Freak Dance

This certainly wasn't Oscar-worthy, but as a spoof of the worst parts of every other dance movie ever, they carried it off pretty well. Some of it fell flat, but other parts were remarkably charming. It's the best spoof musical I've seen yet.

It could have been better, but almost any film could have been. Getting Andrew Lloyd-Weber to write the music, consulting Robin Williams on some of the jokes, getting A-list acting talent - any of these would have improved the movie. They didn't have the budget for any of that, though - and they didn't really need to, either. If you like spoofs, and can sit through a musical (with music far better than Repo had, at least), I think you'll consider it time well-spent.

I was really impressed by "Freak Dance." It's a clever, high-octane parody of movies like "Flash Dance" and "Fame." I could see this movie being made into a great musical, because Besser captures the vibe of this genre so well.

Matt Besser is an amazing writer, and his sketch-comedy background makes this movie strong. As I watched the "Weed Ghetto" scene, I felt like I was watching an Upright Citizens Brigade sketch from their Comedy Central Days. If you are a fan of Upright Citizens Brigade, or just a fan of good comedy in general, I would definitely recommend this movie.

Also: expect great supporting performances from Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, Tim Meadows, Andy Daly, and Horatio Sanz

A spoiled rich girl who wants to be a dancer (Megan Heyn) finds herself caught into between two rival dance groups set to do battle at an underground competition.

I walked into this with the lowest of expectations. Upright Citizens Brigade was never top-tier, making more bad skits than good (they are the poor man's Kids in the Hall). And a film mocking dancing films? Sounded cheap and a bit late on the scene. Even the names Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows and more were not thrilling, as I assumed (correctly) they had only brief roles.

I was wrong on some of this. This movie was hilarious beginning to end, with incredible songs and entertaining dancing. The plot is stupid and pointless, but that is quite the point -- ignore the plot and just enjoy the scenes one at a time.

We rented this DVD a few years ago, then had to buy it, and, it's so funny that we have rewatched it several times. Our favorite part of the movie is Matt Besser's song, which is an absolute riot! (He is so funny in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" too!) The dancer called "Asteroid" (Hal Rudnick) is an absolute riot! The entire cast is great! We like "certain" musicals (older ones like "On The Town" and "Wizard of Oz") but we cannot get into all the modern "serious" musicals on stage and in films/TV shows, and "Freak Dance" spoofs all the overly-dramatic, sing-about-anything, corny, clique moments in modern serious musicals aimed at teens! We would recommend this movie to anyone who has a great sense of humor! We need subtitles during the end of the movie at the hilarious dance-off competition because we are always laughing too hard to hear the M.C.'s narration of the outrageous, crazy dances! (The only thing we didn't like in this movie is the slaughter house scene. We are tired of movies about killing animals in every aspect of life (roadkill, hunting, torture, revenge, abuse, etc). We don't find that funny at all, just depressing and cruel. We've spent our lives trying to help animals.)

To be frank, I had never heard of UCB. After watching this film, I can honestly recommend UCB as one of the better modern dance troupes. I enjoy everything from Jabbawockeez to Fanny Pak, but my true passion is for QUALITY dance of ANY style. Ned and Mindy Grenlovitz slow dance the hell out of the floor of Paddy's Drinky Hole every Sunday at 10 pm. Though they probably have no idea who I am, I just want them to know I know who they are. And that I'm always watching them -- just like you should always be watching this movie!

LOL, I just realized how WEIRD that sounded! I didn't mean Fanny Pak, I meant Super Cr3w.