By now, I think I’m pretty good at telling what people’s notions are when it comes ‘dance’ flicks. In fact, I can’t blame you for thinking that way because, I too, like you lean towards that same understanding. Dance flicks like ‘You Got Served’ and the entire ‘Step Up’ franchise prove to us that you only need perfect choreography and good dancers with amazing skills to sell a movie. Not a good script.
Barring a few notably amazing films with dance as it’s focused subject matter, most of the other releases seem to always contain a mediocre script as if it was a painful criteria to adhere to. It’s always the same cheese & corn…always rivalry between a couple of men, over a woman. Or this dancer used to be in this crew, and then joined the other crew. Sprinkle horrible supporting cast here & there, some drama thrown in…and wallah! You have a movie that is visually pleasing to a dance enthusiast, but a complete bitter pill to a swallow for a movie buff.
So, last night I watched ‘Battle of the Year,’ thanks to our friends at Sony Pictures Malaysia!
And I have to say this. That notion stays, but it really tried super hard to break that stigma. At first, I was made to understand that it’s a film starring Chris Brown. Hence, I was expecting the film to revolve around him, being under the impression it was gonna be yet another film similar to ‘You Got Served’. But to my surprise, I got served much better. At least on the storyboard front.
The movie opens with an introduction to Dante (Laz Alonso), a multi-millionaire who had his humble beginnings as break dancer, addressing the recent & alarming issue of the American failure on the world break dance competition front, to his board room. Dante, who is the owner of Digg-One Entertainment, the company that is to sponsor the American break dance contingent for the annual BOTY, or Battle of the year that’s to happen in France. Enter Jason Blake, (played by Josh Holloway which you probably best remember from hit TV series, Lost) a retired basketball coach, still in shambles, mourning the demise of his wife & only child. He is approached by Dante, his long time buddy whom he used to break dance with back in the day, who offers him the job to coach the ‘Dream Team’.
From here on, we see the introduction of Josh Peck as Franklyn who plays a avid Hip-Hop fan & staff of Digg One, who goes on to become Blake’s assistant. Peck brings some character, getting his supporting cast role spot on with his background being a young Jewish protagonist male who happens to be a big Hip-Hop fan. Both Blake & Franklyn skim through the best of the best dancers, finally putting together an initial team which includes Chris Brown himself, playing the bad boy Rooster. The team is then booted off to a correctional facility for training, under the instructions of Blake. Ego’s flair up amongst the team members & we witness all kinds of behavioural displays until Blake starts further shaving off the team. The core team then starts putting behind their differences and starts gelling in well with each other.
Just as the team is about to jet off to Montpelier, France for the heats at Battle of the Year…cocky ol Rooster does a flip & injures his knee, rendering him unfit for the competition. The team however, goes on to France and as soon as they land is when we see how big this is. It also is when you actually appreciate the film, for putting the spotlight on how big Hip-Hop, and the dance scene is globally. At this point, we also understand how America has taken a back seat to reigning champions Korea and other countries on the international break dance competition front. Tension spills over when, the night before the heats, the Dream Team gets into a bar brawl albeit not being the one’s who instigated it. Blake however loses his top, blasts his team without fully understanding what happened as he wasn’t present at time of incident & then faces the threat of his team pulling out of the competition as key member, Sniper gets disqualified for said bar brawl.
Franklyn again comes to the rescue, explaining what happened & convinces Blake to appeal for Sniper’s reinclusion. They sort that hurdle out & the team then regains morale and goes in for the heats. To initial boos and later, surprise, America makes it to the top 4. Thanks to really good chemistry between the team members, their performance echoes through the cheers of the crowd and eventually books them a spot in the final battle against Korea. After a pretty intense battle, the Americans come in second fiddle to the Koreans in an epic finale, falling short by just a point. Last scene takes us back to the same board room where the movie starts, with Dante & the rest of the team discussing plans of training and getting ready for the next year, clearly signalling a possible sequel.
Although, personally I feel that the dance choreography in this film is nothing much to shout about as opposed to the other flicks of the same genre…I, however must add that the cinematography brings a very battle vibe & still manages to showcase the technical bits of break dancing. And kudos to the movie maker for actually trying to inject substance into the characters by incorporating their personal tales. However, with all said and done, I still think this film is a ‘slightly-above-dismal’ effort to make the dance flick genre interesting.
Final rating: 4/10