Critics are stepping on the toes of the Step Up 3D filmmakers. Sure, there's plenty of over-produced dance sequences, some of them say, but they all seem like interruptions of the story (what there is of that). " Step Up 3D is strictly 1D. Tired choreography and moldy hip-hop gestures accompany insipid characters, straight-line plotting and a touching but inept effort to make this city look like Sodom and/or Gomorrah and/or the actual New York of 1977," writes Kyle Smith in the New York Post. Writes Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel "The 3D adds in-your-face impact to some of the numbers, turns into a gimmick at other moments (Slurpees spilled and suspended in mid air over a subway grate) but doesn't hide the fact that this is no Step Up at all _ merely a dance movie franchise that's been breaking and sweating in place pretty much from the start." But Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune, while admitting that the plot of the movie is "ridiculous," says that there's plenty to like about it nevertheless. "What the movie has, however, cliches cannot vanquish. It boasts a generous exuberance and, as entertainment products go, it's surprisingly sweet. It requires only that you set your expectations correctly and that you don't go into it with a grudge against dance on screen," Phillips writes. And Ty Burr, in the Boston Globe , concludes a largely negative review by writing, "Every now and then, though, Step Up 3D ' breaks out of its morass of idiot dialogue, institutionalized media racism, and hectic head-spinning, and it soars." And the Los Angeles Times brings back retired film critic Kevin Thomas -- perhaps the least critical of film critics when he was active -- who pronounces the movie, "An exhilarating summer treat for all ages"

06/08/2010