The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Sean (Guzman), a member of the 99% and founder of a dance crew called the
Mob, falls in love with Emily (McCormick), a member of the 1% and daughter of
the guy who’s about to turn Sean’s neighbourhood into yet another luxury
resort. Emily, who is also a dancer, joins forces with the Mob in order to use
their performances in a way that will mobilise the community and stop the Mayor
from approving her father’s plan. 

In a break from the norm, the dancing here has more of a performance art
aspect to it rather than the usual bunch of crews battling each other. The Mob
are trying to win a YouTube competition wherein one of the videos of their
performance has to reach 10 million views in order for the crew to win a
$100,000 prize. To help their videos go viral, they pop up unannounced in
various venues, put on a show, silently disperse, wait for the news to pick up
on their stunt and watch their view count steadily increase. Putting this flash-mob/performance
art spin on the genre allows for more inventive dance sequences with a couple
of them being truly impressive. Not to mention it makes the ‘revolution’ aspect
far less hokey than it could’ve been and more of a logical extension and
politicization of the Mob’s already very public art.

Like the Bring It On series
before it, the Step Up series’ stunts
and dancing get better with every film as the acting gets worse – a seemingly
necessary by-product of roles that rely more on athletic rather than dramatic
skill sets. So, while you’d expect bigger, flashier dance sequences, the
quality of the leads’ acting was a complete shock. Whoever cast the film was
actually able to find dancers with semi-decent acting skills and great
chemistry that served to carry the dialogue-heavy bits when their performances
threatened to veer into the wooden.

Step Up Revolution
doesn’t deviate drastically from the franchise’s formula; there’s plenty of
awesome choreography, music video editing and incredibly buff dancers. It
provides exactly what its fans expect and want from it but even as an unabashed
lover of cheesy, terribly acted dance films, this reviewer was shocked at just
how enjoyable this one was.