FILM REVIEWS

“Step Up Revolution,” the fourth installment in Summit’s popular dance and romance franchise, tries to up the ante with 3D action and seductive setting, Miami.

But to no avail:  While some of the movement is sizzling,  and some of the performers likeable, the tale is so formulaic and cliché-ridden that when the group of hot young actors stop dancing and begin talking, we become restless and look at our watches.

Starting with the 2006 debut of “Step Up,” producers Jennifer Gibgot and Adam Shankman have created a series of popular hip‐hop fairy tales that blend the latest street dance with the romance of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Pandering to the most common denominator (that is, the lowest taste) of the potential public, the story borrows quite a bit from the disco-era musical, the superb “Saturday Night Fever,” and from the previous chapters of the series.

In this chapter, childhood friends Sean (Ryan Guzman) and Eddy (Misha Gabriel) work as waiters at Miami Beach’s posh Dimont Hotel, owned by ruthless developer Bill Anderson (Peter Gallagher).

But the boys really come to life in their leisure, when they are not working. In their off‐duty hours, the duo leads a renegade crew known as “The Mob,” a group of cutting‐edge dancers, musicians and artists that captures the city’s collective imagination with high‐tech, hit‐and‐run flash mobs, which appear out of nowhere.

Wouldn’t you know it?  Soon, the Mob’s outlaw performances attract the attention of Anderson’s daughter Emily (Kathryn McCormick), a gifted dancer. Under pressure from her strict and conservative father to leave her dream career behind and get a “real” job, Emily has reluctantly agreed to go to work for him–unless she earns a spot in the Wynwood Dance Company.

One encounter with the flash mob and, bingo, Emily wants to join in, especially after connecting at a dance club with Sean. For his part, Sean decides to introduce her to the group without disclosing the fact that she’s the big boss’s daughter.  Will they find out?

Emily’s impressive dance skills win her a place in The Mob, but her presence creates a tension between Sean and Eddy. When Anderson and his young protégé Tripp (Tommy Dewey) announce plans to raze The Mob’s neighborhood to build a huge commercial development, the group begins planning their most daring flash mob ever to try to save the waterfront.  As a result, Emily and Sean are forced to choose between family ties and their love for each other.

The film benefits from the relative freshness of its stars, who both make their big-screen debut. There is good chemistry between Kathryn McCormick, a finalist on the hit TV dance series, “So You Think You Can Dance,” and Ryan Guzman,

Problem is the lackluster direction of Scott Speer, who makes his feature film debut, and the banal screenplay by Amanda Brody, which is billed as original,” but is nothing but.