You Got Served Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)January 30th, 2004
YOU GOT SERVED
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
An 8 MILE wannabe, Chris Stokes's YOU GOT SERVED follows the world of competitive street dancing (think break dancing). During the ten percent of the movie when the actors are dancing to loud, ear shattering music, the movie comes briefly into its own. The dancing is so repetitive -- and the editing so overdone -- that it can't sustain much more than a few music videos' worth of time so the movie has to be padded out. And I do mean padded.
Unlike 8 MILE, which has something to say when it isn't rapping, YOU GOT SERVED falls back on a very tired story line that is a mixture of a lame sitcom and a clichéd melodrama. It is one of the most forgettable scripts in some time, filled with recycled lines such as, "Ouch girl, he's hot," and "It's about more than the money."
The dancers have talent, rhythm and energy, but, when the movie isn't dancing, it's dead. When one character said "We need to end this now!" I felt like standing up and applauding wildly.
The movie does have one unintentional joke. The formulaic film ends, of course, in a big competition between rival groups. The contest's name? The Big Bounce -- the same name as an even worse film than opens on the same day as YOU GOT SERVED. With just three movies opening this week -- the perfectly awful THE PERFECT SCORE is the third -- this week gets the worst marks in years for the collective quality of the week's openings. It makes you yearn for the golden month of December when good movies come fast and furiously. I recommend strongly that you furiously avoid them all and stick to the Super Bowl. Even its commercials will be better than this week's films.
YOU GOT SERVED runs a very long 1:33. The film is rated PG-13 for "thematic elements and sexual references" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, January 30, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
