Hoping that the title will command some street cred, Touchstone Pictures has decided to spit out a sequel to the formulaic 2006 film (of nearly the same name) that managed to garner $65 million from America’s mentally underprivileged. In the original, a young bad boy (from the streets, mind you) gets a community service assignment at the prestigious Maryland School of Arts, and gets it on in more ways than one with the “daddy’s little good girl” character. Unless you were born yesterday, this plotline should sound about as original as the latest reality game show.
To keep things fresh (sort of), this time the rebellious one shall be the female lead played by Brianna Evigan. She hasn’t had much of a spotlight here in the states; her credits include such things as “Wannabe Actress #1” (Something Sweet, 2004) and “High School Girl” (Bottoms Up, 2006).
Our good boy male lead will be played by Robert Hoffman, who had roles in such films as From Justin to Kelly, Gigli, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Guess Who as “Dancer”, “Dancer”, “Dancer”, “Skeleton” and “Dancer”, respectively. The man’s range is staggering.
Jon Chu, a man with only a few low-budget musical credits (Silent Beats (2001), When the Kids Are Away (2002) is in the director’s chair for this one, completing the philosophy of “let’s whip it together fast, throw it out there, and watch the suckers drop their dollars.” The sad thing is it works more often than not. Even after this one, the “Step Up” series could still have a life in “straight to DVD” land.
Oh well, films like this are meant to be profitable and when in doubt you should always keep the budget low. This one will likely utilize MySpace to help advertise; the first film of which to do this just happened to be its predecessor (which significantly helped the box office tally). Look for this one (or don’t, please) in theaters in February, 2008. (Bart Lasater/BOP)
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