Review No.143: Streetdance 2

I know in the past I've talked about how much seeing previous films in a franchise matters in order to view the latest sequel however in the case of Streetdance 2 I don't think there's any need to watch the original. I personally watched, and quite enjoyed, the first Streetdance film when it came out in 2010 however this sequel doesn't have much in common with the original other than George Sampson who appears once again as Eddie. Sampson will be familiar to most as the winner of Britain's Got Talent 2007 but anybody who watches Waterloo Road on a regular basis knows that his acting leaves a lot to be desired so I'm a little surprised that he was the character that the directors decided to bring back despite him only featuring sporadically in the first film. Here though the focus is on Flack Hentschel's Ash who in the opening scene challenges dance crew Invincible to a battle when he is working selling popcorn at one of their events. After losing his job as a vendor he is approached  by Eddie to be his manager as they travel round Europe to put a crew together to ultimately compete in the Paris breakdance contest and beat Invincible at their own game. After the newly formed crew are safely embedded in a Paris hostel Ash and Eddie go out to a bar where they see the gorgeous Latin beauty Eva dancing salsa in a boxing ring at her uncle's bar. As in the first film, where ballet was used alongside Streetdance, here Ash and Eddie decide to combine their style of dance with Eva's Latin beats in order to deliver a unique act at the competition. Inevitably Eva and Ash's saucy dancing leads to a hot and heavy romance even though her uncle, played with vigour by Tom Conti, isn't sure about his intentions. As the film goes on the bonds between Ash and the crew as well as his romance with Eva are tested but ultimately will the gang band together and take down Invincible. Well what do you think?

The reason I enjoyed the first Streetdance film so much was that the central plot, involving the odd combination of streetdance with ballet, was intriguing as was the edition of veteran actress Charlotte Rampling as the head of a dance academy. Unfortunately a lot of the charm of the first film has been taken away due to the lack of a decent cast and the decision to bring back the fairly woeful actor Sampson in more of a leading capacity. In fact the opening scenes, in which Ash and Eddie bring their crew together, was reminiscent of the montage from the recent Muppets movie in which the gang travel by map. Even though both Hentschel and Sofia Boutella  as Eva are likeable actors there really wasn't enough chemistry there for them to create a believable partnership while the rest of the crew members are given very little to do other than turn up and dance. Thankfully the majority of the dance numbers are well-choreographed and a joy to watch additionally I'm guessing most of the audience are there for the streetdance atmosphere rather than the plot. Personally though I think I'm suffering from a little bit of streetdance fatigue after having sat through countless examples of it over years of Britain's Got Talent I find it a little dull now but that's just me and it's not at all a fault of the film. Also I quite enjoyed Tom Conti as Eva's uncle Manu even though it was hard to decide which European country he actually came from and I almost had a theory that he was playing the aging version of his character from Shirley Valentine. Streetdance 2 does have some impressive dance sequences and some game performances but suffers from a lousy plot and a central romantic storyline between two actors who have little chemistry together.

Verdict: Nowhere nearly as enjoyable as the first Streetdance film this sequel still has some impressive dance sequences and a game performance from Conti but I can't overlook the dodgy script so therefore it gets 5.5/10