Step Up 5: All In, 2014.
Directed by Trish Sie.
Starring Ryan Guzman, Briana Evigan, Adam G. Sevani, Misha Gabriel Hamilton, Stephen Boss and Alyson Stoner.
SYNOPSIS:
All-stars from the previous Step Up installments come together in glittering Las Vegas, battling for a victory that could define their dreams and their careers.
Step Up 5: All In is the fifth entry into the Step Up franchise. This series has stayed mostly the same throughout the years, focusing on great dance sequences and not much else. Having seen all the previous films I can safely say that this series is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine, despite only really liking the third entry. Everyone involved in these films know they aren’t making anything groundbreaking and they realize people are there just to see the dancing so they never take themselves seriously and put all of their emphasis on the dance sequences, which are easily the best parts. With this film the filmmakers try to copy what was done in Fast Five and decide to bring back most of the popular characters from the previous instalments; most notably missing is Channing Tatum who was clearly too busy to come back, for what could be one last blowout.
There isn’t much of a story in All In but what is here follows Sean (Ryan Guzman), who was our main character in the last film. He and his crew, The Mob, keep trying to make it big in L.A. but nothing seems to be going their way. After coming up short with so many gigs the rest of The Mob is ready to go back home to Miami but Sean feels they still have a great chance to do something big. The Mob ends up leaving him and Sean is left to find a new crew. He hooks up with his old friend Moose (Adam G. Sevani) who introduces Sean to Andie (Briana Evigan) and from there they team up with a bunch of familiar faces from the previous films. Their plan is to win a contest called The Vortex where the winner gets a three year contract to dance in Las Vegas. In a not so surprising twist Sean’s old crew, The Mob, decides to join the contest as well which puts Sean in a difficult position. Does he make up with his old friends or continue with his new friends to win the chance of a lifetime?
Like I mentioned before the audience for these films are coming for the dancing so everything else like the story, acting, etc. all get pushed to the side. Even though there aren’t many positives there is some fun to be had in this film. This one reminded me a lot of the third entry, which is my favorite one in the series, in that the filmmakers know how to keep most of the focus on the dancing and not spend pointless amounts of time with any of the love story or sub plots. Yes we do get a good bit of love story and sub plots, but they don’t get in the way of what’s important.
None of the actors here are truly actors, they are merely dancers trying to act. When it comes to dancing they are all extremely talented, especially Adam G. Sevani who I feel is the strongest dancer in this franchise, so it can be forgiven that none of them are good actors since the only important thing here is the dancing. But even though the dancing is the strongest part of the film that doesn’t mean everything else can be completely overlooked. It would be nice if they could find a way to change up the story once in a while because it feels like the same thing in every one of these. Also, having some decent acting would be nice. I know I said their acting doesn’t really matter, but it would be nice if it didn’t feel like all of these characters belong in a Disney Channel movie. Despite all of the negatives director Trish Sie does do a nice job of filming everything to really showcase these amazing dancers which is something they fell short of in the previous entry.
You should know what you’re getting into if you decide to watch Step Up 5: All In. There’s going to be some pretty terrible acting and a rather lame story. Thankfully, there are plenty of entertaining dance sequences so there is at least some fun to be had.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Jake Peffer