REELGUY’S DVD REVIEW: “Dance Flick” distasteful and revolting Wayans brothers product

The Wayans brothers should be ashamed of themselves. While parody films have been playing to the lowest comedic denominator for several years now, since the Wayans branched off from their “Scary Movie” franchise the parody film has reached a new low. “Dance Flick” is as bad as you can imagine and then some. Written by pretty much the whole Wayans family (Keenan Ivory, Shawn, Marlon, etc.) there is surprisingly little to laugh at from one painful, overreaching set-up to the next. “Dance Flick” joins every other parody film recently by throwing in as many pop culture references as possible without even creating a joke around them. Even Shawn and Marlon fans will feel cheated by their glorified cameos in the film. They probably felt the movie wasn’t worth more of their time and I strongly agree that it isn’t worth a viewer’s time either.

The closest story “Dance Flick” mirrors is “Save the Last Dance.” Megan wanted to be a ballerina but a family tragedy kept her from that dream. She meets Thomas at an urban school and he teaches her to hip hop dance. Her passion for dancing comes back but the guilt remains. Outside of these two characters, there is no real story. Loosely related gags, dance competitions, and David Alan Grier in a fat suit complete what passes for a movie. Other characters include a girl who looks like Tracy Turnblad from “Hairspray” and a blind boy who looks like Ray Charles. Neither of these characters are developed but only there to round out the overall musical punch line. An outlandish dance competition starts the movie and another one ends “Dance Flick,” with a few distasteful musical numbers in between.

I felt personally bad for any recognizable actor or actress in the cast after watching this film. “Dance Flick” will serve as a mark of shame on any resume and ultimately dumbs down cinema by its very existence. When the movie isn’t being funny it is pushing the envelope of what revolting things can be shown on camera. When a woman gives birth to a baby on the dance floor while break-dancing, I felt this was the last straw. For those brave souls who rent this film, that scene is only half-way into this mess. It may serve as a good stopping point, though.

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, and language.