Step Up 2 The Streets

Blu-ray Review

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Touchstone

Rating: PG-13

Release: July 15, 2008

Dance movies certainly have found their niche, from Save The Last Dance, to the original Step Up, How She Move, and others. Step Up 2 The Streets has been launched on the Blu-ray format, putting forth the same formula we have seen in the past. Does it manage to put up some new moves?

The film stars Andie (Briana Evigan) who is part of a dance crew known as the 410. She has been skipping school to practice dancing, and just before her parental figure shipped her off to Texas, she earns a spot at the Maryland School of Arts.

Once at the school, she immediately bumps heads with the head of the school, a ballet dancer. All is not bad though, as she quickly makes friends at the school, causing her to get kicked out of the 410.

From there, she and her new friends form their own dance crew, with the goal of competing and winning the elite underground dance competition known as The Streets.

The young cast, headed up by Robert Hoffman and Evigan, actually do a great job of convincing you of their characters and what they are trying to accomplish. Anyone who sits down to watch this movie and get a great story is watching the wrong film.

If you take it for what it is worth, which is basically a movie which features several high-octane dance sequences, you are going to have a lot of fun watching it. The dancing is absolutely top-notch, and is recommended for fans of dancing.

The video transfer for Step Up 2 The Streets on Blu-ray is presented in 1.85:1 AVC-encoded video, and is extremely sharp and detailed as you would expect. Since the source material is top-notch, I really expected nothing less here.

The only drawback to the whole thing is that I felt the video transfer could have been a bit more bright and colorful, as there is not much here in terms of eye candy.

The audio mix here is presented in an uncompressed PCM track, and it sounds fantastic. Step Up 2 The Streets is all about the music, with tons of hip-hop tracks from start to finish. The audio is presented in such a way that your home theater will be rocking.

Beyond the music, there is not really much else. There is some very clear and crisp dialogue, and other sounds effects which make use of the spatial speakers. Overall very impressive.

Building on the whole dance-theme, there are five music videos featured in the extras of this release. The first is Flo Rida – Low, followed by Missy Elliot – Ching-a-Ling/Shake Your Pom Pom, Cherish – Killa, Plies – Hypnotized, and Brit and Alex – Let It Go. On top of that, you get an outtake of Cassie Ventura performing Is It You?

In total, there are 22 minutes of music videos which are geared around clips from the film. Unfortunately, all are in standard definition, but fit the package well.

On top of that, you get 22-minutes of deleted scenes with optional introduction commentary from director John Chu. You get a few scenes aimed at character development, as well as some added dance moves.

There is also a 12-minute feature which is the making of Step Up 2, starting with an introduction from the director and building off of that.

Rounding out the extras is a funny 2-minute video prank, as well as some trailers and promos. Word has it that there are some nice Easter eggs as well, we will have to look over the disc more and report back.

Overall, Step Up 2 The Streets ended up being far more entertaining than I expected. For what it is, it fits right in its niche to present a great dance movie with some high-octane sequences. The cast does a nice job with what they have in terms of material. It isn’t perfect, but if you like dance movies, you will likely enjoy this!

Movie: 8.0

Step Up 2 is not bad at all, plenty of great dancing and very entertaining.

Video: 8.5

The Blu-ray transfer is very well-done, but could be more colorful.

Audio: 8.5

The audio mix is highlighted by the great musical soundtrack, grood stuff.

Extras: 8.0

All of the content here is geared towards its audience, with music videos and deleted scenes getting the most attention.

Final Score: 8.2