Rick Malambri & Adam G. Sevani in the movie Step Up 3D

How to explain my enjoyment of "Step Up 3D"? The movie is ridiculous. Of course.

Early on a father bids farewell to his college-bound son, "the future engineer," with the line: "I'm just glad you're done with that dance business." This is an ironclad guarantee that the young man will graduate with honors from Shameless Cliche University, while following his dream on the sly.

What the movie has, however, cliches cannot vanquish.

It boasts a generous exuberance and, as entertainment products go, it's surprisingly sweet. It requires only that you set your expectations correctly and that you don't go into it with a grudge against dance on screen.

"Step Up 3D" is a bit like watching a CinemaScope musical from the early 1950s but front to back rather than side to side, i.e., turned at a 90-degree angle. Directed by Jon M. Chu, and choreographed by an aerobics-minded team of five including Nadine "Hi Hat" Ruffin, the movie celebrates all the usual "Fame"-related business about artistic expression and finding your way to young adulthood. It's no less disposable than Universal's jive musicals of the 1940s or, a couple of generations later, "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." Movies like these are beyond dumb, yet after enduring "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" a high-spirited nothing can do a lot to un-crush your spirit, as well as your kid's.

"Step Up" came out in 2006; the livelier "Step Up 2: The Streets," in 2008. The plot in the latest sequel is different, but the same, and a supporting character from "2" has been moved front and center. Entering New York University as an engineering major, Moose, played by Adam G. Sevani, has a best friend and fellow freshman in Camille (charming Alyson Stoner, from the first movie). Soon Moose finds himself torn between two worlds, one respectable and relatively dance-free, the other filled with "b-boys, tickers, tappers, voguers and poppers," as the film's promotional materials phrase it.

Moose's crew includes a fledgling filmmaker and street dancer (Rick Malambri) whose massive Brooklyn warehouse is a halfway house for a multicultural array of fellow hip-hop artisans. They live above their own underground club, but they're behind in the payments, and unless they win the big dance battle, the dream is over, dead, deader than vaudeville.

Most of the numbers are simple, presentational hip-hop battles in confined (but thanks to the 3-D, magically expanded) spaces. The film does, however, have the nerve to turn a couple of key sections into old-style "spontaneous" expressions of movement, as when Moose leads members of one rough-looking crew on a merry chase through Washington Square Park. Later, in a single-take sequence, Sevani and Stoner imp their way through a remix of "I Won't Dance" (the Fred Astaire early '50s vocal version), which steals moves from "Singin' in the Rain," "It's Always Fair Weather" and other standards dating from the days when dance on screen didn't seem so exotic.

The cast includes a few double threats -- dancers who can act, such as Sharni Vinson as Natalie, along with Sevani and Stoner -- making up for performers who are there strictly for the moves. I'm a sucker for movies with a sincere and abidingly romantic view of New York City. And while 3-D musicals aren't likely to proliferate any more than they did in the '50s, this one's a good time.

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (brief strong language).

Running time: 1:37.

Cast: Rick Malambri (Luke); Adam G. Sevani (Moose); Sharni Vinson (Natalie); Alyson Stoner (Camille); Keith Stallworth (Jacob).

Credits: Directed by Jon M. Chu; written by Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer; produced by Patrick Wachsberger, Erik Feig, Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot. A Touchstone Pictures release.

Step Up 3D Movie Review - Rick Malambri & Adam G. Sevani