“Battle of the Year” has few thrills to look forward to, but one of the saving graces of the film happens to be a fine performance by Josh Peck (“The Wackness”).
In the format of your usual dance movie, the USA B-boy team is the underdog in the “Battle of the Year” B-boy competition. Dante (Laz Alonso, “Avatar”) manages the USA team, and he turns to former B-boy and legendary basketball coach Jason Blake (Josh Holloway, “Lost”) to whip the train wreck of a crew into a performance-ready team. Of course, the coach is troubled by his tortured past, the dancers have attitude problems and there are way too many cliché macho lines. But it’s still so entertaining.
This is what one would call a crappy fantastic movie. If you are a fan of the “Step Up” series, “America’s Best Dance Crew,” or even “Bring it On,” then this is the kind of so-bad-it’s-good movie that can appeal to that audience.
Josh Peck’s awkward hilarity and sarcastic one-liners in the role of Franklyn echo back to his “Drake and Josh” days. Unfortunately, he did not get enough screen time because the producers were trying to showcase their main star, Chris Brown (“Think Like a Man”), in the role of Rooster. Brown attempted to be the funny, arrogant B-Boy and occasionally succeeded, but mainly he simply seemed skeevy.
Twists at the end take the movie away from the usual dance competition movie format, and the film appears to actually try to teach the audience something about B-boy dancing.
Though it’s cringe-worthy at points and too typical at others, it is still an entertaining film that shines best when it breaks away from the format and just has fun. Maybe Netflix it instead of paying for tickets, but Josh Peck absolutely makes it worth seeing.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
