If you're reading this, you probably already know that Step Up 2 the Streets is a really bad movie. You know this because everyone knows this; it's like knowing that Barack Obama is running for president or that right now, wherever she may be, Amy Winehouse is smashed (or wishes she were). This is Step Up 2 the Streets. It's not No Country for Old Men; it's not even 27 Dresses. It's not good. But if you can keep your expectations low and sense of humor high, Step Up 2 could actually show you a pretty good time.
The film focuses on Andie (Briana Evigan) a member of the 401, a dancing crew that specializes in mixing moves with mayhem. A contrived connection is made to the first Step Up when said film's breakout star, Channing Tatum, makes a momentarily shirtless cameo and convinces Andie to stay out of trouble and enroll in the Maryland School of the Arts (MSA). Things get predictably complicated when Andie meets MSA star student Chase (Robert Hoffman). The O-Town lookalike or the hometown crew? The only way to decide is to fight it out at The Streets, Baltimore's premier underground dance battle.
With painfully bad and borderline racist dialogue (sample exchange: Andie asks her Hispanic friend, "You're pimpin me out so your cousin can get a green card?" to which her friend replies, "He's from Florida!"), Step Up 2 only gets it right when it doesn't take itself seriously.
The not-actually-requisite backstory of a dead parent (a la Save the Last Dance) does little to achieve its desired end (which is presumably to add some weight to the fluff) and can't provide the movie with the gravity it needs to stay grounded; the dramatic scenes just drag on, killing time between dances.
Andie's MSA crew's cross-dressing break-dancing internet video is a highlight, and would kick Mask and Wig's tap-dancing ass. The motley members of the socially challenged Freaks and Geeks set Andie befriends at MSA are the only entertaining characters. Moose -- Andie's loyal sidekick and this movie's McLovin - and an Asian chick whose English is as broken as Ben Franklin's button steal every scene. The stars, too busy showcasing six-pack abs and lovesick eyes, never own their spotlight.
The dancing is as good as the acting is bad, and you'll still strut out of the theater with the beat of "she had them apple bottom jeans, boots with the furr" punctuating your every step. Step Up 2's athletic, acrobatic, did-they-really-just-do-that dances will have you wishing you could rewind and rewatch the street battles right there in the theater.
Step Up 2: not the worst way to spend your Valentine's Day. but close.
