Spoof films have gained a tarnished reputation as of late. Stinkers such as Epic Movie, Disaster Movie and Meet The Spartans may have entertained the pubescent masses, but those who require something more than fart gags found themselves yearning for the days of Leslie Nielsen. Now the Wayans Brothers, who have been parodying genres since the 80’s, turn their attention to the dance movie genre in Dance Flick.
Thomas (Damon Wayans, Jr) is a lonely street boy whose job working for a rotund crime boss (David Alan Grier) keeps him from his true passion of street dancing. That is until he meets Megan (Shoshana Bush), a suburban girl who has just moved into the inner city and makes friends with Thomas’ sister and her dim-witted ‘baby daddy’. The pair become dance partners, and find their feelings grow for each other through their passion.
The Wayans started well - the first Scary Movie was actually pretty good. However, that was their last film, and it was nearly ten years ago. One would hope that first time director Damien Dante Wayans, the Brothers’ nephew, would bring something new to the table. Whilst it’s not the, um, disaster that Disaster Movie was, it appears he has fallen at the first hurdle. Certainly, you can pick out the films they are parodying, but a lot of them are ten to twenty years old (how many teens will pick out the Flashdance sequence?) and it feels a little less relevant. Cultural bookmarking also seems a little redundant when most of the jokes are either crude or plain childish.
There are moments that tickle you (particularly ‘Edward Trigger Hands’), and the Brothers do well to reference more recent fare such as Twiligh’ and Hairspray, but it seems like parody for the sake of parody and they don’t appear to have anything intelligent to say. It’s not the mind-numbing dirge that was Meet The Spartans, but one has to wonder why exactly this film was made.
Dance Flick is out August 21. Watch the trailer below...
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