Make It Happen
Review
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, director
Billie Woodruff’s 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 Woodruff (she also directed Jessica
Alba in Honey)
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 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 will 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 surely even they, the 14-year-old
girls, must be getting a little tired of watching the same old thing,
right?
There is 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 does 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 is 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.
2 out
of 5
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Make It
Happen
Australian release: 4th
September,
2008
Official
Site: Make It Happen
Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead,
Riley Smith, Tessa Thompson, John Reardon
Director: Darren Grant
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