This movie is a hodge-podge mixture of "Save the Last Dance, "Dirty Dancing," "Shall We Dance," "Lean on Me," "Dangerous Minds," and the ending scene in "Sparkle."<br /><br />C'mon! Why are we rehashing the same plots and themes and calling it new material?<br /><br />Also there's a Suspicion of Disbelief ALERT on this film- it will behoove you to use it when watching.<br /><br />Here's what I liked: Rob Brown (Finding Forester)- great actor; promising career. He was one of the few actors I took seriously in this movie. He added depth to his character and made him very believable when he could have taken the stereotypical-Black-angry-"thug-like"-teenaged character he was given and made us not care about his life. But he made us care; good job.<br /><br />Ya Ya DaCosta- I think she did a great job for this being her break-out role. Her stint in reality-TV program "America's Next Top Model," made me curious to see how well she would do. Although I could tell she was new to acting, she surprised me and added charm and grace to her role (perhaps b/c of her background as a well-rounded Ivy-leaguer and dancer). <br /><br />The Dancing- it was phenomenal and saved the movie a few times for me.<br /><br />The Editing- edgy, quick, and fast-paced; it kept me on my toes and added a creative edge to the movie. The editor did a lot of cross-cutting in order to contrast different life-styles, values, and cultures which is a great idea to bring a message w/o weakening the film and adding it to the dialogue.<br /><br />Here's what I didn't like: -The old and rehashed formula: urban school, urban kids, White-Latino comes in and "saves the day" and teaches them the refined culture of manners and courtesy which are obviously foreign concepts to them- seen this (formula) before and never liked it. <br /><br />This is getting way too old for me. The first few times I let it go b/c urban inner-city (read: Black life) does, in fact, reflect some of those things, some of the time. Every culture has its dubious aspects and characters but they don't REPRESENT or become the ambassador of a culture like this movie and others would like us to believe. My God, the last time I checked in the mirror I was Black, and yet when I go to the movies I start to question it b/c my parents aren't drug dealers and I've never seen a gun before. WE GET THE POINT: Hollywood studios think minorities don't have manners, love to listen to Hip-hop and enjoy shooting each other or at least they think it's entertaining.<br /><br />Don't get me started on how these themes have plagued so many movies to the point where it has gotten incredibly predictable and boring. Get a clue: this is not entertainment nor is it representative.<br /><br />The fact that there were no caring and responsible parents represented in the film bothered me to no end. In fact, the one scene that featured parents, they were silent except for one comedic line! So now the infamous "parents in inner-city schools usually don't care about their children" stereotype comes into play. Yet another misrepresentation of Black/urban life. <br /><br />The kids the Antonio Banderas character was working with were supposed to be the lowest of the low, the rejects, the outcasts, those with "criminal" records, the detention kids: give me a break! That was laughable. I'll take those kids any day over the kids I knew who were in detention in my high school.<br /><br />Interesting note: The token White characters were paired up with the Black overweight characters b/c of their marginalized status among their peers. Token White characters were added to this movie b/c the studio probably didn't want people like me writing reviews like this one, accusing them of racism and stereotyping. <br /><br />Well, clever move but I'm hip to the game. I don't think the studio was racist or stereotyping. I just thought they were making a bad movie. <br /><br />Too bad good actors like, Brown, DaCosta,and Woodard, along with the film's editor and the man who inspired this film had to be a part of it.