Movie Review

I can't sleep lately, so I guess I'll blog, since I never have the time or motivation to do so these days.

"Step Up 2" might be the most entertaining movie I've seen in a while. There have been many dance themed pictures that have come to the big screen in the past few years. "Save The Last Dance" comes to mind as one of the first. Step Up 2 is great because it takes place in Baltimore, references a fictitious subway system in the city, has a street dancing group called "The 4-1-0" (a la the area code), and has some of the best dance sequences of any of the genre's movies. Now, I don't claim to be an expert, but I have seen most of them (and some of the documentaries like them), but they really gave the audience what they wanted with this one. I could have watched this movie again if I wasn't trying to get my money's worth this month.

I know I'm late in lauding this movie, which came out last February. What can I say; it just came up in the Netflix. I thought I'd review it as my friend K posts interesting ideas about serious movies on his blog. Me, on the other hand, "Step Up 2" is about as serious a movie as I can watch. It's tough dancing in the streets of Baltimore, trying to fit in at an elite private art school.

Any non-serious movie suggestions are welcome.

Okay, so I sometimes watch movies that aren't targeted to high school girls. "Melinda to Melinda," Woody Allen's choose your own adventure type movie was pretty good. The premise was that with a few simple details about boy meets girl and you could either make it a tragedy or a comedy. He presents both, juxtaposed, with the same woman playing Melinda in both (although I didn't believe it until I saw the credits). I liked the idea of the story (and Will Ferrell as Woody), but I felt as though it came up a little short. There was a little pizazz missing. I know not every movie will be "Annie Hall," but this did have a lot of potential. I did give it four stars on Netflix (as I did for Step Up 2 by the by), so I liked it, but I've seen better. That makes me want to watch more Woody Allen. In college, there was this great video store (yay B'more!) that had a "director's room." In this room, movies were sorted by famous directors, so it was so easy to pick out the next Woody movie. I loved that place. Netflix doesn't hold a candle to Video Americain. Or Donna's while I'm at it.