Every experience in life is your learning. - After the premiere in 2006 of the film “Step forward”, in the visual outline of which lay dance scenes, grossed in the world box office more than 114 million dollars with a budget of 12, there was a surge of interest in this kind of cinema. Not only has Step Forward turned into a long-running, long-dance franchise, but identical films have also appeared. For example, Brotherhood of Dance (2007) and Street Dance 3D (2010), which themselves then got sequels. Honestly, such films should find support not only from the target teenage audience, but also attract respect from the older generation. The fact is that bright scenes of virtuoso dance productions not only attract the eye and start with their pace, expression and temperament, but also can become a strong message to the fact that young people do not wander the streets in search of adventure, but rather find an outlet for energy in various dance schools. So in the "choreographic" cinema you can find a social overtones with its own good meaning.
To all of the above, we can without any doubt include another film with Jessica Alba in the lead role - it is called Honey, which in our adapted translation means Sweetheart, which was first released in 2003, that is, three years before the acclaimed Step Up. But just the success of this film led to the fact that in 2011, “Honey” got a sequel, in 2016 there was a triquel, and a year later the fourth part was released. The director of all the films in the “Sweetie” franchise was Bille Woodruff, who worked closely and fruitfully with such pop idols as Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Toni Braxton and many, many others. The screenwriter of Sweets 4 was Robert Adetuyi, who at one time worked on the dance films Brotherhood of Dance (2007) and Light This World (2011), which at one time is the sequel to the film Street Dancing (2004). The lead role in Sweetie 4 was played by Teyana Taylor, who is also known as a singer. And her first role was in the film The Dance Brotherhood: Returning Home (2010), that is, the sequel to the often-mentioned Brotherhood of Dance.
Yes, of course, these plexuses can be confused, but all this shows how closely connected are those who have worked and work for the benefit of spectacular dance films. However, the more sequels come out, there are fewer and fewer new ideas that can attract the viewer not only with choreographic productions. A good example of this is “Sweetie 4”. The main character here is a young attractive girl (and how could it be otherwise) named Skyler. She and her younger sister are single-handedly raised by her mother, who is convinced that Skyler should look for herself in education, but her younger sister is created for dancing. But Skyler herself dreams of dancing and comes to the selection for the team, which should perform at the prestigious annual competitions. And here begins the most interesting: the team begins intrigue, the main dancer with a scandal leaves, and Skyler, who is ready to replace her, finds a passion, who also dances perfectly. But everything turns out to be too woven and Skyler must draw the right conclusions and deal with feelings.
That is, “Honey 4” in the plot is not much different from other dance films. Although we can agree with the statement that in this subgenre, the plot is not at all the main thing. Enough love line, melodramatize these relationships, make the main character kind and touching, but at the same time supplement it with a small depth of drama and, in general, the job is done. Movies like Sweetie 4 should attract the audience with their effectiveness, that is, everyone should have a heartbeat when you see on the screen beautiful young people who move in the rhythm of dancing to the envy of everyone. And that’s what not to take away in “Sweetie 4” – before us there are such young people, the plastic of which it is clear that they gave many years, labor and nerves to learn how to dance. But with the spectacle here the situation is not at all as expected or at least wanted. Dance movies have taught us the scale of brilliant choreography, but, to be honest, in Sweetie 4, none of these numbers catch on. It is somehow stingy and rather routinely put, so there is no sense of euphoria from what can be considered key parameters in a film like Sweet 4.
I'm not going to play the game. First of all, Teyana Taylor and her co-star Brisher E. Gray had very different tasks. And sometimes it is very difficult to combine almost sports exhausting work with acting, where you need to show manifestations of romantic feelings. Therefore, there are no complaints about this, as well as their physical form. And the head of the dance group performed by Charmin Lee was generally very convincing. But with everything else in “Sweetie 4” somehow did not work: the plot is trivial, and the dance numbers are not impressive. But on the other hand, fans of this genre of cinema can quite devote their precious time to watching it. It won't be too much.
5 out of 10