I noticed that within the past few years there have been an influx of spoof movies being released. Just to name a few, there has been the “Scary Movie” series, “Epic Movie”, “Disaster Movie”, and now we have Dance Flick, written, directed, produced, and starring the Wayans family.
To me, this movie felt rather disjointed. Instead of a story with a beginning, middle, and end (for example, “White Chicks” to name another Wayans production which is superior to this one), Dance Flick basically followed the plot of “Save the Last Dance” with other movie parodies thrown in as filler. I’m surprised it even lasted as long as it did (around 90 minute run time). Staying true to the name of the movie there were several dance numbers as well as an entertaining remake of the song “Fame”.
Shoshana Bush played the main female lead, Megan. Mirroring the storyline of “Save the Last Dance”, she is going to live with her father because her mother died in an accident, which is later turned into a play that her boyfriend takes her to see because “he thought she would enjoy it”. Tasteless! I felt that Megan’s part was over-acted, although it was probably done that way on purpose.
With the exception of Essence Atkins as Megan’s friend Charity and Damon Wayans Jr. as Thomas, there really wasn’t much character development of the rest of the cast which tends to happen with an ensemble piece. Thomas was cute, and rather charming if I do say so myself.
There was also the obligatory “guy in a fat suit” character, Sugar Bear, (David Alan Grier). (I noticed there has also been an invasion of “guys in fat suits” characters recently as well.) Also, if you remember the gym teacher Miss Mann from “Scary Movie” who had an “interesting” body abnormality, watch out for Amy Sedaris’s character Ms. Cameltoe, who has an unusual talent of her own.
Here is a brief list of other movies that were parodied in Dance Flick: “High School Musical”, “Hairspray”, “Little Miss Sunshine”, “Fame”, “Catwoman”, “Step Up”, “Flashdance”, “You Got Served”, “Dreamgirls” and “Twilight”.
About ten people walked out of the theater before it was over. If you aren’t a fan of the Wayans’s particular brand of humor, don’t expect much more from this movie if you decide to see it. If you are a fan of the Wayans and spoof movies, you will probably enjoy this one.
