SAVE THE LAST DANCE RATING: 7/10 --> Good movie
For more reviews and movie screensavers, visit http://www.joblo.com/
So why give a rat's ass about my review vs that of any other person? Well, I think it has to do with being able to read someone's review and deciding whether or not to see the film, based on your previous agreements/disagreements with said critic. All that to say that we have now fashioned yet another way for JoBlo's opinion to mean something to you. The new section is called "Where is JoBlo coming from?" and it will feature an array of past films which are related to the one being reviewed, with JoBlo's ratings attached. This is done so that you could read the initial review, check out his previous ratings of other "similar" films which you may have already seen, and determine whether or not JoBlo's opinion should give you any reason to see/avoid the movie in question. Not sure if it'll help anyone out there, but for some reason, it sounds kinda reasonable to me.
Hope you all dig it! I know that I would LOVE to see this kind of thing on all other critics' reviews as well. Let's hope that the rest of the world takes a stitch of notice and my little idea spreads like wildfire (or at least, a brushfire). Spread the love, people...spread the love!
PLOT: A young white girl who just lost her mom to a car accident, must move in with her dad in a predominantly black neighborhood. Having given up on her ballet, the girl quickly integrates herself into the local hip-hop dance scene, with the help of a young black boy whom she befriends at school. It isn't long before the two get closer, other people get really uncomfortable with their affection and the girl opens up to said dude.
CRITIQUE: Surprisingly good. Other than the sucky title and the generally predictable story line, this movie was actually interesting to check into, with well-developed characters (for the most part), some fun hip-hopping, a cute relationship and some tender moments? Yup, God knows I rarely shed a tear at any flick, but when the dead-beat dad fixed up that room all right, I almost broke the dam (when you see the movie, you'll understand). Then again, who knows, maybe I was just a little "emotional" that day. But kudos to this film's makers for avoiding the general stereotypical ventures of other films based in the ghetto, and showing us that not everybody is addicted to crack or busting caps up people's asses. Sure, problems like teenage pregnancies, deadbeat fathers and gangs exist, but this film actually handles them with a little humanity, and allows you to see some of the finer details beneath the typical exterior. A great example is the deadbeat pop who is generally portrayed as a straight-out A-hole in most other films. Well, in this movie, and much like in real life, not everything is so cut and dry. As it was, this film actually convinced me of most of these characters' humanity, and that's what made this film work for me.
Sure, there is this whole "I gotta make it as a dancer" undertone going on, which will likely keep the teens interested throughout, but believe it or not, this film is much deeper than that. In fact, I think the trailer is selling it too much like a simple hip-hop teen flick, when really it's actually quite touching. And yes, the whole black/white relationship thang is also handled pretty well, in my opinion. We see both sides of the issue. Granted, a couple of the characters were a little stereotypical, like the super-bitch at school and the gang-banger who can never seem to get out of trouble, but then again, there are actually people like that in the world, too. The film also might've wanted to cut out one of its few "side stories", like the whole "sister having the child without the boyfriend sticking around" thing, but that would only have been to trim some of the picture's runtime, which went way past the general benchmark for these types of movies. In the end, the better part of the film's story and personalities captured enough of my attention for me to care about the movie as a whole, and to wish most of the characters nothing but goodness in the end. Mind you, I could see how some people might dismiss it based on its predictability alone, but for me, the overall design clicked.
Note to Julia Stiles: Me thinks it's time for you to move beyond the teen flicks and try to grab hold of some juicier parts. Don't follow the Freddie Prinze Jr. route, girl!
Where's JoBlo coming from? Jungle Fever (8/10) - Center Stage (6.5/10) - Dance with Me (6/10) - 10 Thing I Hate about You (7/10) - Boys in the Hood (8/10)
Review Date: January 6, 2001 Director: Thomas Carter Writers: Duane Adler and Cheryl Edwards Producers: Robert W. Cort and David Madden Actors: Julia Stiles as Sara Johnson Sean Patrick Thomas as Derek Reynolds Kerry Washington as Chenille Reynolds Genre: Drama Year of Release: 2001 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2001 Berge Garabedian
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews