Step Up 2 the Streets: Critic Reviews

It doesn't skimp on cool pretzel moves.

Step Up 2 the Streets posits a universe where racial and class differences are minor obstacles to fun and pretends its cliches aren't cliches.

Dance scenes feel like a diversion, since the story, acting and dialogue are sadly lacking in originality and substance.

Let's wait for a movie where they do get it all right: story, acting and dancing. It'll happen, just not this time.

Only any good when people are dancing.

Completely predictable.

Promises to hit all the urban-dance hallmarks with sledgehammer intensity.

The story may be old, but these kids act -- and dance -- as though they are telling it for the first time.

Providing you're not hip-hop- or cliche-averse, see Step Up 2 the Streets with the right expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Step Up 2 features nearly as much dancing as it does dialogue, and that's a good thing, considering the after-school special quality of its obligatory emotional scenes.

For all of its ragin' dance moves and rebellious talk, is high-spirited and harmless. An MC at one dance contest declares, "This ain't 'High School Musical'!" Oh, but it is.

The dance has to be good because the rest of the movie is one long cliche.

Reeks of artificiality and phoney emotion.

Doesn't measure up.

Catnaps are an advisable way to survive some of the slow spots. Or, better yet, wait for this to be available on DVD when the fast forward button will turn Step Up 2 into something shorter and more enjoyable.

As strictly formulaic as its predecessor, this installment generally gets the job done, essentially resembling a longform music video interrupted by a perfunctory plot.

To say this film (and any other dancing competition film) is formulaic is an understatement. However, formalism is entirely forgivable when you look at the marketplace.

...a minor improvement over its almost unwatchable predecessor...

This isn't a very good movie, but it's probably the best of it's kind.

A dance romance with attitude that will fall short if you're expecting fulfillment in the story department.

Standard, well-made, urban dance movie.

Will dance triumph over adversity? Will love between two attractive vacuous actors conquer all?

It's not a little obvious that the Step Up franchise means to keep a Disneyfied hand in the apparently inexorable dance movie cycle.

With a script cut-and-pasted from every other dance movie, this film is shockingly corny.