Andie West (Briana Evigan) is a member of the 410, a street dance group notorious for terrorizing the streets of Baltimore with prank videos. The group will usually enter an area, dance and post it on YouTube. The better the prank, the more rep your crew gets. I guess I'm out of the loop, but I had no idea this type of thing went on, yet one is included as an extra, so it must.
These antics don't sit well with the woman taking care of Andie, so she decides to ship Andie to Texas to live with her aunt. Andie runs off, only to run into run into Tyler Cage (Channing Tatum), a dancer from the original movie and the only link between the two movies (and, incidentally, Duke in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie - just thought I'd throw that in). Tyler offers Andie another option; get accepted into the Maryland School of the Arts. Andie doesn't want to go to the school, so Tyler challenges her to one of the movie's many problem solving dance-offs. Tyler wins and Andie goes to MSA.
Andie's first day at MSA is a rough one. She doesn't fit in with the other students and the director of the school isn't a fan of her dance style. She eventually falls in with Moose (Adam G. Sevani), another misfit and also catches the eye of Chase Collins (Robert Hoffman), who just happens to be the director's brother and a legacy at MSA.
The 410 don't approve of Andie attending MSA, so they kick her out of the crew. Andie is devastated, but soon finds an underground "street" culture at MSA and, along with Moose and Chase, forms her own crew to compete in "The Streets", which is sort of a Kumite for the rhythmically inclined.
As easy as would be to bag on the movie for its structural flaws, a few concessions need to be given since most of the "actors" are actually dancers - so they were hired for a completely different set of skills. The movie didn't win me over, but I have to admit that some of the performer's moves are mind-blowing, so they certainly earned my respect. I just wish a little more attention was paid towards the plot since other movies have proven both can coexist. Instead, Step Up 2 The Streets takes the High School Musical 2 approach, placing performance above everything else.
As far as the Blu-ray release is concerned, Step Up 2 The Streets isn't a particularly visual movie, so the HD presentation is mostly lost on the movie. The only time that it really matters is during the dance-offs in the club and the final sequence since both take place in dark areas. The final dance really benefits thanks to a neat visual trick that I won't spoil (and no, it's not the rain).
Step Up 2 The Streets sets out to be a movie about dancing, and to that extent it succeeds. If you're a regular viewer of shows like So You Think You Can Dance or just like to see big dance numbers, there's something here for you. Otherwise, you can skip it and not miss much.
