Fans of the dance movie sub-genre should queue up for this latest instalment... or you could save your money, stay at home and watch any number of the fifty million* dance movies that probably already own on Blu-Ray. Originally titled Street Dance Juniors, All Stars fails to differ itself from the rest of its crew except in one small detail: the steaminess is erased totally to make it more family friendly.
When twelve-year-old mini Del Boy Ethan (Stevenson) sets sights on the new girl at school, the girlfriend of the leader of the teenage dance crew that hangs about the area, he suddenly finds focus: he needs dancers to form a crew, battle this crew and impress the girl. He turns to funky mover Jaden (Osei-Mansfield) to assemble a troupe but Jaden is forbidden to dance by his parents, who want him to knuckle down and study for the entrance exam to a posh private school. However, Jaden sees this dance-off as a chance to save The Garage, a place where kids hang out and be all artistic and stuff, from demolition.
The unoriginal plot is obvious from the get-go and I just don't buy into this dancing-as-fighting malarkey – it's like watching gangsters threatening each other with water pistols. The jokes are forced and fall flat save for two lines that might make any older viewer seem like a century old: "Who's Eminem? He's an old American rapper," and "Van Halen is a DJ – she plays guitar music." It's not without its merits, though. Theo Stevenson is a confident kid in front of camera and we'll be seeing him again, while Akai Osei-Mansfield can certainly dance. Director Ben Gregor seems largely uninterested until the story offers the chance to break out visually, when a game of Space Invaders and an exam paper magically come alive in Jaden's mind to create some interesting dance sequences.
At least All Stars highlights they have mined the dance movie for any semblance of originality and we shouldn't see their like again for a while. What's that? Step Up 5 all set to go for next year. Damn.
*a gross exaggeration but you get the idea.