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Step Up

A Fame knockoff
By TOM MEEK  |  August 17, 2006
2.0 2.0 Stars

Here’s an idea: kids of all colors and walks of life attend an art school where personalities, backgrounds, and artistic styles clash. If that sounds way too familiar, it’s because writer Duane Adler has barely waited five years to recycle his screenplay for Save the Last Dance, already an ersatz knockoff of Fame (1980). It doesn’t help either that the film is directed by first-timer Anne “Mama” Fletcher. Moments intended to affect, such as the tragic death of a major character, float across the screen as calculated and stilted. There’s a tenuous chemistry between Nora (Jenna Dewan), the feisty rich-girl ballerina with integrity, and Tyler (Channing Tatum), the brooding outsider from the rough side of Baltimore. And the (too few) vignettes of Tyler romping with his younger, foster home charges endear as well. But the dance number at the end feels like Justin Timberlake time-warped into a 1980s Paula Abdul video.

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Step Up Web site: //www.myspace.com/stepupmovie

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  Topics: Reviews , Justin Timberlake , Paula Abdul
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