Why you can trust 12DOVE
Taking its cue from the Fast & Furious franchise, the fifth Step Up raids the casts of the four previous instalments to assemble a new/old dance crew led by previous sequels Step Up 2: The Streets ’ Briana Evigan and Step Up 4: Miami Heat ’s Ryan Guzman. (Expecting to see Channing Tatum? You must be joking.) It then carts them off to Las Vegas for a winner-takes-all competition, with all the 3D crunking and Nike product placement the series demands.
As its title suggests, this is pretty much the last throw of the dice for a dance saga that more ran out of juice a couple of sequels ago. The set-pieces, though, still deliver the requisite pizzazz.
Neil Smith is a freelance film critic who has written for several publications, including Total Film. His bylines can be found at the BBC, Film 4 Independent, Uncut Magazine, SFX, Heat Magazine, Popcorn, and more.