Street Dance All Stars has more than a few familiar story threads: a community youth centre threatened with closure; the boy whose parents want him to focus more on his study than his passion for dance; and an evil developer who cares only about money and not the welfare of the community.
The fight to keep their youth centre going encourages a group of misfits to become friends in pursuit of their common cause. The unlikely crew become fast friends are forced to work together and to learn about each others skills and passions in an attempt to put on an all-star concert in just two weeks. Putting on a dance concert in a fortnight does sound perfectly possible, but not when you have to learn how to dance first!
Akai Osei-Mansfield as Jaden, the young dancer, is well cast and shows some great street dance moves; while Theo Stevenson is smug and confident as the young entrepreneur, Ethan, who ultimately pulls out a few cool moves of his own.
The soundtrack, with songs by Simon Woodgate, Robin Bronson, Alone Star and Abi Phillips, does the job without providing anything memorable, and the choreography is good, although some of the dance is not quite as polished as you might expect.
Also starring Fleur Houdijk as Amy, Amelia Clarkson as Rebecca and Dominic Herman-Day as Tim, there is plenty of young new talent. The adults fair less well with Ashley Jensen as the kind-hearted but insipid youth centre creator and Simon Farnaby is even less believable as the Foreman, who is overly evil and heartless, and far too comical for the audience to ever really believe in the plight of the plucky youngsters.
The story is completely predictable and the characters are all familiar too, however this film still has plenty of entertainment, slick dance moves and comedy that will please particularly younger people who enjoy this genre.
Reviewed by Ceri Hutton
Your Twitter: @Ceri_Hutton
Rating out of 10: 6
Street Dance All Stars will be released on DVD on 28 July 2016.
More News
