Beat Battle 2: Place au nouveau son

So many amazing action and drama packed scenes, and the acting was beyond perfect. The movie teaches that you have to follow your dreams no matter what other people will think about you. "Drumline: A New Beat" was something amazing and I hope they'll make a 3rd movie sometime soon. Hopefully the future generations will get a chance to see this movie and understand that no matter what you do, you cannot give up if that's what you want to reach. Alexandra Shipp nailed it with her amazing acting skills as well as the fellow cast stars like Jordan Calloway, LeToya Luckett, Jasmine Burke, Nick Cannon etc. I really enjoyed watching this movie.

So I heard a saying that if you don't expect anything, then you won't be disappointed. That's not true in this case; i expected little and received less. The acting is forced and unnatural. In the first film, the actors seemed like they had the type of camaraderie that you see with teams. They may have hated each other off set but they were definitely believable. In this film, they come off as soap opera characters. Part of that is the script. They introduced some new characters that have a past with each other but are brand new to the audience. I just don't care for that because i watch sequels for familiarity and tie-ins. So Sean and the dean felt forced.

Other beefs is that they take long pauses which slows the pacing of the film and adds to the soapy feel.

The redeeming qualities are seeing the band perform and I'm glad they brought Roberts and Cannon back since their dynamic was the most interesting in the first film. I miss Dr. Lee though; Orlando Brown always gives great performances and he is underrated.

When I first heard VH1 was making original movie sequel to Drumline, the first thought through my head was ' Oh god, not another Stomp the Yard: Homecoming'. But as I sat down in my bed to watch the premiere, it did have it's corny moments, but as the plot thicken I found myself watching through the commercials. I have to say VH1 is very well known for their amazing shows like Single Ladies & Hit the Floor. I would definitely love to see them work with more movie like this even though it did have it's moment. My favorite parts would have to be the battle specifically the final battle. The acting department was also favorable with Nick Cannon returning with amazing acting in the speech scene <*MUST WATCH*. Plus the return of my childhood crush, Jordan Calloway. Just being surprised how he has grown since Unfabolous <3. In all words, Drumline: A New Beat scores a nine out of ten from me. :)

To say Drumline: A New Beat was predictable is, well, predictable. The female lead goes from an ultra successful, intelligent, self assured but pampered high school senior inundated with full academic scholarships from top universities to lack-luster, insecure college freshman whose only goal, only passion is to play in a marching band at so-so college as a P1 drummer in the center of the front line. And throughout the movie there is little if any, mention of anything to do with actual day to day requirements and the reason for attending college....(classes, grades, studying and earning a degree) just high school like drama of being in the marching band. The college, A&T, while never mention in the film as such, appears to be an HBCU (Historically Black College and Universities) as the only white -or Asian, Hispanic- people are seen in the background and only briefly. Additionally, the fictional A&T marching band is reminiscent of Florida A&M University's marching band that was disbanded and several members were prosecuted for the death of Robert Champion, one of it's members as a direct result of hazing. I won't go into how many stereo-types were displayed throughout the movie (gold chains, black males calling black women "bi!ch", chocolate used to describe black skinned men being black). Finally, when all is said and done, this is still just a movie about high school "band geeks" that are now college "band geeks". A movie where they try to equate the demands, rigors and competition of playing in a college marching band to those of playing a college level sport be it football, wrestling, basketball or swimming. In this regard, they failed.

I enjoyed the first movie and was excited to see they created a new one along the same lines, but was disappointed after watching it. I had hoped for some originality but it seems they just replaced the Devon character with a girl who does the same things that got him in trouble and acts out during performances. I also don't understand why they couldn't use scenes of the band actually playing the music instead of playing some soundtrack over their movements that didn't mesh with what they were doing. As someone who marched in marching band and drum corps, it was distracting to say the least that the music and the action didn't match. I would have expected better from a movie about marching.