Center Stage: Turn It Up (2008)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Just perfect...

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Directed by Steven Jacobson, ''Center Stage - Turn It Up'' tracks a small group of students at the fictitious American Ballet Academy, with plenty of appeal and energy-filled film about following and reaching for your dreams, this story is as much about passion as it is about ballet and hip hop.All Kate Parker has ever wanted to do was perform with the American Ballet Academy. Kate (played by Rachele Brooke Smith), a girl from Detroit with fire, passion, attitude and a blinding-white smile, and Tommy (played by Kenny Wormald) have a natural chemistry between the two characters and their dance moves were really hot. Despite the fact that she has something special, Kate learns the hard way that it takes more than just natural talent to succeed in the dance world. Suzanne Von Stroh (Sarah Jayne Jensen), a smooth ballerina whose father just happens to be a major donor, is chosen instead.Not very sexual or too intriguing, the dancing and the choreography are inspiring, the movie - however - does have its faults - as for instance some technicalities - but it is definitely enjoyable as this is a story that involves dance and romance, jealousy, misunderstanding and the fire that ignites the passion. They may not get any Oscar nominations for their performances, but they did a good job with the movie, especially for teens. The film is easy on the eye as we watch beautiful bodies rhythmically and elegantly contort in the rehearsal room and on the stage.But yet again, the movie is all about dancing. Hip-hop, street dance, it's the music that thrills and is a sequel to the teen-targeted dance romance.Not as good as the original movie, but I would still give it 8 out of 10.

If you are the type of person who simply loves dance movies then you will probably like this movie. I am one of these people.. and i do like it. However, the movie does have its faults. For one thing, the lead characters are horrible actors... its makes me laugh in embarrassment for them they are just simply horrible in my opinion. The story line is very blah. With the ballet dancer Cooper Nielson coming back to the academy as his own company fell through, he seems pretty pointless within this movie. If anything the whole thing that brings this movie way down is the acting and partially the story line.Unlike other people who have reviewed this movie who considered the first movie cheesy.. and this one not. I don't believe it. I believe the first movie wasn't 'cheesy' at all, and i believe unlike other people yet again that it was about the dance. The lead character in the original movie after all did have a weakness about her by not having great feet, and that was the point of that film, was breaking through those limits of the ballet world to still be AMAZING. This movie being the 2nd within the series yet again has the same kind of focus.. as Kate parkers weakness is she doesn't have a rich daddy and thats why she didn't make it. The whole point here is to make it out on top and to prove she was worthy to be in the academy with of course a romance going on between. Overall the original center stage and this 2nd version incomparable as the first is definitely a MILLLLLLLLLION times better. The dancers were better. This 2nd movie is just a way for the people to make more money due to the high success of the original. Its just a quick buck. I give this movie a 5/10, that is just for the factor that it is a dance movie and its one of those bad movies you can sit back and watch every now and again if you are wanting a cheesy dance movie to watch. But other than that its not spectacular

Out 20 January I'm a big fan of the dance movie genre. From old school Grease to the streets Step Up. I enjoy watching teen romance movies. I love watching teen romance films with a lot of dancing. When I saw a preview of the movie, I knew I had to see it. It's a sequel on the movie Center Stage. The movie is set in New York City. Kate Parker is a girl who had a dream to perform at the American Academy of Ballet. So she applied for an audition. But when she doesn't make it after the audition, she realizes that it takes more than perfection to succeed in the dance world. At the audition she meets a boy, Tommy Anderson. They become quite good friends. With his help and with the help of her job at a hip-hop club, she finds the passion, the fire and the strength again she needs to make her dreams come true.In general, I really liked the movie. But it was a little bit disappointing because I thought that it was a hip-hop dancing movie and not a ballet show. There were a lot of ballet scenes in it and that was just too much for me. Some of the other dance scenes were spectacular and very stylish because they are the kind of dance scenes I really like to watch. The music fitted into the movie along with the dance scenes.I definitely would recommend this film because it's worth to see it. You can see how a girl gives up her dream but then when she met that boy she got the passion back to chase her dream again. I would this movie a 8 out of 10!

I went into this movie with some very low expectations and was not disappointed.Kate is a rebel ballerina, who eats chocolate and drinks beer, and who is pursuing her dream of dancing for one of the best Ballet Academies in the world - even though she's never had, you know, any kind of training. 'She has such passion' Why? because she smiled once during the audition? Yep, that's some hardcore passion right there.The acting, or whatever the hell it was those people were doing, was absolutely atrocious. Probably some of the worst acting I've seen in awhile and I watch porn. Some white gay ballerina dude walking around saying 'Sick', 'Dope', 'Banging'. bleugh.This movie was choc full of horribly contrived moments. What kind of club owner hires a girl as a waitress because she moves her ass in time with the music? How is it OK for her 10 year old sister to just get on a bus and travel to New York? It's all very stupid.But not as stupid as the cringe-worthy 'dance' by the water fountain. It was the most horrible horrible thing I had ever seen, I prayed to the gods to strike me blind so as to never see that terrible thing again.It's best altogether to stay as far away from this crap as possible.