Save the Last Dance

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: A very impressive film, I must say. When I first saw it I watched it over and over again. The story line is something differen't and the acting is done well. I don't need to say much more other than how much I enjoyed this move and how well done it is. A really worth while movie to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Not your typical teen movie
Review: There are some fish-out-of-water elements in this film - Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles) is an aspiring ballet dancer. Her mother dies and she must move from her country town to Chicago to live with her father (Terry Kinney). She finds herself plunged into an alien environment. She's at a high school where the student population is perhaps 95% black, which doesn't trouble her, but she gets a quick introduction to the higher crime rate in a big city - metal detectors at the school entrance... A girl called Chenille (Kerry Washington - excellent performance) looks out for her. The real problem comes when she accompanies her new friends to the local dance club - she discovers that she had no idea of how to dance like they do. Derek Reynolds (Sean Patrick Thomas) takes pity on her, and starts teaching her. This starts some real antagonism between Sara and Nikki (Bianca Lawson); Nikki was already in her face, and now Sara's cosying up to the man she wants.
Derek's best friend Malakai (Fredro Starr) is heading in a different direction - he's just out of jail, and shows every sign of heading back again. Derek wants to become a doctor, and his marks are good enough. Malakai doesn't like the idea of Derek getting close to Sara - it is never completely clear whether this is because of her colour, or because she is encouraging him away from gang-related stuff.
Hmm, maybe the director's right about the interracial romance - a lot of the tensions relate to it. Or maybe it's just about race - Sara gets some strange looks simply from being white in a predominantly black neighbourhood.
Sara is not the archetypal wimp - she is perfectly happy to stick up for herself. That's good.
This is not a typical teen movie. It's rather better. I recommend it.



Rating:
Summary: Best Movie Ever
Review: This is my favorite movie.


Save The Last Dance<333333

Rating:
Summary: An aspiring movie of dance and love...
Review: Very emotional movie - strongly shows a passion for dance. It contains some terrific dance scenes. One of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely a feel good movie
Review: Despite not being a trained dancer (unless you count dancing in the shower, or dancing to some rather dodgy music from my past, or the fact I did used to go to dance classes, but gave up for the afternoon kids TV!), I love watching these kind of movies. Plus, Julia Stiles is definitely on my list of favourite actresses.

The movie has a lot of influences, and is the dance scenes, albeit updated, are heavily influenced by Grease in particular. The dance scenes aren't the main part of the movie, there's racial issues being heavily focused on, and teenage pregnancy. Sean Patrick Thomas does well in his role of Julia Stiles' boyfriend in the movie, but often, he comes across as being more of the tough guy, rather than the love interest.

There aren't many boring scenes in this movie, and it's pretty much fast paced, with anything that could be seen as too tedious, condensed quite neatly.

The music is pretty cool, although I wouldn't recommend buying the soundtrack unless you're totally into your 'slammin'' hip-hop music. Not really my kind of style really. The track by Ice Cube "You Can Do It" is about to be released in the UK, despite being around the dance floors and in the clubs for many years now - although it's being censored on UK TV!!! Other memorable songs are "Crazy" by K-Ci and JoJo and "You make me Sick" by Pink.

The extras are nothing special: commentary by director Thomas Carter; music video "Crazy" by K-Chi & Jo-Jo; interviews and making-of. For any music lover, or just someone in need of a pick-me-up, this is the film to get on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Not Again...
Review: This film, while better than I thought and a better effort than other MTV movies, suffers from thing - an old, tired stereotypical, "blacks have a problem with whites too" hollywood.

In this day and age where interracial romance is hardly shocking and it seems that it is mandatory for white women to have black guys, this film is bad at the social level. First, like all films who want to point out the blackness of African-Americans or those of African decesnt(check out any Indian film where the Indian is not as dark as they come, but aby regular blacks are darker than the Indians), this film makes sure that the contrasting character is very dark-skinned. Why could he not have been light? They also made sure that he had clear African type features(Bend it like Beckham anyone?).

MTV and it's constant "happy people" (the G word) propaganda, has always had a problem with black people. Why make a film like this? If anything, make a film about the white parents pretending to accept the black guy. While some people still dislike race-mixing, it is clearly something that does not shock and is only of issue to neo-nazi minded individuals who need something to keep them in the news.

This film, like TV in general, brings up a race issue at a time when that is not really on peoples' minds. It always happens. When everything is calm and ok on the race scene, TV ALWAYS finds new ways to reintroduce it. If it's not the suttle mentioning of black on the news or in a trial like OJ or Kobe Bryant mentiong race for no reason at all, then it's films like these and "Bend it Like Beckham." In "Beckham," the east Indiand producers made sure that they did not show east Indians at their darkest. They made sure that their would be a darker, Africna type black to not only contrast (try to show an actual difference between an Indian and black) the Indian girl, but they made sure that they put Inidans on a level with whites. They even had the girl say " my parents want me to marry an Indian. They would be kind of ok with a Muslim or white boy, but definitely not black..." That is not verbatum, but you get it.

Films like these inject race for no reason other than to keep it on peoples minds. If their is not as much tension now as in the past, why create some? Why try (once again) to show differces? In "Beckham," their goal was to show that Indians are on par with whites and despite the same skin tones and REAL racial connection(just take a look at the blacks of Asia, including India), that they are not black and do not want to be seen as such. That was the purpose of such a scene. It is also the same reason why in "Missisippi Masalsa," they used a dark-skinned Indian (she was looking good!!), but used an even darker black American(Denzel).

