Amy Sedaris, Brennan Hillard, Chelsea Makela

Street dancer Thomas Uncles is from the wrong side of the tracks, but his bond with the beautiful Megan White might help the duo realize their dreams as the enter in the mother of all dance battles.

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38% liked it

331,245 ratings

Critics

18% liked it

82 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 23 min.

Directed by: Damien Wayans

Release Date: May 22, 2009

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DVD Release Date: September 8, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (8,457)


  • October 12, 2009
    "From the Wayan Brothers comes the most outrageous movie of the year," the trailer for Dance Flick promised. In one sense, this is correct - it's an outage that precious reels of celluloid were imprinted with this lazy, cheap, dire, tedious, obnoxious and desperate ...( read more)attempt to induce laugher. And that's just a small selection of disparaging adjectives which can be applied to this tripe.


    Dance Flick is just another in the long line of excruciating spoof films begat by the Scary Movie series. Said franchise also inadvertently unleashed upon the world the writer-director team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, and their creations (Epic Movie, Date Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie) somehow managed to earn a fortune at the box office while also being universally despised. These recent spoof "comedies" forget one very crucial thing about the genre: they forget to actually be funny. They're miles away from the belly-laugh miracles of the Flying High! and Naked Gun era. Dance Flick is merely a barrage of pointless pop culture references, ghastly stereotypes and overt spoofing - all of which unite to deter laughter. The film was created by the Wayans, and while they weren't responsible for many of the other dire parodies of recent years, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.


    Less a baseline story than a platform on which to showcase a series of unfunny, disparate sketches, this is a spoof of (logically) every dance film imaginable (running the gamut from Fame to Step Up 2 The Streets). While there are plenty of movies that fit this criterion, Dance Flick is inexplicably focused on 2001's Save the Last Dance. It adapts that particular movie's plot almost scene-for-scene, probably because the filmmakers couldn't be bothered coming up with something more creative on their own.
    To an extent, there is a plot (however paltry). It concerns a white, naïve ex-dancer named Megan (Bush) who moves in with her father (Elliot) after her mother dies in a car accident. She hooks up with black street dancer Thomas (Wayans Jr.) and together they aim to compete in a local contest to scoop some much-needed cash. You see, Thomas needs money to pay larger-than-life gangster Sugar Bear (Grier) - who looks like a cross between Fat Bastard and Mr. Creosote.


    As with other recent spoofs, the satirical elements of Dance Flick aren't restricted to dance films. One of the most unbearable failed gags of the movie comes at the expense of Twilight. There are also parodies of Black Snake Moan, Catwoman (WTF?!) and even Little Miss Sunshine merely to get the film up to its barely feature-length runtime. The puerile attempts to raise laughs lack subtlety, skilful direction or any degree of intelligence. Instead, there's a junior version of Ray Charles (with his blindness cruelly used as a launching pad for numerous "comedic" mishaps) and a dance instructor named Ms. Cameltoé (Sedaris). Guess what? Yep, Ms. Cameltoé has a noticeably large vagina...and it even beatboxes!


    Dance Flick also contains a large variety of potty jokes, racial jokes and hackneyed gags (for instance the music at one stage overwhelms a character who's speaking, so he turns to the orchestra and tells them to quiet down). All this pushes the film's PG-13 rating to the very brink. The point is not that this stuff is offensive, but that it's so insufferably terrible. Exposition and random skits and mashed together willy-nilly with no concern for making a coherent motion picture, and the end result looks and feels like what one would expect from a bunch of kids screwing around with a camera during a family reunion (considering the number of Wayans involved, this could actually be the case here). There's an unexpected amount of energy here (particularly during the dance numbers), but this cannot excuse the tragic deficiency of laughs and the fact that the whole thing is just plain gruelling.


    Recently, so many genre parody movies have been made that they no longer carry a novelty factor, making Dance Flick tedious and familiar. This is the very definition of critic-proof - if you want to view this bottom-feeding cash-grab that caters to the lowest common denominator, you've already made up your mind and no amount of reviews will persuade you otherwise. For those of you who adored Disaster Movie or Meet the Spartans, you're welcome to indulge in this tosh...but please keep it away from the rest of us. You know, some of the worst dance movies actually exist as self-parodies, so what the fuck is the point of parodying them anyway???

  • September 19, 2009
    It had its funny moments. Not horrible but not great either.
  • September 6, 2009
    I wouldnt give this any star half is more then is deserves, utter trash.....AVOID!!!
  • September 16, 2009
    Despite being slightly better than all the other recent spoofs, Dance Flick still is pretty bad. I only liked the Twilight part, even though that's probably the only part Twilight fans don't like lol. To me, it was the only scene that worked. I don't get it, Twilight fans don't...( read more) complain about Ray Charles being made fun of, but making fun of Twilight is mean ? lol.
  • August 25, 2009
    There isn't one laugh in the whole film. Avoid at all costs.
  • November 18, 2009
    nise baby am the singer and u have to dance ^_*
  • November 18, 2009
    i love it it was funny
  • November 17, 2009
    I really dont care for these movies... but thats just me. :)
  • November 16, 2009
    it has its funny momments
  • November 15, 2009
    well umn just seen this movie 4 the 1st time n think that this is a good movie 2 watch.....its got a good cast of actors/actressess throughout this movie....i think that essence atkins, david alan grier, damon wayans jr, craig wayans, chris elliott, chris elliot, amy sedaris, bre...( read more)nnan hillard, chelsea makela play good roles/parts throughout this movie....i think that the director of this comedy/spoof movie had done a good job of directing this movie because you never know what 2 expect throughout this movie....i think that this is a good wayans brothers movie 2 watch its got a good cast thorughout this movie n its a really funny dance movie 2 watch

Critic Reviews


May 27, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

It isn't highbrow -- or encumbered by scruples -- but the Wayanses retain their vulgar, adolescent derision of sex, class and race. In this bow down to Hollywood millennium, their irreverence is almos... full review

May 26, 2009
Kyle Smith, New York Post

If there exists anyone in the comedy business less funny than the Wayans clan, it's Amy Sedaris, so she's here, too. full review

May 22, 2009
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Dance Flick occasionally hits its mark with nimble execution. But too often it stumbles clumsily into bad taste. full review

May 22, 2009
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

In the grand tradition of spoof movies, most of the best stuff is in the trailer. full review

View more Dance Flick reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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Dance Flick Trivia


  • Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker want to dance the night away in this 80s flick. Can you name this movie that also stars Jonathan Silverman?  Answer »
  • Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker want to dance the night away in this 80s flick. Can you name this movie that also stars Jonathan Silverman?   Answer »

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