Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
News Flash : In a freak Flashdance, a young Honey, bound for fame, was bit by a Coyote Ugly whilst taking Center Stage at the Step Up club.
Seems to be an inveterate heading, doesn’t it?
Like the fifty other teen dance films that came before it, “Make it Happen” follows a well-worn formula – a formula that desperately needs a good kick in the touché. And though she’s cast the fab ‘it girl’ of the moment in the, er, Jennifer Beals role, not even the killer looks of young Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Live Free or Die Hard”, “Death Proof”) can disguise the fact that the flick is as ho-hum and predictable as an Oscars telecast.
Lauren (the-very-tall-and-very-slender Winstead), much to this dissuasion of her domineering brother, leaves her small Indiana town for the bright lights, big city of Chicago. She’s there to audition for Dance School. And of course there wouldn’t be a movie if she’d actually got in.
After being told she doesn’t bring enough “emotion” to her boogie, Lauren gets a job – book-keeping at first, later dancing – at a club named Ruby’s. It’s there that she meets the man that’ll encourage her to see through her dream.
You can guess the rest.
There definitely is an audience for this film – just as there was an audience for “Honey”, “Step Up”, “Save the Last Dance”, “How she Move” and “Step Up 2 : The Streets” – but even they, the 14-year-old girls, must be getting a little tired of watching the same old thing, right? There’s only so many times one can watch the same story (girl wants to dance, girl is rejected from dance school, girl gets a job dancing at a club instead) play out – even if it is accompanied by different music and different faces. Nobody likes to bite into anything stale.
The dances are great (though Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s hair is either in her face the whole time or her face is covered by a hood, so it’s hard to tell whether it’s actually her dancing), the production design is sufficient, and the lead actress knows her cue – but that’s about all there is to recommend about this latest modern-day reincarnation of “Flashdance”.
So how’s this compare to similar films? Well, there’s about as much difference between “Make it Happen” and “Honey” as there is between a Golden Delicious and a Granny Smith; one’s just slightly juicier than the other. And when I can work out which is which, I’ll let you know what that juicier one is.
