Director: Robert Adetuyi
Screenplay: Robert Adetuyi
Producer: Amos Adetuyi,
Starring: Tyrone Brown, Mishael Morgan, Nikki Grant, Ray Johnson, Chase Armitage, Kristy Flores
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 91 min.

(1.5/5)

You know you’re in trouble when 20 minutes into a “dance” movie you still haven’t seen a major dance number. When the action finally does kick into high gear, there’s a hint that we may be in for a few cool tricks but sadly, Robert Adetuyi’s Beat the World (known in the US as You Got Served: Beat the World) never manages to lift itself from the depths of boredom it wades through in the opening sequences.

Adetuyi’s film focuses on three dance crews vying for the top prize of cash and glory at the Beat the World competition in Detroit. We’re introduced to the crews: the guys from across the bridge who are trying to bring the title home, the European crew who’s led by a world champion (though they’re falling apart due to an internal struggle) and a Brazilian crew trying to win and get themselves out of the slums. None of the people stories are particularly interesting and Adetuyi doesn’t even have the underdog “must win to survive” angle going for him. His characters are all aloof and event he Brazilian team which struggles to get to the competition, seems removed from any major hardships in life. It’s hard to feel anything for these one dimensional characters and Adetuyi hangs his entire film, which is sold as a dance movie, on the innocuous drama in these individual’s lives.

One would hope that the dance sequences, when they finally start, are wow worthy but they too leave a lot to be desired. There are hints of good things, especially from the Detroit team which is incorporating parkour into their numbers, but the entire thing is generally underwhelming. Most of it is due to the fact that by the time the dance numbers kick-off, the meaningless drama has numbed the brain to mush but mostly it’s that the sequences are poorly captured. Even the low budget How She Move (review) managed to make the dance sequences memorable and entertaining but here, everything is flat and grey and generally uninteresting. As if the footage needed any more toning down, the editors keep reverting to a shot of a crowd and stage through two beams – it’s as if someone captured it with their cellphone or as if the production is screaming “See! We had lots of extras!” It’s bizarre and detracts further from an already haemorrhaging production.

Folks who dig dance crews might be interested in checking out the competition footage which is a little interesting and features some unique sequences Beat the World fails to deliver any sort of entertainment value. The drama is laughably bad (even more so than your average teen movie – this made worse considering none of these people are playing teens), the acting basically non-existent and the dance moves, though good, aren’t delivered in a way to entertain the typical movie goer. Seriously, folks would be better off picking up the mediocre Stomp the Yard which Adetuyi had a hand in writing or even better, How She Move, another Canadian dance movie offering which does deliver the goods. This is definitely a skip.

Beat the World is available on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 21st.

DVD Extras: Behind the scenes featurette.