mac tells him to leave, Skinny walks back home but sees PJ who has an Escalade. Earlier in the movie, Omar told the boys that stealing an Escalade for him would please him. When PJ goes into a store to pick up, Skinny steals his Escalade. He drives back to the party where Tyler and Mac, who both know who the car belongs to, and they yell at him to get out of the car. After Skinny gets out of the car, PJ drives by in another car and shoots Skinny to death. After the funeral Mac and Tyler talk about how they want their life to be better than what they have now. This encourages Tyler to run back to Nora just in time for the recital.
Tyler comes back to find Nora, Lucy, and Miles preparing for the recital, and begs Nora to let him dance again. Nora lets him dance and they perform a successful show-piece. Afterwards, Nora and Tyler make up, Mac congratulates Tyler, Lucy and Miles kiss, the dance scout wants to talk to Nora about being in their dance program, and Director Gordon wants Tyler to finish out the rest of his school year at the Maryland School of Arts. It ends with Tyler and Nora kissing back stage.
[edit] Box office and reaction
Las Vegas Weekly's Josh Bell gave Step Up one and a half stars, calling the dancing "..bland.." and saying that "...Tatum and Dewan have no chemistry while dancing or making out (not to mention whenever they're unfortunate enough to have to speak)."[1]
As of August 23, 2006, the film had an average score of 48 out of 100 on Metacritic, signifying "mixed or average reviews"; its highest score was 75 (from both Entertainment Weekly and the Boston Globe), and its lowest was a 25 from the San Francisco Chronicle.
However, despite many bad reviews from critics, Step Up earned a total of $21 million in its opening weekend, ranking second in the North American box office and exceeding the film's budget of $12 million. As of October 19, 2006 the day it closed, it had earned $65,328,121 in the United States and Canada.
It is considered to be a cult film towards teenagers and urban dancers.
The DVD for Step Up was released on December 19, 2006.
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack features music from Mario, Ciara, Drew Sidora, Kelis, Chris Brown, Yung Joc, and Chamillionaire. The lead singles from the soundtrack are Sean Paul & Keyshia Cole's "Give It Up To Me" Remix and Ciara's new single, "Get Up" featuring Chamillionaire. It was released August 8. Other tracks include Kelis' "80's Joint", Anthony Hamilton's "Dear Life", Youngbloodz's "Imma Shine" and Petey Pablo's "Show Me Tha Money". The title track is performed by newcomer Samantha Jade and produced by Wyclef Jean.
[edit] External links
- Step Up at MySpace
- Step Up at the Internet Movie Database
- Step Up at Metacritic
- Step Up at Box Office Mojo
- Step Up at Rotten Tomatoes
