Step Up: All In Parent Guide

Channing Tatum didn’t have a lot of Hollywood clout when he played a vandal forced to do community service at a dance school in the original Step Up movie. Since then his career has taken off and so has the dance-filled franchise, which has already grossed over $564 million worldwide. Step Up: All In is the fifth title to release and brings back stars from the previous films for a battle in Las Vegas.

I don’t know who has the smarter marketing strategy—the Step Up franchise or the promotion team who has found yet another film to spotlight the bright lights of the famous Strip. Either way you won’t see anything new. The desert city has its best marquees highlighted and Step Up: All In recycles the same old storyline: a troubled but seriously ripped hero, an uneasy love relationship and incredible dancing. If you can put up with the first two, then the dance moves are worth the ticket price.

Ryan Guzman is back from Step Up Revolution as Sean, leader of The Mob. After earning $50,000 for a Nike commercial, the Miami-based crew settled in Tinsel Town with dreams of making it big. But now a string of unsuccessful auditions has left them at the end of their finances. They’ve decided to pack up and head home. Sean, however, is too stubborn to give up and parts ways with the rest of the troupe.

A little later, after getting a job as a handyman in a Los Angeles dance studio, he stumbles across a competition called The Vortex. The winner of the Las Vegas contest gets a steady job with a three-year contract for a stage show in the city.

But rather than reassemble his old crew, Sean goes looking for a new one. He starts with the curly haired Moose (Adam Sevani) who helps muster a group of talented dancers (from previous movies). The first hurdle they have to clear is deciding which of them is in charge. Sean thinks it should be him. But Andie (Briana Evigan from Step Up 2: The Streets) has other ideas. Once that is settled, the gang begins planning their audition tape. Sean knows his main competition on The Vortex reality show will be Jasper (Stephen Stevo Jones) and the Grim Knight crew. What he doesn’t expect is to see The Mob there as well.

It’s a lightweight story with stilted dialogue, overacting and a sentimental monologue. The predictable plot doesn’t offer any problems you know won’t be resolved before the next big battle. Even Sean’s emphatic use of a strong sexual expletive seems out of place in a script that is relatively void of profanities. Still, you have to remember the story—as flimsy as it is—is only there to tie together a string of amazingly choreographed routines. On that front the performers come through.

Dancing for a livelihood is a tough career. That may be why some of these characters make this competition seem like a life and death contest. But considering some of the alternative ways people find to solve disputes, maybe the dance floor isn’t such a bad place to battle it out for supremacy.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.