Step Up

What’s the Story?

When Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) gets caught trashing a private performing arts school with some of his buddies, the judge sentences him to community service -- cleaning the school for several hours each day. That's where he meets Nora (Jenna Dewan), a Type-A dance student with a wannabe pop star boyfriend (Josh Henderson). Nora's working hard on the choreography for her "Senior Showcase," a dance number she hopes will land her a job with a dance company after graduation. But when her partner hurts his ankle and can't practice, she needs someone to fill his place. After auditioning a few guys who can't dance worth beans, Nora's ready to give up hope. In between mopping and cleaning, Tyler notices her frustration and says he'll do it. No matter that he doesn't know a pirouette from a glissade. She's seen his hip-hop moves and knows he can dance. Besides that, she's desperate.

Is It Any Good?

We've seen all this before in Dirty Dancing, Take the Lead, and a zillion other dance movies. Guy from the wrong side of the tracks connects with girl through the power of dancing. She needs him to break into the next phase of her dance life, and he needs her to lift him out of his pathetic life. And it all culminates in The Big Dance Number, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, the storyline is tired and cheesy, but what saves STEP UP from cliché-dom are the fun dance numbers that make YOU want to get up and dance. Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum have great chemistry (helped along by the fact that he looks just like Wentworth Miller on Prison Break). And the actors did all their own dance moves, which lends an authenticity to the movie and saves us from having to sit through body doubles and clunky cutaway scenes.