Make Your Move Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Make Your Move Blu-ray Movie Review

Move along.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 23, 2014

For a genre with so much energy and so much movement, there may not be a more tired and static collection of films than the Dance movie. "Tired" isn't even in reference to sweaty, bedraggled dancers who have just left it all on the floor but instead a group of movies that all seem to follow the same rhythm, tell the same story, and recycle the same characters and themes. They're more eager to outdo one another on the dance floor -- just like the characters they portray -- rather than construct satisfying characters from the head and heart down, not from the feet up. Make Your Move may as well have been called Make Your Dance Movie, and make it more or less the same as all the others. From the writer of Save the Last Dance (with which this film shares a number of similarities) and based loosely on Romeo and Juliet (as are so many of these films), Make Your Move entertains with cool dance routines but wallows in much of the same song-and-dance such as conflict, forbidden relationships, and burgeoning star-crossed romance.

Making a move.

Tap dancing New Orleans parolee Donny (Derek Hough) takes his act to New York when he decides the bigger stage of his foster brother Nick's (Wesley Jonathan) hot club -- Static -- just might be his ticket to a better life. He arrives at the height of a turf war between Static and another club, Oto, the latter run by Kaz (Will Yun Lee). Internet subterfuge is the name of the game, and carefully edited videos are the ammunition in driving attendance from one club to another. Soon after his arrival, Donny meets Aya (BoA), a Korean born, Japanese raised dancer extraordinaire. After an impromptu dance-off at Static, the two hit it off both on the floor and in their hearts. Unfortunately, the rivalry between Nick and Kaz means that love cannot be in the air but instead under the crosshairs of an increasingly dangerous feud. Will it take something beyond dance, music, and matters of the heart to keep Donny and Aya together and iron out the differences between Nick and Kaz, or will their love trump all?

As is the case with most of these Dance movies, Make Your Move manages to convey an underlying sweetness to the relationship, even through all of the manufactured turmoil surrounding it. The film toys with a goodhearted purpose on the importance of setting aside differences, making friends rather than enemies, and following the heart rather than simply taking sides with nary a look at or understanding of the people on the other side. It's about how love can evolve into a world-changing event, whether that world be the entire globe or a small corner of it that more than one group with more than one thought process calls "home." Derek Hough and BoA are quite good together, building up a friendly, relatable, easily defined and effortlessly worthy-of-cheer-and-support sort of on-screen chemistry, both on the dance floor in front of a crowd and alone during their more intimate, revealing, and passionate moments.

Yet, despite the things the movie does well, there's no escaping the underlying similarities to other films and the lingering thoughts that center on why the movie was even made in the first place. There's literally nothing here that's in any way revealing or novel, at least dramatically and thematically. The dancing is entertaining and the leads are easy to like, but that may be said of most every other genre film to date. These 21st century Dance pictures seem to exist only to move tickets based on sultry pictures on the poster, high-energy beats pouring out of speakers, and electric dance moves projected on the screen rather than core story elements that would make them worthwhile beyond the highlight reels of fast-moving dance floor fun. Once this movie, and most others like it, have been seen, it really only holds value as dance entertainment bits. Thank goodness, then, for the invention of chapter select and near instant access to any point within a movie.

Make Your Move Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Make Your Move arrives on Blu-ray with a high end 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. The film-quality picture offers well-defined details that are neither slick nor gritty, finding a balanced, beautiful middle ground. Clothes and building/wall textures look complex and tactile, and the 1080p resolution reveals the actors' almost unnaturally clean and smooth skin. Colors enjoy a natural balance, appearing neither muted nor flashy, instead finding a nice, even middle ground that only slightly favors an evident warmth. Skin tones, likewise, share that slight red push, while black levels often satisfy but occasionally veer towards a lightly noisy and sometimes pale appearance. Otherwise, the transfer is without technical fault and looks great in most every shot. Another job very well done by Sony.

Make Your Move Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Make Your Move taps out a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is expectedly lively and robust, with heavy yet balanced and confident bass and plenty of surround support. Dance and big energy musical numbers play with aggressive volume but natural clarity. The low end never dominates but offers a good, albeit amped, support piece to the rest of the musical layers. The listener will oftentimes feel immersed in the world, in the audience of spectators in Static and enjoying the show without the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and excessive heat one might experience in a similar, real world location. Ambient effects are effective in supporting some exterior city shots, whether early on the streets of New Orleans or for the film's bulk in New York. Dialogue plays smoothly and richly from the center, solidifying a fun, active track that entertains from beginning to end.

Make Your Move Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Make Your Move contains a featurette, an audio commentary track, and a collection of deleted scenes.

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Duane Adler and Choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo deliver a well-versed and thorough commentary track, discussing actor performances, dance in real life and its evolution with time and technology, shooting locales, set piece technical requirements, dance choreography, story details and plot devices, costumes, and more. With optional English subtitles.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Donny's Life Without Dance (1:10), Donny Says a Final Goodbye (1:13), Nick and Donny Remember (1:33), Donny Gives Aya Pointers (1:22), Aya Shows Donny Photos (0:40), and Donny Calms Nick (1:12).
• Making the Moves (1080p, 16:55): A look at the dance and rhythm styles in the film, actor preparation, dance choreography, the elements that separate this movie from others of its kind, and more.
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Make Your Move Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Make Your Move: nothing to love, nothing to loathe. No harm, no foul. Lots of noise, little substance. Make Your Move is fine for what it is, another in a growing list of modern day Dance films with energy to spare but a story made out of spare parts. The leads are likable, which helps, but there's nothing underneath the surface. Fans of this style will want to check it out, but keep expectations in check, enjoy the moves and beats, and leave the brain at the door. Sony's Blu-ray release of Make Your Move delivers high end video and audio. Several extras are included. Genre fans should give it a rent before buying. Dance movie newcomers may as well check this one out; it's as good as most of the other options available.