Step Up 3D

Street-dancing films should come with their own rating category: not suitable for over-15s. This one, number three in the franchise, is filmed like a deodorant ad – with the same nuances of character and story. It follows Moose (Adam G Sevani), a dancer who arrives in New York to start university after promising his parents to hang up his Nikes. Instead he falls in with a crew that needs to win the $100,000 prize in a dance-off championship to keep their studio open.
The 3D format has found a playmate in dance. The skills of the dancers – most are acting for the first time (it shows) – are exhilarating. If only there were more drop kicks and fewer banal lines. No cliché is left unearthed: ‘We’ve become like a pseudo family,’ says the crew leader – in case you missed the bunk-beds. An 18-year-old dancer, Sevani as Moose lightens the load; a natural, he’s sweet and funny, and gives what should be a breakout performance –if any grown-ups are watching.