Darkmatters Review: Street Dance 3D

Street Dance 3D (PG)

Dir. Max Giwa & Dania Pasquini

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

“Na na na naaiaaa… Watch me while I stand here, Watch my feet, my stance, my body language - I’m not someone to be messed with!” So goes the pumping N-Dubz ‘We Dance On’ - soundtrack to this slick new British dance movie that brings street dancing to the big screen like never before – in 3D.

You don’t need to be Simon Cowell to know that the Street Dance phenomenon has been red hot since Diversity beat Susan Boyle to win Britain’s Got Talent with their inventive, creative, eye-popping moves. In Street Dance 3D we follow the attractive young Carly (Nichola ‘Donkey Punch’ Burley) as she struggles to lead some aspiring street dancers to glory after her boyfriend and former leader of their ‘Jay2-0’ troop Jay (Ukweli Roach) leaves them in the lurch.

With the crew falling apart and Carly nursing a broken heart – whilst rival dancers (and reigning champs) Source strut their stuff, glory in the UK Streetdance Championships looks unobtainable… But maybe, just maybe Carly can find some new members for the rechristened ‘Break Point’ troop, oh and a rehearsal studio too… What are the chances that a snooty ballet school might just be the answer??

OK so the plot won’t win any awards but the dance moves might as the various competitions, training scenes and climatic championship face off are really impressive. For once the 3D is used effectively to bring the action alive and even add watchability to otherwise average scenes. I have to confess that I could watch Nichola Burley doing nothing all day in 3D, but it is exciting to see a British film seamlessly blend 3D to improve the overall experience – as oppose to it being tacked on to try and jazz up the lackluster action cough ‘Clash of the Titans’ cough…

"Britain's got Ballet..."

My two sons loved this with one proclaiming that it was his ‘film of the year’ but then he’s a big N-Dubz fan so he was sold by the admittedly cool soundtrack (oldies note that there’s some Vega4 on there to help balance out all the Grime and Garage tunes). Younger son likened Street Dance 3D to the recent Fame remake and it does have that pleasing Brit Fame-alike vibe just with the added bonus of genuinely talented dancers including Flawless, George Sampson and Diversity who all won fans on Britain’s Got Talent.

Whilst Charlotte Rampling stands out a mile by actually being able to act, the cast of Street Dance 3D all do what they can with the horribly clichéd plotline. The best thing to do is to sit back and enjoy the flashy, eye popping visuals whilst letting the ‘seen it all before’ story wash over you.

UNSEEN DELETED SCENE:

The 'Kids' from Fame turn up and challenge Break Point to a dance battle - it goes to the wire with the two blonde hottie leads (Burley from SD3D and Kherington Payne from Fame) wrestling each other...

Darkmatters rating: ööööööö (7 wicked dance moves out of 10)

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