Center Stage – Turn It Up (Sony DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Feature: C-

 

 

The Flashdance Hip Hop Wannabes continue with Steven Jacobson’s Center Stage – Turn It Up, a non-sequel sequel to the equally Center Stage, all of which shows us everything we have seen before in soundtrack driven non-musicals since the 1980s with nothing new to offer.  If anything, the cast is flat and dull, music weak and even the dancing is often sloppy and second rate.

 

Rachele Brooke Smith is the female lead who wants to dance, goes to a ballet academy and her pseudo-Cinderella trip begins.  She has to go to a big city to “win” even though the rest of us feel like we are losing from the opening scenes.  She meets a guy she likes, has to deal with all kinds of personalities and has stiff competition she has to beat to go to the top.

 

The problem is, where is this top, will it last and is it all a lie?  It is here, because none of this is believable for a minute and even Peter Gallagher as a dance teacher does not work because nothing does.  Turn it up?  They can’t even turn it out.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 x 1 image is shockingly poor, softer than it should be and has a phony sheen of gauze throughout that ruins anything the locations could offer.  It is like watching a bad old TV movie.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the default highlight of the disc, even if the soundfield is as sloppy as the film and forget the music.  Extras include two condescending featurettes, but there are some unintended laughs in them and the feature.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo