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Step Up is a 2006 dance/romance film directed by Anne Fletcher starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan.

The movie follows the tale of the rebel Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) and the ultra-privileged ballet dancer Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan), who find themselves paired up in a showcase that determines both of their futures. Realizing that they only have one chance, they finally work together.

Its official website is not hosted on its own domain; rather, it is hosted through MySpace, and it serves as a community that encourages social networking and discussion about the film. The site is http://www.myspace.com/stepupmovie.

The Cast

Channing Tatum - Tyler Gage
Jenna Dewan - Nora Clark
Damaine Radcliff - Mac Carter
De'Shawn Wasngton - Skinny Carter
Mario - Miles Darby
Drew Sidora - Lucy Avila
Alyson Stoner-Camille Hewett

Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. It starts with scenes switching back and forth between a graceful ballet practice in the afternoon to a group of people street/ hip-hop dancing at night. Then it introduces brothers Mac and Skinny, Skinny interrupting Mac with a girl, and friend Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) dancing at a house party. Skinny usually gets on Mac's nerve creating friendly and brotherly banter between them as comic relief throughout the movie. Tyler is dancing with a girl, who happens to be PJ's girlfriend, showing off that he can dance. PJ gets jealous and gets up in Tyler's face. They start to fight but Mac breaks it up, when PJ pulls out a gun the boys leave. Fooling around a little bit, Tyler accidentally breaks a window of a building and Skinny sneaks in, forcing Mac and Tyler to follow him. They discover that they are in the Maryland School of Arts, believing only rich stuck-up kids attend. They move onto the performing arts stage and vandalize the props on stage, claiming what they're doing can be covered by the rich kids that attend for everything they break. A security guard heard the ruckus, and surprises and grabs Mac. Tyler gets Mac free from the rent-a-cop but is captured himself. Mac was about to free Tyler when Tyler yelled at Mac to just go.

We then see Tyler sentenced to 200 hours of community service which he must do to pay back the school. You learn from his record that he's been in trouble before and that he lives in a foster home. He returns home with his foster mother, where there are two younger siblings and a laid-off father. He meets the principal of the school, Director Gordon, who tells him that the amount of property he damaged is equivalent to the tuition for one student. Tyler doesn't seem remorseful and just wants to get his community service over with, giving Director Gordon the vibe that he has enough on his plate. As Tyler does the whole janitorial thing as he is taking out the trash, he watches a dance class and instantly notices Nora (Jenna Dewan), a dancer. He watches her dance and exchange greetings. He's just about to approach her when her boyfriend, Brett, comes in. As class ends, Nora's friend Lucy asks if Tyler was the new janitor. Brett answers no, telling Nora and Lucy that it was Tyler that trashed the theater.

Tyler goes outside and Mac and Skinny roll up in a car they just stole. They usually get their money by dropping cars off at the chop shop for a guy named Omar, or hustling people in basketball. They talk about Tyler having to drop off the car later. They ask Tyler how the school is and if Tyler was hitting up on any of the girls. Tyler jokes that he's doing his thing, dancing, and begins dancing for them, showing more impressive moves. Nora, meanwhile, is talking with Lucy about stressing out over her piece, with Miles giving another beat for Nora to use in her piece. She then catches Tyler outside showing off. Tyler looks up to see Nora looking at him. Nora gets nervous and quickly hides to the side. Tyler just smiles and laughs with Mac and Skinny.

Nora is a senior at the school and she's been practicing a dance piece for a performance which dance scouts will attend. Her partner Andrew ends up spraining his ankle and she sets up auditions for his replacement. We catch up with Tyler on what he does everyday vacuuming, washing windows, fixing the lights, and mopping floors, getting more work because of the students. Tyler overhears Nora talking to her boyfriend, Brett, seeing if he would help her dance. He declined because he needed to focus on his music. So we move to potential replacements that humorously fail to lift Nora, dropping her multiple times. After the auditions are over and Nora is resting, Tyler approaches her and offers to replace Andrew. She is reluctant at first but decides to give him a chance, challenging him to catch her, which he does. Nora asks Director Gordon if Tyler could be her replacement for a few weeks until Andrew gets back on his feet. Director Gordon is a little hesitant but allows it, telling Nora that all risks Nora takes is her own. Nora tells Tyler to meet her at 2:30 the next day and to bring tights.

The next few scenes show both Tyler and Nora dancing together and learning the routine. Lucy is surprised that Tyler is Nora's new dancing partner and jokes about Nora liking Tyler even though she has a boyfriend, Brett. Nora jokes about Lucy liking Miles (Mario) who mixes beats for Nora even though Lucy has an older boyfriend. There is tension between Brett and Tyler in several scenes.

One day Tyler misses practice by an hour and finds Nora listening to Brett and Miles' recording session. She's mad at him for his tardiness but he doesn't accept responsibility. Brett asks Tyler to leave because everyone's working and they are taking their music and art seriously whereas Tyler doesn't seem to take anything seriously. The next day shows Nora waiting for Tyler again. When she finally gives up and leaves, she sees him back in his janitor uniform sweeping outside. She asks him where he's been and he says that he doesn't think this whole dancing thing is for him and that she was doing fine on her own anyways. Nora is worried now because she has no dance partner.

Mac, Skinny, and Tyler are playing video games and Mac mentions how Tyler always gives up on everything he does. Tyler takes that into consideration and ends up going back to Nora and apologizing. He says that he'll do anything to dance with her again and the following scene show him practicing ballet with a bunch of kids. They both get closer and closer as they dance together everyday. Tyler's always busy at practice and ditches Mac and Skinny a bit which irritates Mac. Nora breaks up with Brett after finding out that he got a recording deal only after he ditched Miles saying how Brett just uses people and throws them away once he gets what he wants. Also Tyler goes and asks Director Gordon if it's possible if he could finish out the rest of his school year at the Maryland School of Arts. She says he has to earn it and show her that he really wants to be here.

There's a party and everyone gets together. Tyler and Nora dance and Miles and Lucy sing on stage. You can see there's chemistry between Miles and Lucy but Lucy has an older boyfriend who they see later kissing another girl. Lucy brushes it off and Miles is upset that she can't see that she deserves better and she abruptly leaves. Tyler and Nora get their first kiss here. There are scenes of them practicing some more and bonding and walking each other home and just a whole bunch of smiling and giggling and dancing.

In one of their practices Mac comes in and sees Tyler dancing and he gets upset. He can't believe that Tyler would leave him and Skinny hanging while he dances and especially for a girl. Right after that Tyler walks back into the school to find out that Andrew is doing much better and he's ready to dance again. Nora doesn't know what to do because Andrew is also a senior and this dance recital means a lot for him too. Tyler gets mad and says that she's just like Brett, uses people and then ditches them and so he leaves.

There are clips of both of them moping around, her calling him and him pretending that he's not home. It also shows that Andrew definitely doesn't look as good as Tyler when he dances (he's more lyrical or ballet-ish and Nora and Tyler's routine includes some hip-hop dancing and Andrew doesn't look comfortable doing it). Eventually he hurts himself again and says that he can't dance with Nora which leaves her partner-less again.

Meanwhile Tyler is back with Mac and Skinny. After leaving Skinny at home (mom told him he's not allowed to go out) both of them go to another house party hosted by Omar. They hang out there for a little bit and then Skinny shows up because he didn't want to be stuck at home. After Mac tells him to leave, Skinny walks back towards home but sees PJ from the beginning of the movie. PJ has an Escalade. Earlier in the movie Omar said something about the boys stealing him an Escalade to get back on his good graces (they were mouthing off to him). When PJ runs into a corner store to pick up something Skinny runs over and steals the Escalade. He drives back to the party where Tyler and Mac yell at him to get out of the car (they know who the car belongs to). Skinny's about to leave when PJ comes rolling up in another car and shoots Skinny to death. After the funeral Mac and Tyler talk about how they want their life to be better than what they have now. This encourages Tyler to run back to Nora just in time for the recital.

Nora, Lucy, and Miles are preparing for the recital. Tyler comes back and begs Nora to let him dance again, he's fighting for what he believes in and so on. Nora lets him dance and they do a great job. Nora's mom is happy, Director Gordon and Mac look proud, the scouts look impressed, smiles from both Lucy and Miles, and lots of applause and so on. At the end Nora and Tyler make up, Mac congratulates him, Lucy and Miles kiss, the dance scout wants to talk to Nora about being in their dance program AND she's interested in Tyler and Director Gordon wants Tyler to finish out the rest of his school year at the Maryland School of Arts. it ends with Tyler and Nora kissing (making out) back stage.

Box Office and Reaction

Las Vegas Weekly's Josh Bell gave Step Up one and a half stars, calling the dancing "..bland.." and saying that "...Tatum and Dewan have no chemistry while dancing or making out (not to mention whenever they're unfortunate enough to have to speak)."

As of August 23, 2006, the film had an average score of 48 out of 100 on Metacritic, signifying "mixed or average reviews"; its highest score was 75 (from both Entertainment Weekly and the Boston Globe), and its lowest was a 25 from the San Francisco Chronicle.

However, despite many bad reviews from critics, Step Up gained a total of $21 million in its opening weekend, ranking second in the North American box office and exceeding the film's budget of $12 million. As of October 19, 2006 the day it closed , it had gained $65,328,121 in the United States and Canada.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features new music from Mario, Ciara,TI,Kelis, Chris Brown, Yung Joc, and Chamillionaire. The lead singles from the soundtrack are Sean Paul & Keyshia Cole's "Give It Up To Me" Remix and Ciara's new single, "Get Up" featuring Chamillionaire. It was released August 8. Other tracks include Kelis' "80's Joint", Anthony Hamilton's "Dear Life", Youngbloodz's "Imma Shine" and Petey Pablo's "Show Me The Money". The title track is performed by newcomer Samantha Jade and produced by Wyclef Jean.

[Source: Wikipedia]