Battlefield America

I remember IMDB heavily promoting this film over the week or two before its release with full-page ads loading up all over the place for this movie before you could see anything else. Obviously the production put all their resources into advertising as the final product looks hilariously cheap.

Looking for an enjoyably bad time at the movies, I saw this movie in the theater with a friend on opening night in Universal City, CA and the only other group in the theater was the family of one of the little boys who starred in the movie. I'm pretty sure a few of them left before the movie was even over.

Oh my lord was this film hilariously uninspired. It wasn't quite at THE ROOM levels of bizarre awkwardness, but nothing in the film worked. On the plus side, I can say a lot of the kids put in some decent acting considering their inexperience, but the writer/director didn't put much care into injecting any emotion into the proceedings. It's as though he watched THE MIGHTY DUCKS (or any other number of underdog sports movies) and just copied the formula with inner city youth street dancing.

Technically the movie looked and sounded like a professional movie, but contained zero in the way of innovation or imagination. A real turkey.

Dance movies, I've seen them all, from Step Up saga to the German Body Language to Streetdance.

Director Chris Stokes gives this dance phenomenon a twist by including young kids as the main dancers in this movie with a plot more than obvious by the mile. A young working man with hunger for success and a complete lack of care for the rest is sentenced to community service helping a group of kids to participate in what is called "Battlefield America", a dancing competition.

This is obvious plot for any dance movie these days and we know by now nobody makes original dance movies anymore, it's all about "wininng a contest with the trophies at the end", but, we can always forget that,if the "road to get there" is good enough and the characters are good enough... not so with this movie.

Character development and interaction is just plain horrible. I understand that kids maybe are not masters in acting but adults are horrible too, this usually means bad choices in casting and a bad director.. the whole of acting in this movie is quite horrible to be honest, it feels forced, rushed and not connected. There is not a single scene in this movie that feels authentic and I can almost "feel" the scripts lines being play in the background, the actors reading their lines and the cameras all over the place, it just feels so artificial that it actually seems like a rehearsal to the movie.

It's infuriating because it feels plastic and this further develops from bad to worse when we see kids in costumes, fighting each other like gangs to show who has the higher ego in town, it feels so misplaced and unnatural.

The very few dance scenes further helps sinking this movie with exception of the ending scene which is, quite good, even when it's short.

The dialog is basically silly and pointless and helps perpetuate this disaster. About 1 hour into the movie you will pray god to finish it already but it keeps going and going..

The cliché list is interminable, from the future girlfriend helping the moron coach to be a good coach, to the back and forth of the main coach, the kids attitude of hatred for the moronic coach at the beginning to loving the guy at the end, the rivals (always bad persons, not just people competing, they are the devil), the obvious win at the ending... I could go on and on and it will be a waste of words.

The movie is not worth it, doesn't help bring anything new to the table and the result is a mixed disaster of bad script, horrible acting and full on Hollywood clichés.

It is quite evident that the director put a lot of effort to gain money of out this instead of putting some heart into it, this or the lack of technical skills to make a decent movie.

It doesn't even deserve a 3. Go re-watch Step Up or StreetDance.

Street dance films are the rage these days, and this genre probably won't see extinction at least in this decade, with the American Step Up franchise seeing the latest installment coming here in August, and the European Streetdance films having its latest release earlier this year. All versions now boast of the use of 3D to try and jack some extra revenue from its target teenage audience looking out for inspiration to hit the dance floors, and eyebrows definitely got raised when the dancers here are, well, kids.

Not that they're doing a bad job. I belong to the camp of those who feel a little bit awkward with children being dolled up and having their parents push them into participating in modelling or beauty pageants, and to take competition that come their way so seriously, you wonder if the lack of a proper, normal childhood will have any detrimental effects later in their lives. And here, a handful of kids no older than 12, get to move and groove in what I thought was gangsta style, some adopting the same attitude outside of the dance floor, and you'd wonder just what's going on behind the scenes in bringing these kids up. And to my surprise too are two of the kids, one being really androgynous, and the other I thought was female until it was revealed much later to be male instead.

