Dancin': It's On!

DANCIN' IT'S ON (2015) is amateurish on most levels and boasts some of the worst acting I've seen on the big screen in decades, but it has crude charm and a consistent vitality that I found quite endearing and loads of fun. It's set in an alternate universe (identified on screen as Panama City Beach, Florida) where random people break out into spontaneous dance numbers at all hours of the day at the drop of a hat. What's not to love? The hoary plot has to do with a rich girl who loves to dance staying at her father's hotel for the summer who falls in love with a dishwasher who's a great dancer while her disapproving father has lined up his snotty protégé as the intended suitor for her, leading to all sorts of class conflict clichés that went out of favor decades ago. All this is just an excuse for two things: a steady stream of dance numbers and frequent infomercial spots extolling the virtues of Panama City Beach as a tourist resort. That's actually not a bad trade-off, especially since it leads to an exhilarating dance finale at the Florida Statewide Dance Contest where true love wins out and competing couples dance their hearts out.

Witney Carson, from the TV show, "Dancing with the Stars," plays the lead character, Jennifer, and she's awfully cute and a skilled dancer even if her line readings sound like...well, line readings! Her co-star, with the unwieldy name of Chehon Wespi-Tschopp, actually puts some effort into creating his character, Ken, the dishwasher-dancer, and deserves some props for trying, even if some acting lessons are still in order. He hails from the show, "So You Think You Can Dance." The other young performers are noticeably lacking in charisma, although the dreadlocked Russell Ferguson, also from "So You Think You Can Dance," brings abundant good cheer and punctuates the proceedings with trademark arm and hand moves from the "Electric Boogie" school of dance that flourished 30 years ago. He plays the youthful but all-knowing hotel doorman, known as "the Captain," and shows up as the MC at the big dance contest.

My favorite sequence finds poor Jennifer, brooding after a breakup, sitting alone on a bench on a darkened shopping street in downtown Panama City Beach at night, suddenly interrupted by a row of SUVs turning on their lights and a Latin band, complete with percussion section, suddenly appearing to perform while a hundred dancers descend on the street to execute a highly-choreographed number into which they pull the awestruck Jennifer. Now THAT's an alternate universe I can enjoy.

The only name actors in it are Gary Daniels, an English martial arts performer known to me from FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (1995) and THE EXPENDABLES (2010), who plays Jennifer's father, and David Winters, renowned for playing A-rab, one of the Jets in WEST SIDE STORY (1961). Winters also co-wrote, produced and directed the film. He appears as an elderly hotel resident who reveals his dance background to the young leads at a crucial moment and offers his assistance as they prepare for the dance contest. At one point, Ken, the dishwasher, looks up Winters' character on the computer and finds an old dance clip of his from a TV show from decades ago. I wish I knew where that clip is from. Winters dedicates the film to Sadie Winters, presumably his mother, "who is up there dancing with the angels," and to Gene Kelly, the legendary Hollywood musical star, who inspired him to take up dance.

I saw the film at a 42nd Street multiplex on a weekday afternoon knowing very little about it beforehand. As far as I know, it didn't even get reviewed. I was the only one in the theater. I attended an advance screening of SPECTRE at the same theater later that day, packed with people, and I can assure you I had more fun with DANCIN' IT'S ON than I did with SPECTRE.

As of this writing, I'm the only one I know who's even heard of this film, let alone seen it. This has all the makings of a cult film, but it needs a way to find its cult. If any film qualifies to be this generation's BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO, it's this one.

Yes, it's a TERRIBLE movie, made watchable through the lens of RiffTrax. But it's worth observing that the dancers are fantastic, particularly Chehon Wespi-Tschopp, who has a few moments to shine. The soundtrack, script, acting, sound design, etc., etc., are just awful, but the main actors have some charisma and are exceptional dancers. As a friend observed, it's like having Andrea Bocelli sing a Kidz Bop album.

I saw this riffed by Rifftrax. That's probably the only way to enjoy it. I really liked the dance contest at the end, but how the writers thought that a huge dance contest with only three couples as contestants made sense, I just don't know. That's a shame, because the dancing was the only great part about it. They could have at least shown maybe 6 performances at the and. More plausible and enjoyable. The script and acting are pretty abysmal. The romance angle was trite and laughable. If you get a chance to watch this, just skip to the end. Put the last ten minutes or so on a loop and watch it over and over.

There is something to be said about non-actors acting. And that's they should never under any circumstances be actors. The acting in this movie as atrocious. And when it's not atrocious, the AVR is. Seriously it's like half the lines in this movie are recorded after the fact and just spliced into the movie like that. This is not acceptable. This is why boom mikes were invented.

The story itself is pretty unoriginal. Pretty & rich girl who dances has to go live with her father in Panama City for the summer. There, people break into dance all the time and the hotel seems to be a portal into a world where people act out scenes from movies, quote Shakespeare, walk around on stilts and dance. All the time.

There she meets the handsome dishwasher who also dances. At least that's where he normally works because we see him having to clean up rooms as well. Don't ask, it makes no sense but it allows them to introduce this old man who plays a part in the movie later.

There's trouble brewing because one of the managers at the hotel also has his eye on the girl and it turns into a thing between him and the dishwasher guy. This manager also dances I might add. I think everybody in Panama City does or is implied to in this movie.

We're introduced to a fourth member who is also a dancer and the dance partner of dishwasher boy. There's supposed to be some kind of chemistry there but I can't see any.

Typical plot is as follows. Daddy wants his daughter to date the manager guy but she's rather date the dishwasher guy. His dance partner also wants to date the dishwasher guy so we have both guys wanting the rich girl. And both girls wanting the dishwasher guy.

Lots of dancing follows, third act breakup, they get back together and practice for the big dance contest. The old man turns out to be an old dance instructor and helps with their choreography. Of course, what else is there? Rich girl and dishwasher guy wind up together. And the manager and the other girl do as well, or maybe they're just dance partners. I'll admit by this point I wasn't paying much attention.

But as I said. At least the dancing is good. The rest of the movie is just wretched. So unless you just want to see some dancing, don't bother with this one.

It's pretty cool what we have done with artificial intelligence these days. When you ask a computer to make a script for a film about dancing, it's pretty amazing how it could come up with something....wait, what was that? This was written by a person? You mean this was a serious project not some weird attempt at proving A. I. is sentient? Wow. Just wow.

Okay, that changes the tone of this review severely. I mean, I was under the impression that the tourism council of Panama City-in conjunction with other contributors--used an A. I. to make the strangest tourism video ever made. But this was made with legitimate intentions? Well, I am at a loss to continue with this review. I mean, this movie was awful. Just outright awful.

I will say this, it was a pretty good "awful" movie. The dance scenes were fun to watch. The women were largely attractive. The great Gary Daniels is in this film. I mean, It has the goods to be thrown into the pantheon of one of the greatest bad films of all time. If The Room is Citizen Kane, Champagne and Bullets is The Rock and Birdemic is The Birds....then this one has to be akin to Hello Dolly or Guys and Dolls. I don't know, you decide what the good movie equivalent is to it.

Anyway, I have to go to my computer. If this poorly written film can be made, then the bad ideas kicking around in my noodle should also be cogent and sincere.