Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the dance floor...

There's an old saying: It takes two to tango.


I'm not (just) bringing that up because the Step Up franchise is all about the dancing; I'm bringing it up because the Step Up franchise is, well... a franchise. And you really can't have a franchise with only one film.


Actually, I'm not even sure you can have a franchise with two films. Is there a threshold? How many instalments does it take before a series gets to call itself a franchise, anyway? (It Takes Four to Franchise?) There were eventually five films in the Step Up Universe, so the issue is completely moot in this context, but hey; something to think about...

In any event, the first sequel is always the moment where the film-makers need to start defining their product. What exactly makes a film identifiable as a Step Up movie? Is it about the further adventures of the same characters? (spoiler: no) Is it the same writer/director team? (not really) Is it an otherwise unrelated movie that happens to feature lots of dancing? (yes... but...)


In this specific instance, Step Up 2 The Streets follows a new generation of dancers who find themselves drawn together at the Maryland School for the Arts (the setting of the first film). Once again, the primary character is escaping from an impoverished and disadvantaged background (but this time she's female, so you can tell the difference) and once again there is a clash of dancing styles and ideas. And of course, everything culminates in a grand and genuinely spectacular dance sequence that brings everyone together and resolves all conflicts.

dancin' in the rain?

If I sound like I'm mocking the formula, it's only because these film are so formulaic. But then, that's exactly what makes them so reminiscent of the Busby Berkeley films of the 30s. Like the Step Up films, Busby Berkeley films were only tenuously connected to each other, they featured ultra-formulaic storylines that focussed on dancing against a background of social hardship, and they climaxed with increasingly over-the-top dance sequences. (Gold Diggers of 1933; Gold Diggers of 1935; Gold Diggers of 1937... you get the idea)


They were also very, very popular. 

Step Up 2 cost a very modest $17 million (about a tenth of the cost of many of the big action blockbusters around that time) and wound up making about $150 million at the box office. However formulaic the plots, however rudimentary the character development, films like these have always fulfilled a need, and there has always been a demand for them. There was a demand in 1933 and there's still a demand today - as long as they are well executed.

Someone's been studying their Bob Fosse...

Step Up 2 the Streets might not be the kind of film that wins Oscars, but it is the kind of film that delivers something positive to its audience. And of course it was the film that turned a popular and successful film (Step Up) into the an equally popular and successful franchise.


We will screen Step Up 2 the Streets at 7.30 on Thursday, the 27th of July at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Highly Fluffy Bunny Movie Marathon

Image
When I was a humble A-Level music student (about 150 years ago) I was asked to write an essay on a topic that still haunts me. Can Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony be considered a work of "Romantic" music? Why or why not? In the (many, many) decades that followed, hardly a day has gone by when I haven't thought about that essay topic. Not because I think it's a difficult question, and not even because I care so very deeply about the 'Eroica' Symphony (Beethoven is great, but give me Mozart or Brahms any day) but because I see this question as a microcosm of the current state of modern cultural discourse. I'm serious. Think about the implications of this essay question for a moment. In order to answer it, one first needs to establish what is meant by "Romantic Music". Then one needs to consider whether this particular symphony meets those parameters. Since "Romantic Music" is a very fuzzy term, this is necessarily a very subject
Read more
Image
  Movie Nights at the  Victoria Park Baptist Church And so life goes on. Some of you may remember that our film series in early 2020 was rudely interrupted by a Global Pandemic. The subsequent year and a half has been, well... You know things are pretty bad when you find yourself wondering if there is a plural for "Apocalypse". But at any rate, here we are ( Apocalypses? Apocali? That's going to bother you now, isn't it?) facing the prospect of attempting to pick up the pieces of Civilisation - assuming of course we don't go into another Lockdown first. ( Apocalyae?   Apocalim? ) Movie-going, like so many communal activities, has taken a severe hit during the Pandemic, and I'm willing to hazard a guess that most of the films you have watched over the last eighteen months have been from the comfort of home, with, at most, a family member or two. But watching a film like this: ....isn't really the same as watching a film like this : Sadly we don't quite
Read more

The Last Ordinary Lady.

Image
All things eventually die. For the past several months, I have been showcasing films devoted to Ordinary Ladies (as I have been calling them). These ladies have been characters who would (in other circumstances) have lived at the margins of the narrative; they were the girlfriends, the wives, the little old ladies, the aliens from outer space(!). Films are not usually about them , and everyone else in the narrative just assumes that they are going to be the supporting characters. But ignore an Ordinary Lady at your peril. This Thursday (the 3rd of November) we will be screening the final entry in this series.  Our final Ordinary Lady. In the wholesome world of slasher movies, there is a narrative trope that is referred to by connoisseurs as the Final Girl . Most slasher films follow a basic formula: some monstrous thing threatens a group of photogenic youngsters who have had the misfortune to get themselves trapped in whatever location they are in (a haunted summer camp; a cabin in th
Read more

Ordinary Lady in Stereo (where available)

Image
 I know I introduced last week's film as The Last Ordinary Lady (and those of you who saw the film will understand why) but we have time to squeeze one more "bonus" lady into the series before we move on to other topics. Those of you who know me at all will be aware of my love for all things stereoscopic, and I try to include at least one 3D film in each series. In this instance, the choices were surprisingly limited; something that tells you a lot about mainstream cinema's attitudes toward female characters. In fact, I was able to come up with exactly one film that fit the Ordinary Lady criteria, so, unsurprisingly, that is the film I will be showing next week! (Presumably that means there was actually  no choice, since you can't really choose between a single option. But I digress...) Fortunately, the film in question happens to be a lot of fun: Monsters Vs Aliens was released in 2009, at the very beginning of Hollywood's modern 3D era. Hollywood has actu
Read more

This is Thursday, So It Must Be Denmark.

Image
Consider Hamlet . Being a character in Hamlet is not exactly a healthy lifestyle choice.  Are you the King of Denmark?  Dead.  Are you the brother of the King of Denmark? Also dead. Perhaps you are the Queen of Denmark. That's right: dead. What about the girlfriend of the Prince of Denmark?  Insane. And dead. The girlfriend's father? And brother? Dead, and dead. You can probably see a pattern starting to emerge here. Do I even need to mention Hamlet himself? (There's a reason why the play isn't called The Wonderful, Long and Happy Life of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. ) The bottom line here is that if your life intersects at all with Prince Hamlet, you probably shouldn't start reading any really long books. Hamlet isn't a play so much as a terminal condition. Hell, there have been Doomsday Cults with higher survival rates. Even people on the extreme margins of the story are dead by the end. Which brings me to next week's film: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are H
Read more