A movie only needs one good reason to be worth seeing. Step Up has one good reason, but it keeps forgetting what it is. The one good reason is the showcase of dance routines on display, mostly hip-hop dancing but with a little bit of jazz as well. The two leads are viable enough, but the plot is agonizingly melodramatic and contrived beyond belief. That's ok, as long as the plot is only treated as a way to segue between dance scenes, but ultimately the film takes itself seriously and gets bogged down in unwelcome asides of its own, particularly toward the end, when the main characters are forced to crank through a parade of plot cliches to mend their relationships with stock characters. We don't care. We just want to see them dance.

In spite of this, the movie may still be worth seeing. Smooth moves and charisma may not be the highest of cinematic achievements, but they aren't the lowest either, and they're entertaining enough. But where is the Gene Kelly or the Fred Astaire of the mean streets? How come we can't have one of these movies that's fresh and exciting and worth caring about as a whole?