Take the Lead (2006)

Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Take the Lead is loosely based on the program developed by the Palestinian professional ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine to change the life of problematic kids in schools.If you read the plot summary you already know how the story is going to go, how the film is going to end, and the sort of characters you are going to meet. If you decide to go on and watch the movie and then expect something different, well, it is like expecting pears to be apples.The formula: The teacher who believes in marginal kids, teach them something arty or sporty and brings them to a competition, where they shine and surprise themselves and anybody who thought they didn't deserve a go. There is dancing or singing or sport playing and a motivational coach. Magic formula that has worked for decades with basically the same format, since Sidney Poiter made To Sir, With Love in 1967, to Sister Act 2 in 1993, and Coach Carter in 2005 just to mention three famous examples.These movies succeed because they inject a dose of hope and love into marginal problematic children or teens who are talented but live surrounded by poverty, violence and lack of healthy role modes. It shows a belief in the goodness of anybody with problems, that being rich and having money doesn't make you more talented, that if you give troubled kids an opportunity, preach them by example and teach them to respect themselves anything is possible. Of course, reality is like a jar of ice-cold water on the dream, but it is still a nice dream. In this movie is partially so, because Dulain's programs are still being used in schools. One can argue that children living in such surroundings could never achieve anything, even if they had talent, but there are famous actors and directors in Hollywood who did just that. This movie is not about "it will happen to most people", it is about "this can happen to you despite your circumstances". That is why these movies succeed and are enjoyable to watch.What makes this movie successful is the cast, not the main stars but all the the young kids playing the troubled high-school students. They not only have a great talent as actors despite their youth, but some of them are fantastic dancers as well. Some of the young actors in this film already are reputed Broadway/TV actors, singers and/or dancers. All of them are terrific. Perhaps my favorite is Rob Brown, a natural before the cameras but, to be fair, all the young guys shine and it would be unfair to credit just a person for the goodness in the movie.The soundtrack is fantastic all throughout the film. The starting scene is very cool. Some of the musical numbers are terrific. My favorite ones are the Tango between Banderas & Katya Virshilas, and the final dance performances, especially that Jenna Dewan Tatum with Dante Basco and Elijah Kelley, and that of Rob Brown and Yaya Dacosta.Watch the movie without expecting to be anything that never pretended to be, knowing that this is not supposed to reflect real life, it is to remind us that dreams are possible even when you are poor.

Once again we find the same story, told thousands of times in movies before. The white, not so poor professor (poor performance by Antonio Banderas)arrives to a marginal high school and tries its unconventional teaching models (in this case is ballroom dancing) to his students, which are, of course, minorities.We already know how this kind of movies go. First the rejection, then the surprise for how it works. After that, one or two "weakness" to make the story touching and the happy ending, that proves that everything is possible if you truly want it with your heart. there's nothing wrong about it, it's just it's been so used in movies that it no longer surprises us, it no longer has an effect on the viewer. Specially with "take the lead".Not only the story is absolutely not original, the script is inconsistent, having contradictions all over it. Then, all the acting is just mediocre. And, for last, the directing is just awful. Liz Friedlander, a video clip director, does that. tries to film a 90 minutes video clip. With such awful consequences. A waste of my time.

I'm gonna start by saying that the only reason why I went to all the trouble of opening an account in this site so I could publicly complain about this movie. I was watching it a while ago and I just couldn't stop laughing out loud during the whole thing, since it's just unbelievable the amount of nonsense and common places just one single film can come up with. Although it is to be remarked that the dancing is sincerely amazing (which is why I gave it a 2), that doesn't make up for the fact that the rest of the movie is just an insult to both the viewer's intelligence and the art of story-telling altogether. If there was a competition to decide which script in the history of the film industry contains the highest number of clichés in the world, this one would definitively "take the lead" of it and leave all the rest of them behind. Honestly, I just couldn't believe it: when this movie was written, someone must have been following the how-to-make-a-corny-movie recipe, because absolutely all of the ingredients are to be found in this film. We have: 1) The authority: a mean and not-so-cold-hearted school principal, who pretends to be to tough to care but in the end proves that deep down she has feelings and all. 2)The hero: a sweet well intentioned dance teacher, who apparently has way too much free time and money in his hands. 3) The ones who are saved by the hero: an outcast group of annoyingly stereotypical minority examples, such as hispanic, obese and black people who have to deal with all sorts of dramatic issues: there's the drug related murder, the alcoholic father, the mother who has to prostitute herself to feed her children and the abandon father. Of course, all this kids go out of their ways to be "better than that". Yet, they are all in detention. 4) The nemesis: a science teacher who not only doesn't give a damn about this unfortunate children, but even manages to get the school PTA (mean bastards, the lot of them) against the dance classes, as if the parent and teachers didn't have anything better to deal with, given the fact that half of the students seem to be nothing but potential criminals. 5) The mean blonde (very blond. Stereotype contrast is everything here), who looks down at the lot because they are poor and not American. Hence, a bunch of losers. 6) The blonde who's not mean: an upper-class teenager (as white as white paint can be) with way too many issues to even talk about them. Risks her head joining the ghetto dance class but gets away with it and ends up hooking up with an obese black guy who everyone calls "monster". Her mother's gonna be proud. 7) The drama moment: the final scene where all of the above (yes, the principal too) come together in a dance contest that the for-some-reason-loaded dance teacher manages to get them into by paying a fortune. They don't win (that would have been way too much) but they do learn the lesson: "go for your dreams", "don't never give up", "we're all the same", whatever other cheesy thing you might think of. To all of this, I would just like to add the fact that the whole movie lacks of any kind of deepness in regards of the serious issues it pretends to deal with, it's boring, predictable and just as flat as a white sheet. Don't waste your time on this film; if you wanna see dancing moves, just go watch high school musical or something like that.

In New York, the polite dance instructor Pierre Dulaine sees a black teenager vandalizing the car of the director of a public school and on the next day he volunteers to teach dance to students to give respect, dignity, self-confidence, trust and teamwork. The reluctant director Augustine James offers the troublemakers that are in detention expecting Pierre to give-up of his intentions. Pierre struggles against the prejudice and ignorance of the students, parents and other teachers, but wins his battle when the group accepts to compete in a ballroom dance contest.So this was the week of dance movies. I didn't expect much of the plot from this film, and I wasn't surprised. This movie, like any other dance films is predictable and clichéd. Still, I liked the plot and followed with it. I've also seen this film for the dances. How were they? They were as good as, if not better, than dances from "Step Up" but not as much as "Stomp the Yard." You can hardly compare the three different dance styles.The flaw I've found about this was that you would have to suspend your belief a little. Yeah, you probably wouldn't believe what you see on screen would be "based on a true story," but you just go with it and have a fun time watching. Out of the three films i've watched, I would consider this as the best.Antonio Banderas is good as always, in this film. The unknown faces in here also gives some good performances. The music in here is really great and energetic. Like I say with my last two dance movies: Watch this movie for the dances, not the plot.