The Wayans Do It Again

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".

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." Someone’s bound to get served when geeky black dude Thomas (Wayans Jr.), who’s in debt to a gangster (David Alan Grier, in about three fatsuits) after his crew loses a dance battle becomes drawn to the equally talented Megan (Bush), a white suburban aspiring ballerina forced to downsize her dreams and enroll, to her dismay, in a rowdy ghetto high school following the death of her single mom (Mom is repeatedly hit or run over by cars after she collides with a tanker trunk hauling gasoline.) At Musical High School, Megan meets an unwed mother (Essence Atkins) who stashes her baby in her locker during classes, and a driven anorexic ballet student (Christina Murphy) who is looking for a suitable dance partner for the school's year end finale. Hoping to help Megan rekindle her love of dance, Thomas begins to teach the classically trained performer more primal moves from the street. And if you haven't figured out yet where this derivative mock flick is headed, then you probably don't get out to the movies much. Built primarily on nods to 2001’s “Save the Last Dance,” 2006’s “Step Up” and 2004’s “You Got Served” (plus “High School Musical,” “Hairspray”, “Stomp the Yard”, "Fame" and "Dreamgirls"), this spoof makes last year’s jack-o-lantern look fresh. This is a massive Wayans production—written by Marlon, Shawn, Keenen Ivory, Craig and Damien, who also directed—so as long as the movie’s not as mind-meltingly horrific as something like “Little Man” the world will be a better place. This hyperactive hip hop satire is at its outrageous best when sticking to parody of whatever dance flicks came before. While Essence Atkins just about upstages every last Wayans with her sparkling ballsy coed attitude, as a righteously babbling baby mama who is nobody's fool. 

Say this for Dance Flick: It actually has plenty of  jokes that work, as opposed to the excruciating, non-stop pop culture reference machines otherwise known as “Disaster Movie,” “Meet the Spartans,” and so forth. Are the jokes in “Dance Flick” funny? Every step of the way, with memorable gags ranging from a reference to Brandy’s fatal traffic accident to a book called “Britney Spears’ Guide to Parenting.” Arguably more uncomfortable (and likely unintentional, based on when the movie was filmed): Megan and Thomas dancing to Chris Brown’s “Forever” at Club Violence, only minutes before Thomas punches Megan. Hilarious! Every joke is spot on and even when they step away from making fun of dance movies (i.e. :the "Twilight" scene) I still found myself laughing. This one is a great effort from the Wayans after the last couple of snooze fests, Dance Flick brings back the hardcore comedy that had been missed previously. Go and see this and plan for falling on the the floor laughter. A definite 4 on my "Go See" scale.