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“Dance Flick” is the latest spoof movie from the Wayans brothers, who once brought us the “Scary Movie” series and the screwball comedy “White Chicks.” Their latest entry is on par with the rest of the Wayans’ productions. Now bringing the whole family together, the Wayans brothers, cast their nephew, Damon Wayans Jr., in the lead role of Thomas Uncle, a young street dancer who meets a young, beautiful ballerina named Megan (Shoshana Bush) who just moved into his hood. Together, Thomas and Megan realize they have to rely on each other and get past their differences if they are going to achieve their dreams and win the greatest dance battle of all.
In most movie spoofs the funniest scenes and lines are shown in the trailer, and “Dance Flick” was no exception. You could probably not watch the movie and still participate in the sure-to-be quote fest that all teens will be doing after watching this film, because it sometimes felt like each scene was leading up to a punch line already seen in the trailer. That’s not to say everything wasn’t funny, but there was just nothing new and fresh.
The writing was pretty typical of a Wayans brother movie, but I was surprised at the amount of verbatim lines taken from other dance teen movies. Perhaps that’s the charm in the spoof, but I found it to be unimaginative and sometimes annoying. What made me chuckle the most, however, were the sidelines and background nuances that sometimes you won’t pick up on until the second or third watch. That’s where I felt the Wayans were the most creative and at their best.
The acting was the typical cheesiness that you always find in spoofs, but at least the cheesiness was delivered well. Bush was an excellent suburban ballerina turned hip-hop princess and definitely held her own next to an experienced Wayans cast. Wayans Jr. was charming and hilarious and had no qualms about letting loose and just being idiotic. I was most impressed with Essence Atkins, who played Charity, the 21-year-old high school student/single mother. She made you really love her crazy character, and for me had the best lines of the whole movie.
No person or event was spared complete mockery. Besides the obvious dance movies and musicals, Dick Cheney and American oil greed had their places in “Dance Flick”. Even scenes from “Twilight” were re-enacted, much to the delight of every teenage girl in America or at least to the four gigglers who sat behind me and screamed when it came on screen. In fact, any famous person who has done anything stupid was at least mentioned, from Mel Gibson to Halle Berry all the way to the obvious choice of Lindsay Lohan.
Overall, it was done well for a spoof and was pretty typical of a Wayans brothers movie. There wasn’t a lot of new surprises, except when one character listed every teen dance movie made in the last 10 years. The sheer amount of them made me surprised that someone hasn’t tried to make fun of all of them at once before. It was good, not great, but if you just want meaningless laughter and don’t expect much, then you can’t be disappointed.