Blu-ray Movie Reviews

When rebellious street dancer Andie teams up with a hot modern dancer, Chase, to compete in the biggest, toughest street dance-off ever, "The Streets," sparks fly both on and off the underground dance stage.

This is the sequel to Step Up which I can’t say I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t seem like it matters though as this film has no bearing at all to the former film or its characters. Instead we find a young inner city girl who is given the choice of going to art school or going to live in Texas to get her away from her troubled friends. By troubled I mean they “terrorize” people in public by dancing around them. Troubled world we live in. Once in school her old crew casts her out and she ends up with a new crew of dancers that wouldn’t fit the normal profile. The film is actually a lot more fun than I was expecting and it has good heart and great energy. If you’re a fan of loud hip-hop music and explosive dance routines, you shouldn’t miss this.

Touchstone delivers a solid HD presentation for this one and like so many other films of this genre you get a very stylized MTV look. Contrast is a bit exaggerated which does wonders for the definition and depth of the image but shadow detail is a bit wanting at times. Colors are also driven a bit harder than normal but this lends a lot to the image and tone of the film. Fine detail is excellent for the most part and dimensionality is definitely one of the stronger aspects of the presentation. You get some great eye candy from this one.

The audio is presented in uncompressed PCM 5.1 and it was largely what I expected from a dance themed film. The hip-hop soundtrack makes for some great dynamic range with thundering bass lines and great imaging across the main soundstage. The bass extension is incredible at times with great infrasonic presence. My only complaint was the realism of the soundstage. Several of the film’s sequences take place in clubs and the environment was never convincing. Music was loud but there was no sense of space and the surrounds are rarely a player in the mix. Thankfully the rest of the mix is balanced nicely and even the intense songs don’t drown out the intended dialogue.

Extras include a collection of deleted scenes including some additional dance sequences that are pretty good. There are quite a few music videos for the various songs throughout the film and there is also an outtake for an additional dance scene. For dance group fans you get a look at the dance crew “410” from the film and a fun behind the scenes look at the film’s production.

I didn’t go into this one with high hopes but it ended up being a lot more fun than I was expecting. The dance sequences are great and Touchstone has done a great job with the presentation. Fans of the genre will have a lot of fun with this one.