Take the Lead (2006)

Once again we find the same story, told thousands of times in movies before. The white, not so poor professor (poor performance by Antonio Banderas)arrives to a marginal high school and tries its unconventional teaching models (in this case is ballroom dancing) to his students, which are, of course, minorities.We already know how this kind of movies go. First the rejection, then the surprise for how it works. After that, one or two "weakness" to make the story touching and the happy ending, that proves that everything is possible if you truly want it with your heart. there's nothing wrong about it, it's just it's been so used in movies that it no longer surprises us, it no longer has an effect on the viewer. Specially with "take the lead".Not only the story is absolutely not original, the script is inconsistent, having contradictions all over it. Then, all the acting is just mediocre. And, for last, the directing is just awful. Liz Friedlander, a video clip director, does that. tries to film a 90 minutes video clip. With such awful consequences. A waste of my time.

I usually do not write reviews on films I've seen. And seen I have quite a lot (30-50/month) as I am a real movie freak and really addicted to movies. There is no difference in what kind of genre. Now, there are a lot of overrated films out there that even got nominated for an Oscar where they (in my opinion) should not even deserve a nomination at all. If they do, than it must have been a really boring year in movie-making in general. That goes for many movies during the last 10-15 years. On the opposite, there are movies which are massively underrated. TAKE THE LEAD is one of them. I am an art-teacher myself, love mostly everything creative, love movies, love music, love dancing. That film really gives a realistic picture of how public schools work and what it needs to rise the values of them. Antonio Banderas did a great job acting the teacher who offers the students this picture of respect and value. He let us feel that he believed in the good of everyone, and with that he sparkled the light in the students, gave them self respect and motivation. What the movie did for me was giving me a great time of entertainment that so many other movies (far overrated) did not. And besides: it really inspired me to dance again! Enjoy this one!

A good-hearted dance professor(Banderas) asks to Principal(Alfre Woodard)of a rough school the education of rebels students by the Dance-Studio, then he takes over a class of unteachable pupils(Reb Brown, DaCosta, among them).The novice teacher gradually earning respect from his pupils and he learns that turning their attitude requires an intense understanding of their hard-knock lives. Together these misfits attempt to win the championship of the ballroom. The film is based on real character , about Pierre Dulaine who appears uncredited as one of the judges for the grand ballroom competition.This well-meaning film is an enjoyable retread on two sub-genre : a)about the professor teaching unteachable teens, such as ¨Dangerous minds¨(directed by John Smith with Michelle Pffeifer),¨To sir with love¨(James Clavell with Sidney Poitier)¨Blackboard Jungle¨(Richard Brooks with Glenn Ford) along with , b) about the spectacular ballroom, including championship of dancing-saloon, such as ¨Stricly Ballroom(Baz Luhrman with Paul Mercurio),¨ Dance with me¨(Vanessa Williams and Cheyanne) and ¨Shall we dance¨(Richard Gere,Jennifer Lopez).In the film is heard and splendidly danced several dance styles: Foxtrot,Tango,Chachacha,Rumba,Vals and Salsa. Well-acted by Antonio Banderas with experience at dancing in ¨Evita¨ and excellent supporting casting with extraordinary plethora of young people who make a nice work, in spite of mostly are newcomers. The movie is well produced by Toby Emmerich and the actor Ray Liotta. The story is professionally directed by Liz Friedlander in a great debut and his only film , he's usually video-maker, as REM, Celine Dion , among others. The flick will like to Antonio Banderas fans and youthful public. Hot music and dancing, as well as the charm of the leads, make this one well worth watching for any dancer fever enthusiastic.

1."Take The Lead" is o.k. and is standard Hollywood o.k. except for the ending, which was preposterous, because it was manipulative and couldn't have happened in real life. (Could anyone believe for a moment that Banderas was so grief stricken, years later, that he didn't have a girlfriend?)2. For those of you who really liked this movie, however, there is a great feature-length documentary on NYC's public school ballroom program/competition and it's called "Mad Hot Ballroom". But this movie is the real McCoy; the entire film. It's also well done technically, but mainly is peopled by real kids; not a professional actor in sight. Story is additionally great because it builds to a highpoint ending that the docu-maker could only have fantasized about at the beginning of the project. I don't want to "Spoiler" it but what a dramatic payoff! And every element of it really happened; you can see it happening!