Update on Center Stage 2: Turn It Up
We take a good movie about ballet dancers, not a movie with the greatest plot or acting, but still, a good movie. Suddenly, 8 years after its release, we decide that now is the time to make a sequel. We add a goofy subtitle and a cliche hip hop vs. ballet plot. And we have our sequel: Center Stage 2: Turn It Up.
From what I understand, the movie will premiere on Oxygen in November and be released on DVD in January.
In this movie, Cooper's company had its funding cut and fallen apart and he has returned to American Ballet Academy to teach. Kate, a "self taught dance prodigy" (How can you be self taught as a ballet dancer? Or is she a hip hop dancer? Both?), who is a hip hop/ballet fusion dancer is determined to be accepted in to the school and teach everyone to love hip hop as well as ballet even though she is socially ostracized because of her hip hop dancing... or something. Then, she meets Tommy, a hockey player who has also been accepted in to ABA and they end up dating.
My prediction: the ending number will be the hockey equivalent of "Get 'Cha Head In The Game" with 540s, head spins, and pirouettes thrown in.
To say I'm disappointed in what this movie will probably turn out to be is an understatement. Not only is the plot so hugely overused (hello, every dance movie in the past five years), but the plot and characters of this film seem to be completely different and not at all related, with the exception of Cooper and Jonathon.
I'm actually debating whether or not I want to see this. A bad movie is a bad movie, but when it is a sequel to one of your favorite movies that you've loved for a looooooooong time and are somewhat emotionally attached to (I know, I know, it really isn't THAT great), it could have a dramatic effect and cause me to hate the first movie in retrospect. Sigh.
I'll probably at least NetFlix it just to see if they got Ethan Stiefel to spin on his head. Oh, and because I'm the kind of ballet nerd that notices things like this, at least in the above picture, Jodie (Amanda Schull) is wearing Freed studio IIs in size 4 1/2 with a soft shank.
Stay on your toes,
Selly
19 Comments:
I hate the formulaic plot of most of hollywood's "dance" movies. The "self-taught" thing is not only ridiculous but really overdone (Flashdance, anyone), as is the fusing of ballet with... everything else. I didn't find the original Center Stage terribly interesting and I doubt I'll make any effort to see this one. I'll take the nearly plotless, The Company, over these tired plotlines any day. And, I usually prefer dance movies where the dancing is actually secondary to storyline - All That Jazz, White Nights, and yes, even Dirty Dancing!
I agree. Ad my ballet teacher has said "The Company is probably the worst movie I have ever seen, but if you want to see a movie with good ballet that isn't a documentary, that's the one".
I hate to admit this, but I haven't ever seen White Nights. My local movie rental places don't have it, and neither does NetFlix. I'm definitely going to try to find it somewhere though.
Selly
Selly, Try the local library, they're more likely have to have it.
I love Center stage but seriously, I cannot stand hip hop so I will not be seeing this
You know, I've had luck with my library. I got The Glory of the Bolshoi and The Glory of the Kirov there a week or two ago, and they're both old and semi-obscure, especially considering the small amount of DVDs/VHS tapes my library has. I'll have to check there.
Selly
Sequels to anything being a risk.....I may pass on this one. (I enjoyed The Company for the dance footage, the plot stringing it all together better than some dance movies.) Thanks for posting the warning!
How about waiting until the movie comes out rather than judging something you've never seen? By the way it's titled Center Stage: Turn It Up, not Center Stage 2... It's not a sequel as much as it's another story set in that world.
^It sounds horrible. I was simply voicing my opinion, that opinion being: I think this movie sounds like it will be horrible. I never said that everyone will hate it or that no one should see it, only that I probably will not.
Selly
Oh, for the love of Pete. The whole "ballet v. Hip Hop dichotomy" made an interesting movie premise once. ONCE. However, IT IS NOT ORIGINAL THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH TIME AROUND. Nor is it interesting. Arrrrg, Hollywood makes me angry sometimes.
It's not a ballet vs. hip hop movie. There is both ballet and hip hop, but they are not pitted against each other at all in this film. The plot descriptions online have it wrong.
Anon.- Not to be rude, but might I ask how you know this/why you believe the information on the movie to be wrong?
Selly
Wish I could tell you how I know--I'm not being annoying on purpose but I'm involved with the film and can't say online in what capacity. I'll just have to ask you to trust me that the plotline about Kate trying to bring hip hop to ABA etc. is incorrect.
I completely agree!
I saw a commercial for it last night on the "Made of Honor" DVD...and can I just say I wanted to bawl when I saw this. Centerstage has been an all-time favorite of mine ever since it came out, and to see them do the over-done HipHop plot was a HUGE disappointment. I want to know how Ethan Steifel feels about all of this (I actually saw him perform just over 3 years ago in ABT's production of Sylvia.)
Either way, maybe instead of the hip-hop plot, they could try another form of dance...there ARE many of them, OTHER than hip-hop.
Guys, get a life.
There are far more interesting and fun things to do instead of taking criticism this far: Good god, you havnt even seen the movie!
eses
I know some people that have minor roles in CS 2 but I had never seen it. So, when the original came on TV a few months ago, I thought I would watch it. I thought it was perhaps the most boring, predictable movie I have ever started to watch. I say started because I could not sit through it. I doubt the new Turn It Up version is any worse.
I think it is entirely possible that the only reason Selly and others like the original is because they were very young (it was 8 years ago after all) dancers at the time and would have liked anything dance related. I bet preteen and teen dancers end up liking this one too.
That is not true. I am a teen dancer who, yes, loved the first movie, but just viewed the second and thought it was atrocious. I couldn't even bear to watch the whole thing. The acting was terrible, the plot was terrible, and the dancing was terrible. There was absolutely nothing redeeming about the movie. At least the first one had some skilled ballet dancers in it.
i liked the movie center stage: turn it up and i think it was really stupid for all of u to be dissing the movie before even seeing it...im guessing ur the type of people to judge a book by its cover and a person by first glance. if so, i pity you and your negativity. hip hop is used in the film as a sense of the ballet dancers finding their natural fire for dancing, not make the academy a hip hop school.
^I don't know if you realize this, but this is old news. The movie's already been released, seen, and reviewed. It was bad IMO, some people agree, some don't, end of story. It's over, please move on.
Selly
I really liked Centerstage2. I thought the story was moving and the hip-hop dancing was great. I liked the way it juxtaposed the two forms without judgment. I liked the way Stiefel, in his generous way, lent his high-brow ballet sensibility to this project...I think history will prove it an entertaining as well as an important dance document of our age. Perhaps you were young when you saw Centerstage, for me, this 'sequel' is a visit to those younger, hopeful times. Happy New Year.
my heavens. that was THE WORST dance film EVER. I actually fast-forwarded through some of it towards the end because I just couldn't take it anymore...how many times do we have to see an inexperienced (my polite way of saying BAD) dancer in a film only to hear heaps of praise being given by the other characters? Anybody who knows anything about classical ballet could see that NO, SHE WAS NOT "SOOO GOOD"....she was a passable hip-hop dancer, but in regards to classical technique, sorely lacking. (be realistic, folks. If this were really SAB, would she even be looked at with bad feet, bent knees, and no turnout? No matter how much passion she had? No. She would have been cut after the first tendu exercise.) Sorry if this comment sounds a little vicious, but it irks me that it sends an unrealistic image of professional dance to young aspirants. The MORAL of the story was a good one, but unrealistically told.
Thank you.
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