Step Up 2 The Streets

Stars: Brianna Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Cassie Ventura, Adam G Sevani, Danielle Polanco, Will Kemp, Christopher Scott

Director: Jon M Chu

The mixture as before, spiced up by a dance finale staged in a rainstorm. Andie (Evigan, a rather mature-looking teenager), is a member of a step-dancing crew and the despair of her guardian, who's about to ship her off to an aunt in Texas. This seems to be a certainty after Brianna and her crew don masks and terrify tube passengers with a step-dancing routine (didn't this used to be called breakdancing, in another guise, way back when?) before fleeing. The only hope, it seems, is the local dance school.

Channing Tatum, drifting in from the first film, makes a bet with Andie that she'll attend the terpsichorean college if he beats her in a dance challenge - which of course he does, before wandering out of the movie again. Helping her on at the school is Chase (Hoffman), brother of the director (Kemp, making an early bid for the year's worst supporting actor award), with whom she's formed a crew of misfits ready to take on her old buddies in the final dance-off.

The dancing's terrific, and the script good for a laugh (or three), while some male viewers may be paying more attention to the heroine's generously-displayed cleavage than the breathtaking step routines. And don't forget the line that may become a classic: 'Clean this fish up!', as declaimed by Black Thomas, who takes attitude to a whole new level.

Alan Frank

USA 2008. UK Distributor: Universal. Technicolor.
95 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 16 Mar 2008