Dance movie “Battlefield America” has 2 left feet

The new dance movie “Battlefield America” appears to have two left feet.

The new dance film, which hit theaters this weekend, was directed and co-written by Chris Stokes, who also directed the famous dance film “You Got Served.” It stars Marques Houston, who also co-wrote, and Mekia Cox.

Houston plays an executive who gets in trouble and is sentenced to community service. The official summary on Internet Movie Database states; “A young businessman who lands a community service sentence falls in with a group of misfit kids who need mentoring. With the help of a pro instructor, he works to get the kids ready for a big underground dance competition.”

But whatever the film’s merits, the movie’s reviews are in, and they are not good, with many claiming Battlefield America has two left feet.

A Reuters’ review published in the Chicago Tribune panned the film.

“The first big problem in “Battlefield America” is that the titular throwdown is never really explained,” the Reuters’ review stated. “It’s like if “Rocky” were about a boxer who was competing to be The Big Winner, but we were never told what he was winning or why it was important.”

The Kansas City Star posted a review by the McClatchy-Tribune News Service that was no more kind. That review writes; “The thinly drawn characters (especially the kids) have abrupt changes of heart simply to serve this simplistic script. The film’s formula will only be fresh to kids without much movie-going experience.”

Even one of the more sympathetic reviews, from the Los Angeles Times, says; “The dance sequences are energetic but largely indistinguishable, with no effort made to put them in any real social or artistic context. And, while the starring youngsters may know their footwork, as actors they’re fighting a losing battle.”

“Battlefield America,” the film with two left feet, has a running time of one hour and 46 minutes and is showing now in theaters nationwide.