The flat-looking 1080p picture isn't all that noticeably better than the DVD.
The acting is generally pretty two-dimensional, and the structure is such that you can leave for 15 minutes and pick up right where you left off, without missing a beat or wondering what's going on. You can see this "Revenge of the Nerds" plot coming the instant that Andie is kicked out of 4-1-0 for two-timing it at the school and Chase suggests they form their own "crew" out of the school's talented misfits--including the clown sidekick (Adam G. Sevani) that's become a staple on Disney Channel shows. There are the predictable jealousies, fights, and reconciliations, and none of it makes for much entertainment except for the dances . . . and those bare midriffs.
Video:
This 98-minute film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) and "enhanced" so it fills out the 16x9 monitor. Maybe the folks at Disney have been reading what people have had to say lately on the blogs and message boards about overprocessed HD releases, because if anything, this one is severely underprocessed. The flat-looking 1080p picture isn't all that noticeably better than the DVD. The open-air scenes have an undersaturated, industrial look to them, and nowhere in the film do the colors come close to looking bright and vivid. Edges of people and objects are also a little fuzzy in a number of frames, and there's a slight graininess throughout. The images never stand out the way they often do with Blu-ray releases. Maybe this will please the anti-DNR and edge enhancement crowd, but I was really disappointed by the way it looked.
Audio:
I was disappointed by the audio too, so much so that I checked the audio options to make sure it was set for English Dolby TrueHD, which the back cover said was the featured soundtrack. It wasn't. Inexplicably, the default was the compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and an "uncompressed 5.1" was the other option. I clicked on it and continued to watch the film, and the audio was still lackluster. No dynamics. No pulsing bass. And the rear FX speakers were practically disabled. How could this be? I checked the music scenes, and sure enough, the flatness of the video is matched by a flat sound that's way too confined to the front center speaker for a hip-hop dance movie.
Additional options are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, and this time they're not missing all that much. As I complained about the DVD release, the bass isn't as thumping, the reverb not as pulsing, and the rear speakers not as involved as you might expect.
Extras:
If you felt music and dance-starved watching this, there's some relief in the bonus features. Eight deleted scenes include dances by Jabbawockeez and West Coast Riders, and there are five music videos: "Low" (Flo Rida, feat. T-Pain), "Ching-a-Ling"/"Shake Your Pom Pom" (Missy Elliott), "Killa" (Cherish, feat. Yung Joc), "Hypnotized," feat. Akon, and "Let It Go" (Brit & Alex). There's also a short (under 15-minute) bonus feature on "Outlaws of Hip Hop" that introduces you to the 4-1-0 dancers individually, showing them in a studio doing their thing and talking on camera. For those into "making of" features there's an equally brief "Through Fresh Eyes: The Making of Step Up 2" that covers familiar bases, and for lovers of outtakes there's a slow-ballad performance of "Is It You?". Rounding out the extras is something that will probably inspire hundreds of people to do similar things. The "Lead Actor Robert Hoffman Video Prank" shows a "Candid Camera"-style episode in a convenience store where the actor puts his arm around his woman and points, asking for something, and on a single-word cue he and everyone else in the store freezes. Cameras roll as the Indian proprietor looks on, tries to talk to them, gets no response, and then reacts as they suddenly break into a moment of dance and then get back to normal, acting as if nothing happened.
Bottom Line:
It's not a complete waste of time, but if you're not in the target teen age range you won't find much to admire in "Step Up 2 the Streets" . . . except those bare bellies.
Video:
This 98-minute film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) and "enhanced" so it fills out the 16x9 monitor. Maybe the folks at Disney have been reading what people have had to say lately on the blogs and message boards about overprocessed HD releases, because if anything, this one is severely underprocessed. The flat-looking 1080p picture isn't all that noticeably better than the DVD. The open-air scenes have an undersaturated, industrial look to them, and nowhere in the film do the colors come close to looking bright and vivid. Edges of people and objects are also a little fuzzy in a number of frames, and there's a slight graininess throughout. The images never stand out the way they often do with Blu-ray releases. Maybe this will please the anti-DNR and edge enhancement crowd, but I was really disappointed by the way it looked.
Audio:
I was disappointed by the audio too, so much so that I checked the audio options to make sure it was set for English Dolby TrueHD, which the back cover said was the featured soundtrack. It wasn't. Inexplicably, the default was the compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and an "uncompressed 5.1" was the other option. I clicked on it and continued to watch the film, and the audio was still lackluster. No dynamics. No pulsing bass. And the rear FX speakers were practically disabled. How could this be? I checked the music scenes, and sure enough, the flatness of the video is matched by a flat sound that's way too confined to the front center speaker for a hip-hop dance movie.
Additional options are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, and this time they're not missing all that much. As I complained about the DVD release, the bass isn't as thumping, the reverb not as pulsing, and the rear speakers not as involved as you might expect.
Extras:
If you felt music and dance-starved watching this, there's some relief in the bonus features. Eight deleted scenes include dances by Jabbawockeez and West Coast Riders, and there are five music videos: "Low" (Flo Rida, feat. T-Pain), "Ching-a-Ling"/"Shake Your Pom Pom" (Missy Elliott), "Killa" (Cherish, feat. Yung Joc), "Hypnotized," feat. Akon, and "Let It Go" (Brit & Alex). There's also a short (under 15-minute) bonus feature on "Outlaws of Hip Hop" that introduces you to the 4-1-0 dancers individually, showing them in a studio doing their thing and talking on camera. For those into "making of" features there's an equally brief "Through Fresh Eyes: The Making of Step Up 2" that covers familiar bases, and for lovers of outtakes there's a slow-ballad performance of "Is It You?". Rounding out the extras is something that will probably inspire hundreds of people to do similar things. The "Lead Actor Robert Hoffman Video Prank" shows a "Candid Camera"-style episode in a convenience store where the actor puts his arm around his woman and points, asking for something, and on a single-word cue he and everyone else in the store freezes. Cameras roll as the Indian proprietor looks on, tries to talk to them, gets no response, and then reacts as they suddenly break into a moment of dance and then get back to normal, acting as if nothing happened.
Bottom Line:
It's not a complete waste of time, but if you're not in the target teen age range you won't find much to admire in "Step Up 2 the Streets" . . . except those bare bellies.
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[release]23735[/release]