Battle of the Year, 2013.
Directed by Benson Lee.
Starring Josh Holloway, Laz Alonso, Josh Peck, Caity Lotz and Chris Brown.
SYNOPSIS:
Battle of the Year attracts all the best teams from around the world, but the Americans haven’t won in fifteen years. Dante enlists Blake to assemble a team of the best dancers and bring the Trophy back to America where it started.
Battle of the Year is the latest dance film trying to capitalize on the notion that good dancing makes up for a bad film. Despite some impressive dance moves, like many before it, the film itself cannot overcome weak acting and an overall bad script. Here we have Josh Holloway (Lost) as former basketball coach Jason Blake who is brought in to take over the American team that will be competing in the Battle of the Year, a dance competition that the Americans haven’t won in fifteen years. The crew he is given hasn’t been able to amount to much over the last few years so he decides to start from scratch and make a new team with the best dancers America has to offer. With the help of wannabe B-Boy Franklyn (Josh Peck), Blake is willing to do whatever it takes to take America all the way for the first time in years.
We’ve seen tons of films like this over the past ten or so years and for the most part a lot of them end up being the same. Good dance moves throughout the film, but lacking any kind of story or characters to make it interesting. The biggest fault in Battle of the Year is that none of the characters are interesting enough to care about and the story itself feels recycled from other films. It doesn’t help that almost everyone in the cast can’t act to save their lives, maybe that’s why you shouldn’t cast dancers to act in films. Also, Josh Holloway as the lead is one of the biggest miscastings I’ve ever seen. Holloway does what he can with the role but he is in no way convincing as a dance coach,; however, at least he tries unlike a lot of the cast. Josh Peck is another small bright spot as he does what he can with his role but as with Holloway he just doesn’t seem to really fit into this kind of world.
One thing you can always count on in these films are a lot of impressive dance moves. And while there are some good sequences here I’ve seen much better dancing in other movies and even on YouTube. A lot of it has to do with how the film is shot – too many quick edits don’t let you see how tough some of these moves really are and that’s another flaw. Director Benson Lee doesn’t seem to know what to do with a lot of the film. It feels too long as it ponders around during a few scenes that last a little too long and Lee has far too many characters to make you care about any of them or their story.
Battle of the Year has very few positives. While their are a few entertaining dance sequences and a couple of actors trying to raise this above mediocrity, it all gets bogged down by weak characters, a rehashed story and dancers trying to make it as actors.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Jake Peffer
Originally published December 20, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
