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DVD Review- Dance Flick (2009)
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Kim Wayans and Shoshana Bush in Dance Flick
Parody movies have really gone down the toilet in the last ten years. This trend seems to have been started by the excellent Not Another Teen Movie and the funny Scary Movie (and its declining sequels), but has since devolved into sheer inanity with such horrible, horrible films as Epic Movie, Date Movie, Disaster Movie...well, anything produced by the writer/director team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Dance Flick doesn't involve those two (thankfully), but was instead directed by Damien Dante Wayans, the nephew of the Wayans brothers, which is headed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Keenen (who appears in Dance Flick and also helped with the screenplay) has been responsible for the groundbreaking television series In Living Color and also some great parody movies like I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and the aforementioned Scary Movie. So, does Dance Flick hold up the standards of the golden age of the Wayans legacy? Or is this another White Chicks (also, sadly, directed by Keenen)?
Dance Flick opens with a dance competition gone awry, as one team loses when their star dancer dies executing a sliding head stand. From there we meet Megan White, a caucasian teenaged girl (ha, ha, get it?) played by Shoshana Bush who moves to the inner city after her mother's tragic death. She enters the local high school and meets a host of, um, charming stereotypes. There's Charity (Essence Atkins; How High), a tough black girl who takes Megan under her wing and also carts her infant son, well, everywhere. Megan falls for the black street tough Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.), a member of the dance crew who lost the opening dance competition. Thomas and his crew owe money to the obese gang lord Sugar Bear (David Alan Grier; In Living Color), a portrayal that owes much to Arsenio Hall's character Chunky A. All of the action leads to a big closing dance competition, where the audience holds its collective breath waiting to see if Thomas and his crew will win back the money they owe to the large Sugar Bear.
If this plot synopsis seems disjointed, well, that's because the plot (plot?) of this parody is episodic at best. Dance Flick is really nothing more than a series of skits linked together by the barest thread of a storyline. The biggest problem (and there are many) with this recent glut of parody movies is that they choose to mock whatever are the most recent popular movies. This means that the parody is only as fresh as the films they mock. Ten years from now, will new audiences remember Save the Last Dance, Step Up, or Hairspray? Probably not. The reason why such heralded parodies as Blazing Saddles and Airplane! are still funny today is because they mock the conventions of film genres, not the specific films within those genres. Dance Flick opts to parody a number of movies, including Little Miss Sunshine, Twilight, Final Destination, Ray, Roots, Fame (which may prove to be accidentally prescient, as a remake is set to be released in September of 2009), Flashdance, Crash, Edward Scissorhands, and, possibly the most mind boggling choice, Black Snake Moan (does anyone remember this 2007 release?).
Does that mean that Dance Flick is entirely horrible? Actually, no. This reviewer was surprised to find himself giggling at some points. There's even a pie-in-the-face gag that induced guffaws. Does that mean that Dance Flick is at all worth seeing? Actually, no. The sum of the few (and they are few) humorous parts do not equal the whole of the lameness on display. There are some performances that show much promise. Shoshana Bush displays the comic reactions and timing of Anna Faris, who gained fame in the Scary Movie franchise and has since gone on to better things. Hopefully, she can get those types of roles in the future. Damon Wayans Jr. seems to have talent beyond what Dance Flick can offer; perhaps he will follow in his father's talented footsteps. Seasoned comic actress Amy Sedaris (Strangers with Candy, Elf) also puts in an all too short yet very funny performance as the deranged dance teacher Ms. Cameltoe (pronounced Camel-TWAW), who conducts her class like the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket (to a girl who is very skinny: "What are you, the number eleven?").
Still, this movie can't be recommended to anyone. What happened to Keenen Ivory Wayans??? It's hard to believe that the man who launched the genre-defying In Living Color (not to mention the careers of all his siblings and now their children) is partly responsible for this mess. Maybe he just does not care anymore and is satisfied to just cash a check. That's just too damned bad and a sizable loss for fans of good comedy.
There are no extra features to be had on the DVD release. Also available on Blu-Ray, which includes an unrated version (the DVD version is PG-13), outtakes, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and a featurette.
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Rent it from Netflix: Dance Flick
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