This film does nothing but keeps race on the minds of people who may not have it on their mind for the day. Anyone who knows anything, will know that when thing are ok, they inject race. In sense, like reminding whites "you are not supposed to love black people, you are supposed to be hating them!"

The only good and realistic thing about this film is the fact that a black male gets the girl. They don't like to show that on regular TV or commericals. Only Hollywood(and still many whites AND even Asian trying to be like whites) still thinks that people have a problem with a black man being the object of women's desire. They don't mind the interracial thing as long as the black woman is after the white man. They hardly ever show the white woman or other women after the black man (as in real life) because that would shift the perception power from the white man to the black man. If you are in power, YOU want to look like the guy people want, not someone else who you have been trying to keep back. Hollywood rarly relfects reality. When it comes to interracial romance, they ALWAYS make the story about conflict when it conerns a white woman going after a black man, but hardly ever the other way around. Those black films of the 70's where Shaft was doing his thing with a white woman was more realistic.

Rating:
Summary: Oh boy...
Review: This film, while better than I thought and a better effort than or MTV movie productions, suffers from thing - an old, tired stereotypical, "blacks have a problem with whites too" hollywood.

In this day and age where interracial romance is hardly shocking and it seems that it is mandatory for white women to have black guys, this film suck at the social level. First, like all films who want to point out the blackness of African-Americans or those of African decesnt(check out any Indian film where the Indian is not as dark as they come, but aby regular blacks are darker than the Indians), this film makes sure that the contrasting character is very dark-skinned. Why could he not have been light? They also made sure that he had clear African type features(Bend it like Beckham anyone?).

MTV and it's constant homosexual propaganda, has always had a problem with black people. Why make a film like this? If anything, make a film about the white parents pretending to accept the black guy. While some people still dislike 'race-mixing,' it is clearly something that does not shock and is only of issue to neo-nazi minded individuals who need something to keep them in the news.

This film, like TV in general, brings up a race issue at a time when that is not really on peoples' minds. It always happens. When everything is calm and ok on the race scene, TV ALWAYS finds new ways to reintroduce it. If it's not the suttle mentioning of 'black' on the news or in a trial like OJ or Kobe Bryant mentiong race for no reason at all, then it's films like these and "Bend it Like Beckham." In "Beckham," the east Indiand producers made sure that they did not show east Indians at their darkest. They made sure that their would be a darker, Africna type black to not only contrast (try to show an actual difference between an Indian and 'black') the Indian girl, but they made sure that they put Inidans on a level with whites. They even had the girl say " my parents want me to marry an Indian. They would be kind of ok with a Muslim or white boy, but definitely not black..." That is not verbatum, but you get it.

Films like these inject race for no reason other than to keep it on peoples minds. If their is not as much tension now as in the past, why create some? Why try (once again) to show differces? In "Beckham," their goal was to show that Indians are on par with whites and despite the same skin tones and REAL racial connection(just take a look at the blacks of Asia, including India), that they are not black and do not want to be seen as such. That was the purpose of such a scene. It is also the same reason why in "Missisippi Masalsa," they used a dark-skinned Indian (she was looking good!!), but used an even darker black American(Denzel).

This film does nothing but keeps race on the minds of people who may not have it on their mind for the day. Anyone who knows anything, will know that when thing are ok, they inject race. In sense, like reminding whites "you are not supposed to love black people, you are supposed to be hating them!"

The only good and realistic thing about this film is the fact that a black male gets the girl. They don't like to show that on regular TV or commericals. Only Hollywood(and still many whites AND even Asian trying to be like whites) still thinks that people have a problem with a black man being the object of women's desire. They don't mind the interracial thing as long as the black woman is after the white man. They hardly ever show the white woman or other women after the black man (as in real life) because that would shift the perception power from the white man to the black man. If you are in power, YOU want to look like the guy people want, not someone else who you have been trying to keep back. Hollywood rarly relfects reality. When it comes to interracial romance, they ALWAYS make the story about conflict when it conerns a white woman going after a black man, but hardly ever the other way around. Those black films of the 70's where Shaft was doing his thing with a white woman was more realistic.

Rating:
Summary: If You Gave This 5 Stars, I Don't Know Which Movie You Wont!
Review: IN MY OPINION, everyone that gave this 4-5 Stars either REALLY LOVEEEE dancing related movies or never seen a good movie or hasn't watched enough movies to give an accurate comparison. NOTHING in this movie was original or made it special, AT ALL. I mean the characters were good actors, but the movie, whoever made it, couldn't have thought up of his own, had no imagination whatsoever. Movie seemed like it was copied from the MANY MANY movies out there that are similiar. Ahem: Situation such as a crisis in the beginning which is used to bring the audience in and used to create the "start" for the movie, a person usually the main character, trying to get use to her new surrounding which does and just like that they become a main attention LIKE ALWAYS, than a problem arise to make the story a bit longer and makes up the body, which is solved. Whats worst is at the end, in which she dances in the front of the judge. She does badly than the boyfriend comes in gives her some confident and boom she does an amazing performance. NO CREATIVITY, NO TWIST AND TURNS, NOTHING SPECIAL. The maker of this movie should be fired immediately, cause all he made was a movie that was thought many times over decades ago...just changed in some key points. I can't possibly understand how any person in their right mind would give this a full 5 stars, even 4 stars seem rediculous!