Take the Lead (2006)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
Inspired by the story told in the documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom," a former professional dancer named Pierre Dulane, played by Antonio Banderas (The Legend of Zorro), volunteers to teach dance at a New York public school to a handful of detention students. While his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance and looks to 'wow' everyone in competition. This picture was extremely cliched. It is riddled with scenes, dialogue and plot points we've seen in "Music of the Heart," "Dangerous Minds," "Lean on Me" and originally "To Sir with Love." Rob Brown (Finding Forrester) and Yaya DaCosta were excellent together, playing siblings of rival gang members--one dead and one in jail. Their characters eventually develop a friendship and soon become dancing partners. Their subplot was better than the main plot. The choreography for this movie was very good, but that was only when the editor gave you enough chances to see it. At times, the editing appeared to get overzealous during the dance sequences. The director should have protected those scenes a bit better and respected the art within the art. "Take the Lead" does speak volumes about the values of teaching the performing arts in public schools, which is always good material for a movie no matter how cliched it gets. Overall, I think "Take the Lead" is worth seeing, but mostly if you have an interest in dance. Otherwise, we've seen the story before. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
Yet another movie about a devoted teacher inspiring unruly kids. At least "Take the Lead" had music and dance in it, as well as an interesting subplot.