Credit: Amazon.com
Director:
Liz Friedlander
Starring:
Antonio Banderas ………. Pierre Dulaine
Alfre Woodard ………. Prinipal Augustine James
Rob Brown ………. Rock
Dante Basco ………. Ramos
Yaya DaCosta ………. LaRhette
Liriq Bent ………. Easy
John Ortiz ………. Joe Temple
Brandon Andrews ………. Monster
Laura Benanti ………. Tina
Jenna Dewan ………. Sasha
Elijah Kelley ………. Danjou
Shawand McKenzie ………. Big Girl
Marcus T. Paulk ………. Eddie
Joseph Pierre ………. Trey
Katy Virshilas ………. Morgan
Heidi von Palleske ………. Laura
The Movie
We have seen this movie before in different forms. A teacher comes into a school and attempts to inspire and teach troubled students into becoming better students and people. Robin Williams played the teacher in Dead Poets Society, where he attempted to inspire his students with poetry. Edward James Olmos played the teacher in Stand and Deliver, where he attempted to inspire his students with mathematics. Morgan Freeman played the prinicipal in Lean on Me, where he used unorthodox tactics to clean up a school. Richard Dreyfus played the teacher in Mr. Holland’s Opus, where he attempted to inspire his students with music.
Antonio Banderas plays this same kind of teacher in Take the Lead, except he inspires students with ballroom dancing. This movie is based on the true life story of Pierre Dulaine, a Manhattan dance teacher and competitor who volunteers his time to teach ballroom dancing to a diverse group of New York inner-city high school students serving detention. Of course, the students are skeptical of Dulaine and his teachings at first. Dulaine never gives up on them, though. He is committed to doing this and eventually the kids come around and start to dance. They quickly learn they can combine the classical dance that Dulaine teaches them with their own unique hip-hop dance style and music to create a high-energy fusion of dance. Dulaine soon becomes a mentor to the students and inspires them to practice their dancing skills enough, so that they can enter a prestigious city ballroom competition at the end of the movie.
While the basic plot of the movie is not unique, the fact that ballroom dancing is used as the central theme in the movie is unique. This movie came out at the right time, which is probably why it was released. Last year, a documentary called Mad Hot Ballroom came out about elementary school children in New York City learning to ballroom dance as an extracurricular activity. In the last two years, reality TV shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ have found success in TV land as well. The people behind this movie attempted to capitalize on this early success from other shows and films and release this movie right afterwards. I think that was a smart move. Ballroom dancing is hott right now!
The best part of this movie is the dancing. We don’t get much background story on the kids in this movie. We know they are troubled, that’s why they are in detention. We get quick looks as to why, but nothing in-depth. I actually think that’s a good thing as it gives more time to the dancing. That is the highlight of this movie. The way that ballroom dancing is combined with hip-hop dancing to create an unique style is fun to watch. It brings high-energy to the film that keeps you entertained and never bored.
Say what you will about Antonio Banderas and his acting abilities, but in this role..he WAS Pierre Dulaine. He was more than capable of being a dance teacher. While Banderas is at the center of this movie, there is plenty of time for other people to have their chance in the spotlight. The rest of the movie stars basic unknowns, who are the students in this movie, with the exception of Rob Brown, who was the lead in Finding Forrester and starred in Coach Carter as well. Some you may recognize from various movies or TV shows, but overall they did their jobs well. No one brought down the movie with their acting. That can be hard to do when you have a movie filled with young actors.
This is an interesting and entertaining look at how ballroom dancing inspires students to stay out of trouble and be better people. This film has the heart and soul of a “teacher inspiring students” drama with an added twist of ballroom dancing meets hip-hop. The music is great and the dancing will make you want to move yourself. It’s a fun two hours and that’s what matters most.
Score: 6/10
The Video:
The video is given in 1.85:1 fullscreen color. The colors are bright and the dancing is brought to the screen in all of its glory. No real problems here at all.
The Audio:
The audio included is in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Surround sound, or English DTS 5.1 Digital Surround sound. There are English and Spanish subtitles available as well. No problems here either. In fact, the music is one of the highlights of the movie along with the dancing associated with the music.
The Extras:
Audio Commentary–
This is with the director, Liz Friedlander, and editor, Robert Ivison. I always like these and this one is no exception. Always fun to watch after you’ve seen the movie once.
Deleted Scenes–
There are 7 of these and they were all deleted for a reason. Most of it was not needed. It added more to the background of the kids in the movie, but that wasn’t really needed. So there you go..it got cut. Although, the scene with Antonio Banderas acting like one of the students is funny.
“Meet the Dungeon Kids” Featurette–
This is various interviews with all of the kids in the movie. I should say all of the actors and actresses that played the students in this movie. It tells you how each one of them got their part in the movie and more about each of them. This was very interesting as most of the kids are unknowns and most of them are in their first feature film roles here. More background information on them is always good.
“Between the Steps: Pierre Dulaine Profile”–
This is all about the real life Pierre Dulaine, which this story is based on. We see his real students and them dancing. This is the real thing, so it was fun to watch Pierre and the kids dancing. It also tells you how the whole “ballroom classrooms” came about in the first place.
Liz, Swizz, and Ziggy: The Director & Her Music Team–
This is various interviews with the director and her music team talking about the musical process of combining ballroom dancing with hip hop. We learn that director, Liz Friedlander, got her start with directing music videos. This is her first feature film, but you can see why she was picked to direct this film with her background.
You Take the Lead: Multi-Angle Tango Feature–
This takes the tango scene, near the beginning of the movie, with Antonio Banderas and his sexy partner, Katy Virshilas, and gives you various camera angles of it. It is what it says it is. You can look at the dance scene from various angles and maybe learn some moves from it.
Remixed Trailers–
I usually don’t count trailers to the movie as an extra. However, this is an exception. Why? Well..the the trailer to this movie is “remixed” by three different internationally known DJs. The DJs are DJ 2nd Nature, Eclectic Method, and Addictive TV. These are fun to watch.
Score: 8/10
| InsidePulse’s Ratings for Take the Lead | |
