Well seems again those no good kids are about to learn a valuable lifelesson through the art of dancing. Whenever you see a group of realgangster kids you know there is a well dressed hard-ass ready to teachthe kids how to be successful and have rhythm. The idea has been donebefore, there is no originality whatsoever in any of the scenes made.
If I can give it one complement it would be the dance scenes, they werewell choreographed and took some skill to it for that I applaud.Otherwise, yawn, has nothing to it. Story focuses on a man (Banderas)who one afternoon teaches a few bad apples how to salsa and changetheir ways.
"Take the Lead" has a less the choreographed plot to it other than afew cool moves on the dance floor. I don't no why Antonio Banderaskeeps doing these bad movies "Spy Kids" and "Take the Lead", whathappened to "Desperado", nowhere in sight. Sadly his career has fellflat on its face.---4/10
OK, at this time, it does not matter much if the idea has been toyedwith before. If you go with that philosophy then you might just killyourself due to all the half-baked remakes and comic book movies. Thepoint is, this movie was well done. The shots were great and it wasn'tjust about some rotten kids in the hood who finally learned someculture in general; the viewer gets to know each one of the kids andget attached to the many different characters. All of the people stayeduntil the end of the credits and, with movie goers these days, that'ssaying a lot. Oh, and Spy kids may have gone down the crapper, but Ican't believe this guy would take the nerve to compare this blend ofcultures to that after-school-special abomination.
User: movie_man2006A professional dance teacher (Antonio Banderas) is targeted to dealwith some "bad kids" of a New York public school. However, Pierredecides to teach them the art of dancing, in order to enter acompetition.
As I first walked in the screening room, I thought I was watching"Dirty Dancing" meets "Stand and Deliver". A movie in which a teacherwho has faith on his students meets a movie with a teacher whosespecialty is dancing. In theory, this is not a bad idea at all, sincethey're both good movies. However, in practice, and "Take the Lead"serves as the ultimate example, it can be sometimes frustrating to seea movie stuck between ideas, and never getting through with them.Throughout the almost 2 hours of the movie, we are drawn in a story ofdetermination, confidence, and....dancing. However, there isn't a tightenough example to show these factors extremely well. This is where thebeginning director Liz Friedlander fails to succeed, by giving us apicture in which you are sure there's something more to it.
Perhaps only Friedlander himself knows the inner message of the movie,but you can't say the cast didn't try. Exactly the opposite. They aretotally into the movie and give their souls for it to work. AntonioBanderas is extremely convincing as the dance teacher, giving him aLatin appeal that no other actor would've been capable of. The studentsare each and every one great, learning to overcome their challengesquite well. Even Ray Liotta does something of a cameo, in a small roleawarding the movie some experience.
"Lead" could've been even better with some better direction to it.After all, Diane Houston's script is interesting and the cast isperfect for the movie. However, "Lead" doesn't ever get anywhere, andit is present throughout all the movie.----5/10
A poster's take on "Take the Lead"
"Their children reflect this environment. They hide their low selfesteem with bravura, petty crimes, slang, rudeness, indifference AND,ABOVE ALL, THEIR LOVE OF HIP HOP MUSIC."
As if Hip-Hop is in the same league with pretty crime and low selfesteem
"His competition is hip-hop music and hip-hop dancing and the GHETTO,CHIP-ON-THE-SHOULDER attitudes."
Oh can't get enough of these type of movies where the great saviorcomes in and has to contend with those no-good-ghetto kids and thechips on their shoulders.
"Over time and with difficulty, he starts to bring the troubled teensUP TO HIS LEVEL. He never goes DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL."
Isn't that special? He raises them UP to his level and never goes DOWNto theirs.
Yup, judging from this fellow's synopsis on "Take the Lead" I can seewhy it's going to be even more of a miserable box office failure thaneveryone already imagines it will be.
This movie was most definitely the worst film I've seen in the year of2006. Not only is the story line jumbled and poorly maintained, but thetechnical work is disappointing. It held way too many characters tokeep track of and way too many sub plots that lose your interest andattention throughout the wasted 2 hours. I suppose you can't expectmuch from a director who has spent most of her time on music videos. Iwould say hold your breath and save your money. Stupid shots in pettyattempts to be creative, clich?' dialogue and terrible acting, and theonly thing that put this film up in the box office was a good preview.Don't get me wrong, there were some amusing and moderately entertainingscenes, but they were outweighed by the handfuls of junk surroundingthem.
User: lil_red_devl
So, went to see "Take the Lead" with Antonio Banderas, and it, how doyou say? Ah, yes. Sucked.
Here's a few reasons: * Every single character was a Stereotype. Fromthe black, thug kids, to the hard ass Principal, the skinny Blonde RichBitch, Antonio the teacher who wants to make a difference, the geekywhite girl- Not one character was multi dimensional.
* It was obviously written by a 40 year old white guy, which is why allthe black kids say stuff like "You're a punk a**" and "Let's bring it".
*Clich?s Clich?s! The entire plot is one clich? after another. At onepoint, towards the end, the black thug kid shows up for the ball roomdancing competition still in his thug clothes, and he decided he mustdance with the girl who's brother shot his bro