Make It Happen (2008)

22% of critics liked it
(18 reviews)
53% of users liked it
(12,682 ratings)

Grindhouse star Mary Elizabeth Winstead headlines the dance-themed picture Make It Happen -- a bleak drama about a small-town girl who migrates to the Windy City, where she hopes to build a career as a respected dancer. Instead, her life spirals hopelessly downward and she ends up working at a… More Grindhouse star Mary Elizabeth Winstead headlines the dance-themed picture Make It Happen -- a bleak drama about a small-town girl who migrates to the Windy City, where she hopes to build a career as a respected dancer. Instead, her life spirals hopelessly downward and she ends up working at a burlesque club to pay the bills and support herself. Scribe Duane Adler -- known for such dance-themed pictures as Step Up and Save the Last Dance -- authored the script; Darren Grant (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) directs. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Darren Grant
Written By: Duane Adler, Nicole Avril
Genres: Drama, Romance

In Theaters: Aug 8, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Dec 9, 2008
Studio: The Weinstein Co./MGM

Critic Reviews

Mike Edwards, What Culture
Another dance movie this year? Seriously, where the heck do they keep coming from?
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...yet another tedious inspirational tale revolving around a would-be dancer's efforts at transcending her wrong-side-of-the-tracks upbringing to become a professional hoofer.
Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile
We know the trajectory, it's a question of how brightly the rocket burns and how interested we are in the astronauts aboard this dance missile from small town Indiana to Chicago Big Time Dance School
Jason Di Rosso, MovieTime, ABC Radio National
This film's limp retelling of the against-all-odds cliche just doesn't bump, grind or sweat enough to make it happen.
Des Partridge, Courier Mail (Australia)
Mary Elizabeth Winstead [has] star quality.
Jake Wilson, The Age (Australia)
It's hard to dislike all these urban musicals aimed at teenage girls, and even harder to tell them apart.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
So predictable that you know exactly what's going to happen at any given minute.
Anthony Quinn, Independent
Then you wait for the moment one of the regular girls gets injured, the hostess has to find a replacement and... the rest you know.
, Sun Online
The film should have been called Rehash Dance, because it is Flashdance without any new ideas.
Ellen E Jones, Total Film
It's all just filler between the dance scenes, which are admittedly fun. Think Pussycat Dolls with slightly more clothes on. Unrepentantly formulaic, but enjoyable all the same.
Elliott Noble, Sky Movies
This awesomely unambitious film has all the depth of a Pepsi ad.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Its just as cheesy and just as icky, but calamitously fails to offer any high-octane dance to ease the pain.
Kevin Maher, Times [UK]
It could be a contemporary take on classic backstage musicals. Or it could be the end of the cinematic arts as we know them.
Daniel Etherington, Film4
There's dancing, there's emotion, there's an earnestly cheesy inspirational storyline, there's nothing you won't have seen before.
Tom Huddlestone, Time Out
Despite boundless energy and some surprisingly artful photography, 'Make it Happen' is never more than product. Cheap, abysmally scripted and utterly soulless.
Nick De Semlyen, Empire Magazine
The directing's lazy, the love interest is a smarmy douche and the dialogue is flatter than Winstead's toned tummy.
Victor Olliver, Teletext
The story may be predictable but Winstead infuses every moment with an amazing amount of charm.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
In short, this is a watchable dance movie and Winstead's performance just about compensates for the generally poor direction.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Dean M

Awesome and spectable dance sequences I ever saw. This dance perform movie is familiar as Flashdance meets Save the Last Dance. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is absolutely amazing in this film. Whilst most actresses would be quite happy to let a… More
Awesome and spectable dance sequences I ever saw. This dance perform movie is familiar as Flashdance meets Save the Last Dance. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is absolutely amazing in this film. Whilst most actresses would be quite happy to let a stand-in do all the difficult dance sequences, Winstead insisted that she be the one actually doing them.
Steven V

It was no surprise that, throughout Make It Happen's 80-minutes duration, one would find this latest dance flick (helmed by occasional music director, Darren Grant) riddled with the most tiresome and obnoxious clichés that the genre could… More
It was no surprise that, throughout Make It Happen's 80-minutes duration, one would find this latest dance flick (helmed by occasional music director, Darren Grant) riddled with the most tiresome and obnoxious clichés that the genre could offer across its existence. The movie seems to be borrowing each scene from similarly plotted features. Yet, in one way or another, Make It Happen seems to present all of them just that better. One of the flick's greatest and most undeniable asset would be lead Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who displays some of her best work here. She seems born for the role, radiating an unbelievable amount of charm, and drawing life into a well-written character. Despite having been supplied with a prosaic script, Mary Elizabeth Winstead performs admirably well, both on and offstage. Regardless of Mary Elizabeth Winstead's poetic beauty, the movie lacks a substantial screenplay, and every line feels tacky and uninspired. It's safe to say that the movie is no more scripted than it is choreographed. It was fortunate that the rest of the troops, though never coming close to stealing the show, played their - stereotypical - parts adequately, with the provocative Julissa Bermudez standing out exiguously. The movie's lack of flesh on show is an affront to the cast's sensual, slinky sex appeal, and it is hard to find that the clubgoers are majorly made up of cheering females, rather than drooling guys. However, the dances are already enticing in nature, so more skin would not have been necessary, but simply more effective. Speaking of, the dance sequences are entertainingly beautiful, aided with a catchy soundtrack, and as a whole, undeniably a visual and aural delight - a testament to the eyes and ears. Make It Happen is not much a movie rather than a montage of energetic dance romps, connected solely by filler sequences enlaced with drama and romance. Darren Grant's experience in the music video industry helped a lot here. Stunning cinematography entwine each scene, and the dance sequences are nothing short of being optically magnificent. Although there might not be much to entertain those with a passionate dislike of this variety, it is nevertheless a fine installment into the dance genre. Make It Happen passes as both a short, drama movie entwined with great dance sequences, and an overtly long, energetic music video interweaved with filler drama scenes.
Panta O

