Flash mobs ‘Step Up’ and it pays off

By Roger MooreMCT | Wednesday, July 25, 2012

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Summit Entertainment: Ryan Guzman (from left), Misha Gabriel, Stephen “tWitch” Boss and Angeline Appel star in “Step Up: Revolution.”
  • The Mob stops traffic on Miami’s Ocean Drive in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) The Mob stops traffic on Miami’s Ocean Drive in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick star in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick star in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Ryan Guzman stars in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Ryan Guzman stars in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Ryan Guzman (front) stars in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Ryan Guzman (front) stars in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Kathryn McCormick and Ryan Guzman star in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Kathryn McCormick and Ryan Guzman star in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick star in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick star in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Kathryn McCormick stars in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Kathryn McCormick stars in “Step Up: Revolution.”

  • Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick star in “Step Up: Revolution.”
    ( Summit Entertainment ) Ryan Guzman and Kathryn McCormick star in “Step Up: Revolution.”

Movie review

??? (out of five stars)

Director: Scott Speer

Cast: Kathryn McCormick, Ryan Guzman, Stephen Boss, Cleopatra Coleman, Misha Hamilton

Rated: PG-13 for some suggestive dancing and language

Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

What did you think?: Find this review at charleston scene.com and offer your opinion.

‘Step Up Revolution” taps into the dance “flash mob” phenomenon and moves to Miami to give us the sunniest and most entertaining of these kids-gotta-dance musicals.

The flash mobs — in traffic, dancing on the roofs, hoods and trunks of low-rider vintage cars in Miami traffic, disrupting museum openings and a developer’s planning meetings — are a brilliantly choreographed, well-shot and sharply edited treat.

Well, except for one unfortunately timed stunt involving a darkened room, smoke bombs and menacing dancers charging in wearing gas masks. And another, with dancers imitating machine guns strafing a crowd. Sad that the news intrudes, inadvertently, on this summer cotton-candy treat.

Sean (Ryan Guzman) is the heart and soul of “The Mob,” a Miami dance crew that has its own DJ (Cleopatra Coleman), hacker-planner (Misha Hamilton), dancer/special effects guy (Stephen Boss) and street artist who “tags” each of their events with “The Mob” (Michael Langebeck). That’s not to mention their parkour “stunt” specialists and the videographer who hides his camera in the darnedest places whenever they go out on “a mission.”

Stopping traffic and choreographing the jolly, bouncing low-riders they roll up in has got to be preserved and uploaded to YouTube. They want to attract so many YouTube hits that they win a contest and collect some cash.

Sean and Eddy (Hamilton) work in a swank hotel whose developer/owner (Peter Gallagher) has designs on the neighborhood the dancers call home. But his daughter, Emily (Kathryn McCormick), is a dancer, too. She’s ready to add to her modern-dance repertoire and go undercover for a little dance on the wild side.

Director Scott Speer from “The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers” knows where to point his camera, how to cut to the beat. Everything from parkour-style stunts and mime to salsa, krumping and interpretative dance is given its showcase. And tapping into flash mobs, those Internet-posted delights in which singers or dancers show up en masse? Inspired.