Dance Flick Review
By Jim Dooley
"Dance" Off
I often hear people gripe that the Oscar's don't make a distinction between best drama and best comedy. Dramas nearly always take Oscar home at the end of the night, the familiar argument being that drama, from the Greeks to Bergson to the modern day, has always been more valued than Comedy.
Then again, it might just be because Comedy is hard. Whereas drama can do much with a well-known story and descent acting, Comedy needs inspired writing and great timing. When it's done perfectly, you have an "Annie Hall", a "Doctor Strangelove", a "Holy Grail". When it's done well, you have an "Airplane" or even a "Booty Call". When it's done less well, you may end-up with a Wayans Brothers or Will Farrell vehicle. And when it's not done well, you end up with a "Blues Brothers 2000" or a "Dance Flick."
"Dance Flick" is the first production from the next generation of Wayans. You can see its roots: from the good looks of Damon Wayans Jr., who strongly resembles his father and uncles, to the cameos of Chris Elliott and David Alan Grier (let alone those provided by the first generation of Wayans).
TELEGRAPH : TWO CHEAP PUNCHES COMING NOW:
You can also see the familial respect: imitation truly is the greatest form of compliment, if not always funny.
SPOILER 1!: The film opens with a battle between two rival dance crews. Though we don't know him yet, our hero, Thomas Uncle (get it?), is the second dancer to bust a move. He marks his territory with a true 'in your face' manner by, well, literally marking his territory in the face of his nemesis. It brings to mind the explosive-ejaculate scene in "Scary Movie."
PUNCH!: Of course, "Scary Movie," had established the heroine and one of the killers as sexually charged, virginal lovers. Also, having the heroin pinned to the ceiling in a white-wash of goo brings to mind a number of horror movies, from "Poltergeist" to "Aliens", giving it context in a send-up of the horror genre. The same cannot be said of urine in the opening minutes of any story.
SPOILER 2!: In the night club scene, Shawn Wayans' character, Baby Daddy, lays some sugar on Essence Atkins' Charity, his baby mamma. He nuzzles in to talk sweet and lick her ear, and his tongue protrudes out of her opposite ear and at the audience.
PUNCH!: Who could miss the reference to "Scary Movie", where Shawn Wayans' Ray Wilkins has a similar run-in at a glory hole? While it wasn't the best scene in "Scary Movie", it had shock value and referenced a regular scene in the horror genre: a potential, sexualized victim enters a space he finds tempting and is brutally impaled when he least expects it by a phallic symbol (though the symbol of the knife was replaced here with...a phallus). Aside from "Oh, snap, a reversal for Shawn!", the replay in "Dance Flick" is not much of a joke
NOW, LET ME TELL YOU WHY I'M TELEGRAPHING MY PUNCHES:
The biggest disappointment with the film is not that it's another crude comedy or that it does not get the laughs of a Wayans v1.0 film. The real disappointment is that the jokes are so evenly paced and telegraphed to the audience that almost none of them come off.
Henri Bergson theorized that laughter was the result of watching people, who should be organic and flexible, act absent-mindedly and mechanically. The laugh comes when some force derails them. Dada, Surrealism, Bugs Bunny, Bill Murray show us that another ingredient for laughter is to surprise the audience, either with clever visual associations or with the joke less traveled.
When a comedy is a set of regular but unrelated, recognizable jokes, you end up watching a train and never seeing it wreck. (Did I just say this film was NOT a train wreck? Well, I think you get the point).
Finally, The Bard, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Wilder have all exhibited that laughter is only one part of Comedy, which is most successful when we can sympathize with the characters. So, we want our friends on screen (not the audience) to walk away from the wreck.
Each joke in "Dance Flick" feels like the first beat of a Harold left to die on stage (yeah, I just referenced an improv comedy methodology you too can look-up on Wikipedia). There is no character development. There are no running jokes, like the addictive personality of Captain Rex Kramer in "Airplane."
Moving down a few wrungs in Jokeland, there are no memorable lines, like, "Nice Beaver"/"Thanks, I just had it stuffed". Unfortunately, it does have more than it's share of CGI-assisted slapstick and easy sight gags.
This is not to say there are no laughs, but that they are few. Marlon Wayans plays a washed-up acting coach with all the exaggerated gestures, intensity and bad hair pieces that he's put to good use since "In Living Color". Keenan Wayans does a solid, if not always inspired, send-up of Steve Harvey as Mr. Stache. But, after Baby Daddy, it may finally be time for Shawn to take up the nickname, Zeppo.
David Allen Grier, who should be considered an honorary Wayans, is, as usual, the best realized character in the group. But there's only so much even he can do for this material from the confines of a fat suit. Chris Elliot has about as much screen time as it would take for a cockroach to scurry over the floor of his character's squatter-apartment, though his improvised line about Craigslist is the closest the film comes to a memorable line. As for Amy Sedaris as Ms. Cameltoe, "Amy, please start on your meds again".
Re: the new faces, Damon Wayans Jr. does a fine job channeling his elders and gets a solid laugh when his favorite song comes on at the club. Shoshana Bush as Megan White, the film's heroine and a send-up of Julia Stiles' Sara in "Save the Last Dance", has no problem with the role. The one new face I'd watch out for, though, is Essence Atkins. While her lines are predictable, she serves them without all the hocks the rest of the cast put in their pots.
The rest of the extras are underutilized, so I'm giving them this, my review's only 1-sentence paragraph.
The film also gets a laugh when Thomas' crew, "The Uncle Toms" (again, get it?) do a roller-disco move, though it, too, heads south with another genital sight gag. Still, it's one of the few jokes that puts Dance front and center (nobody puts Dance in a corner!).
While it's laudable that the filmmakers are on record as aiming to send-up dance flicks while respecting Dance, good dancing is not incompatible with laughter. Dance has been part of the joke in film since the musical's golden age in the 40s. And Dance has always been strong enough to laugh at itself. Consider how Dance's relation to Fashion could benefit a send-up.
In the end, Dance is hardly a star of this send-up. This is the saddest missed opportunity for Wayans v2.0 with their debut film.