[b][size=5][color=brown]MAKE IT HAPPEN (2008)[/color][/size] [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/custom/89/10008689.jpg[/img] [i]Kada sam otišao u bioskop da pogledam ovaj film nije mi bilo èudno da je pun tinejdzera i da sam ja najstarija osoba u sali, jer je bio… More
[b][size=5][color=brown]MAKE IT HAPPEN (2008)[/color][/size] [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/custom/89/10008689.jpg[/img] [i]Kada sam otišao u bioskop da pogledam ovaj film nije mi bilo èudno da je pun tinejdzera i da sam ja najstarija osoba u sali, jer je bio film o mladoj plesaèici koja šeli da uspe u velikom gradu (Èikago je ovoga puta u pitanju)... Naravno, ne primaju je u školu i onda ona reši da ostane da radi, jer je sramota da kaže bratu da nije uspela... Radi kao knjigovoða u noænom klubu gde iznenada imaju šanse da vide da je njena talent mnogo veæi od igara s brojevima... Naravno, tu je i ljubavna prièa, pa onda ponovni konkurs, pa ljuti brat, pa drugarica itd... Šablonski film bez veæih pretenzija, a ja vam sve ovo prièam da ne biste trošili pare da ga gledate. Ali ako volite da mi ne verujete , hehehehe, slobodno potrošite pare, dobar je za gubljenje para na gluposti, dodje mu kao poker mašine za kockanje. Šteta što Mary Elizabeth Winstead nije uspela da dobije neku bolju ulogu, jer nije loš talenat. U glavnoj muškoj ulozi, Riley Smith je odradio svoj posao korektno. Ocena je 4-10.[/i][/b]
Marcus W

I know I swore off these dance movies, but I like MEW, she's a good actress and I thought she might bring something more to the role. Nope. She fails to get into dance school, becomes a burlesque dancer (with half a star for decent choreography), falls for the first guy she… More
I know I swore off these dance movies, but I like MEW, she's a good actress and I thought she might bring something more to the role. Nope. She fails to get into dance school, becomes a burlesque dancer (with half a star for decent choreography), falls for the first guy she meets, and then gets into dance school.
monty h

Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives a strong performance as a small town girl trying to make it at the top dance school in Chicago. When she doesn't get accepted, she has to earn a living by being a dancer in a risque nightclub. Her brother tries to bring her back home to run the… More
Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives a strong performance as a small town girl trying to make it at the top dance school in Chicago. When she doesn't get accepted, she has to earn a living by being a dancer in a risque nightclub. Her brother tries to bring her back home to run the family business, but she doesn't want that life anymore. I actually liked this movie, it will probably remind you of countless other movies about young women trying to make it in the big city but Winstead gives a great acting performance and handles her dance scenes like a pro. Check it out.
d j

This movie is across between, Step Up, Center Stage, and Coyote Ugly. It has like parts of each of those movies that I have already seen in this movie. The girl wants to move on with her dream which is a lot like Coyote Ugly. She wants into a school of music and ballet which is like… More
This movie is across between, Step Up, Center Stage, and Coyote Ugly. It has like parts of each of those movies that I have already seen in this movie. The girl wants to move on with her dream which is a lot like Coyote Ugly. She wants into a school of music and ballet which is like Center Stage and then the moves she is doing is like Step Up 2. I over all enjoyed watching it. I would rate it a 4/5.
Sarah B

Derivative even considering it's a dance flick. As always not enough dancing, the relationships between the characters all seem false and contrived and the plot hangs together like a nonsticky thing. Winstead is a good dancer though, the brother and sister vibe is a nice add-on… More
Derivative even considering it's a dance flick. As always not enough dancing, the relationships between the characters all seem false and contrived and the plot hangs together like a nonsticky thing. Winstead is a good dancer though, the brother and sister vibe is a nice add-on and I like the love interest, he reminds me of someone I used to know... Nice to see Veronica Mars alumni as well.
Chris M

Poor directing. Poor editing. Poor acting.