Dance Flick (2009) movie

Cast: Damon Wayans Jr., Craig Wayans, Shoshanna Bush, Essence Atkins, Affion Crockett
Director: Damien Dante Wayans
Genres: Parody/Spoof, Comedy, Dance Film

"Dance Flick" is a hilarious new comedy that brings together the talents of two generations of the Wayans family, the explosively funny clan who brought us the "Scary Movie" franchise and "White Chicks", as well as the groundbreaking TV series "In Living Color." In "Dance Flick," a young street dancer, Thomas Uncles (Damon Wayans, Jr.), from the wrong side of the tracks and a beautiful young woman, Megan White (Shoshana Bush), are brought together by their passion for dancing and put to the test in the mother of all dance battles. "Dance Flick" sends up the dance movie genre, including such recent hits as "Step Up" and "You Got Served", as well as the classic "Flashdance".

A privileged white girl from the suburbs moves to the inner city and attempts to perfect her notoriously clumsy dance moves in this parody of popular dance movies. Damon Wayans Jr. and Craig Wayans star in a comedy co-written by Shawn, Keenen Ivory, Marlon, Craig, and Damien Wayans, who also directs.


Dance FlickCritic Reviews: Glenn Whipp
After flashing a dismal move that would make Dancing With the Stars judge Len Goodman weep uncontrollably, the emcee in the Wayans brothers' latest parody, Dance Flick, holds his nose and proclaims, "That's not just bad. That's everything-on-the-CW bad."

What the character should have said was that the intentionally bad dancing was way worse (which is to say, funnier) than just about any of the sorry sketches found in the proliferation of parody movies that arrived after the Wayans' deadly funny Scary Movie back in 2000.

The Wayans had nothing to do with those fatigued exercises in tedium (Date Movie, Epic Movie, etc.), but the assumption remains that they did, tainting "Dance Flick" by association. But this send-up, created in large part by new-generation family members Damon Jr., Craig and Damien Dante Wayans, possesses a more nimble comic footing. We'll stop short of calling it graceful, given that the movie's second joke involves a dance competitor sticking his head up his behind.

Yes, it's that kind of comedy, a buzz saw grinding its way through formulas found in such recent dance movies as Step Up, Stomp the Yard and You Got Served, not to mention such "classics" as Flashdance and Fame. The latter comes into play when a Zac Efron-styled high school student makes like Irene Cara and sings not about living forever, but coming out with . . . um . . . pride.

Efron should probably pass on seeing this one, likewise Halle Berry, whose persona sets one of the "plot" points in motion with a gruesome hit-and-run accident. For these new Wayans, every scene can be improved by adding a violent beating. Example: A Ray Charles stand-in shows up, ostensibly only to spill hot coffee in his mother's lap. (Yes, he hits the road, Jack.)

The miss-and-hit parodies score best when focusing on the Julia Stiles-styled girl next door (Shoshana Bush) chasing her dream of becoming a ballet dancer while attending Musical High. It's not in the Wayans' family makeup to develop an actual plot with connective tissue, but had they stayed within the school's corridors, they could have had a lot more fun with Marlon Wayans' aptly named drama teacher Mr. Moody and the vindictive girls gym instructor (Heather McDonald), whose name, like most of the movie's humor, we dare not speak.