That aside, the dance moves if you ignore the age, are pretty OK as far as the Step Up and Streetdance standards go, minus a notch. Being kids, they don't have the mileage chalked up in executing more fanciful sequences, the best of the best here being nothing more than a somersault flip that turned out to be the finishing move, which in the other mentioned films are nothing but a walk in the park. Clinically choreographed, it's a pity we don't get to see much dances by opposite parties since the preliminaries en route to the titular competition largely went by without being able to see much. Even the finals were just a one round three- cornered fight, ending with a dance off between two groups, following formula that's established for the genre.

And the excuse of a plot got wrapped around a high flying, arrogant executive Sean Lewis (Marques Houston) who got to serve time in community service, falling in love with the beautiful supervisor at the center played by Mekia Cox, and having to develop friendship and camaraderie with a group of troubled kids there by teaching them dance. It got a little bit tired with the usual man-hating-kids to man-warming-up-to-kids and vice versa, since you're likely to stay many steps in the way the plot develops, right down to expecting the type of challenges and road blocks that come their way. Think Dead Poets Society dumbed down by a lot, and you have what Battlefield America attempts to achieve. Even the way the kids get into trouble and the way their challengers behave, remind you of how the Karate Kid goes about dealing with adversary, right down to extrapolating that to the adult, supervisory level.

Director Chris Stokes may have seen an opportunity in adapting the modern street dance film formula for teens into something for and at the kids level, but it's street dance we're dealing with, that comes with a certain territory with it that's out of reach for the underaged. That made the film suffer a little bit in having a story that's rather generic and done ad nauseam, having to dwell in safe and feel good themes despite being a tale set in the underground dance scene, and ultimately felt something like after sitting through a moral education lesson. Still, for those involved in the world of street dance, I'm pretty sure this would just be another feather in the cap to try and be inspired by.

I don't understand the negative reviews for this movie.This deserve a 10 stars.Something is definitely wrong with people when they do not care for a positive message in a movie.This movie was beyond great,had a touch of everything.It shows what can happen when a person's influence can change lives.These young boys had no hope,they could not see a promising future.The streets are what they knew,and of course,some of you can't relate, but if you are a fair person,then you will try to understand it from that viewpoint.I was not raised in a bad neighborhood,nor the streets, and i still totally get this movie.Life is about sacrifices and there were many a lessons in this movie that are based on real life for so many young people out there.This is their reality, and however fate made an entrance in these young boys life.It brought them someone that made them believe in themselves. Whether dance is an art to you, or not.Only the true artistic, and creative minds can get this.The art of dance comes in many forms.I don't know why you all just see it being a stereotypical movie.I do not think they are exploited in this movie.All the reviews that are voicing this opinion is so Wrong!The point i am making is, some can't understand because their mindset is stayed or stuck on only the parts of these little boys being kids and the street dancing.But people who are giving bad reviews are using half of their brain.If you were to consider their upbringing,then any good positive element or opportunity that can make them productive or get them in a positive frame of mind is the greatest thing. Of course,some part of it might not be realistic to some folks, but they are clearly missing the point of the movie.This is a great and positive not to forget encouraging movie,especially for young people.If you cannot see the positive part which outweigh the environment,then you are close-minded and out of touch with the generation of young people that enjoy this kind of dance.Some need dance to be a part of keeping them occupied and productive.Thumbs up to Marques Houston!He has done an exceptional job.I could watch this with my nieces and nephews many times and keep this in a collection of good movies.I applaud the message of this movie and i will leave close minded people with this quote from Albert Einstein."Imagination is more important than knowledge".

It was cute...

I mean Chris stokes in my opinion is a terrible writer, and Marques Houston we all know isn't the smartest tool in the shed... I don't mean to be so harsh on them for I grew up loving sister sister and immature, and I have a guilty pleasure for you got served and even as cliché and poorly written that movie was it became one of my favorites

Chris stokes is a decent directer/producer but I beg that he let somebody else write for him, and I hope it is no one that is a part of his R&B discovery squad with the exception for maybe Brandy.

The plot was unoriginal. It was the Mighty Ducks with dancing. The dialogue was terrible. The actors were high and low some were over the top and some just weren't trying hard enough. With that said the talent of the kid dancers made this movie go from 2 stars to 4 stars. They killed it, and made it worth the watch. I decided to add one more star for good production.