How She Move

I noticed this movie was getting trashed well before it hit the theaters and I too didn't have high hopes for it. I figured it was another "You Got Served" type of movie with some nice dance moves and horrid acting. I was at the theater and deciding between this and Meet the Spartans and picked this. To my surprise the acting wasn't bad at all and the movie was actually pretty good. The fact that it has a lower rating than You Got Served is absolutely ridiculous. Instead of listening to the garbage posted on here I recommend going to see a matinée showing of this movie so you don't spend too much. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with how wrong everyone has been about it. When it comes to dance movies this is certainly one of the better ones with far superior acting than many of the other ones. Go see the movie and judge for yourself. Hopefully the rating will rise after it comes out on DVD and more people check the movie out instead of judging it based on comments before the movie released.

edit The movie is now moving closer to its correct rating. Over 1000 people have given it a rating of 9, a bit too high but at least it is helping to offset the ridiculous votes of 1.

"How She Moves" springs to life only when its high-energy, talented cast members are kicking up their heels and strutting their stuff for the camera. Otherwise, this stale strive-suffer-and-succeed story is low on energy, low on originality, and low on anything that might make the movie stand out from the dozens of other, likeminded films that have come before it.

Rutina Wesley has modest appeal as the academically gifted inner-city youngster who finds that the best way to raise her private school tuition money is by entering step-dance competitions, but both she and her fellow actors are poorly served by uninspired screen writing and undistinguished direction. As noted earlier, the movie achieves some spark when the performers are up on stage dancing, but such moments are far too few and sadly fleeting.

Don't waste your time. This is your typical, no-content dance movie. This movie is for sistas and brothers in the same way "Bring It On" was for white-girl cheerleaders. High-schoolers with no sense of what makes a movie good are the only people who will find this movie worth watching. The plot is stupid and is tries unsuccessfully to be believable. The soundtrack is good, and the stepping is great. This does not, however, constitute a full-length feature film. This movie would have been more appropriate for a special on MTV. The acting was questionable by the female lead, but the male lead's acting showed some promise. Granted, the script did not give them much to act with. Overall, the movie is a dud. Don't waste your money on the film. Buy the soundtrack instead.

While it's nice to see a Canadian movie funded by the government that isn't another gawd-awful and boring art movie, "How She Move" isn't that much more comfortable to sit through than your typical Canadian movie. For starters, the movie looks HORRIBLE, with most of the movie depicted with washed-out colors. Some scenes taking place during night are so dark it's hard to make out what's going on. The movie also sounds bad at times, with some dialogue obviously dubbed during the movie's post-production period. Though even if the sound were better, the dialogue would still sound horrible. As one critic pointed out, no one here has a real conversation or expresses themselves to become a fleshed-out character. If you still want to see the movie for the dance and music sequences, you should be warned that the soundtrack is unexceptional, and the dance sequences are lacking juice due to their disappointing choreography and directing. Only worth watching if you want to know why Canada's population for the most part does not embrace its homegrown movies.

You know what? I'm staying off the message boards on this one because I'm not looking to get into the debate over why this film is so poorly rated on IMDb. It does confuse me to hear those classing it "worst film ever" discussing it as generic and bland, nothing but a version of countless other films – so why, if it is so bland and generic is it in the IMDb bottom 100 at the time of writing? I'll let others say "racism" because I don't think it is that – although I do think that it is perhaps a cultural thing. I've never really understood the whole idea of "krunking" or "stepping" or whatever it is called (whenever us white people know a slang word it immediately changes!) and would struggle not to feel silly if I was to do it. However I do love the b-boy stuff and breaking and there is a fine line between them.

Why this culture of impressive dance moves and physical discipline is mocked by the mainstream while cheerleading is seen as an All-American experience I'm not sure – again I'll leave it to the boards to debate whether it is racism or just a cultural thing but it is odd that this film is rather lower than things similar. I say this because I do not see a massively poor film – and trust me, I have seen some massively poor films in my time and I do not see how IMDb users can rate this lower than the significantly worse "You Got Served". Now don't get me wrong because I'm not building myself up to a gushing review full of praise, because this film is not brilliant – it is just not anywhere near as bad as people say, in fact it is OK.

The plot is fairly straightforward and generic but it benefits from having a lead character that I cared about in Raya. Her situation is obvious and I won't defend the sweep of the film because it does tread a genre path but it is made better by several things. First and foremost the dance routines are very good. They are not the hyper-edited promo pieces of You Got Served but are presented in small clubs, bare stages and with a clean approach from camera that allows us to see what is happening. I'm not sure why they cannot be appreciated for what they are but I really enjoyed them and found myself exclaiming "wow" involuntarily several times towards the end. OK visually the rest of the film is quite basic, this comes with the budget and it is not "ugly" so much as it is more television standard than cinema.

The second selling point is Wesley's turn as Raya. Here we have an actress and a character who is not really the best choice if you are making a genre film. She is smart, doesn't talk street and, to be frank, is very dark skinned. Put it another way – she is not the person I would want to be marketing the film off the back of. However what she can do is emote convincingly and I found her acting chops to be just as good as her moves (which are good). She is charismatic and engaging and she covers for the many clichés surrounding her. Armstrong isn't as good nor did I need Davis and Cole turning up as themselves but these are the type of things that make the film "OK" rather than good.

How She Move is not Citizen Kane but it is not the worst film ever made either. Yes it is a genre film and it is weaker than I would like in regards plot and writing but it is still an OK film. The dance moves are impressive and well delivered and Wesley emotes well in delivering a believable and sympathetic character, which made all the difference to me.