By Alec Perez ’14

“Battle of the Year” is just another cliché, cheesy and unoriginal attempt to make a serious dance movie. The main character is Blake (Josh Holloway), a washed-up basketball coach. He tries to create a so-called “dream team” of break dancers from all across the United States in order to compete at a competition in France. His assistant coach Franklyn (Josh Peck) is a young man who loves break dancing and wants to be a part of something special. The center of the “dream team” is superstar Rooster, otherwise known in real life as musician Chris Brown. For whatever reason, director Benson Lee decides to remove Rooster, one of the main characters in the film, halfway through the movie.

The acting overall is horrific. There was no emotion shown whatsoever from Holloway in his portrayal of Blake. The viewer cannot tell if and when he is angry at his break dance team and when he is actually praising them. Holloway relies on the same monotone voice regardless of the situation and dialogue. Instead of getting his team in check when they get their butts handed to them by the Russian national team in an exhibition match, Blake drinks himself into a deep sleep, wakes up the next morning hung over and then continues to display his unenthusiastic coaching style. As played by Holloway, he’s the same character from the beginning to the end of “Battle of the Year.” Franklyn is another flat character. Peck tries to portray a tough city-slicker who is rough around the edges but needs break dancing in order to make it in life. But Franklyn’s slicked back hair and feminine clothing style comes across as ridiculous and flamboyant rather than tough.

The most annoying move by Lee is the choice to make a quick buck by using random product placements. Many directors and film producers choose to receive some extra money with use of product placements, but that does not mean a director should randomly stick in scenes advertising brands like Puma and Sony that have nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Franklyn’s abrupt pause in a conversation with Blake to say, “This Sony tablet is the future” sounds like a commercial for Sony that the director shoved into the script.

If there is one thing anybody can look forward to in a break dance movie, it should be the accompanying music, but the soundtrack for “Battle of the Year” is filled with songs that are unrecognizable to the average viewer. The break dancers show off their unoriginal and overused dance moves to weird techno music that does not go along with the hip-hop theme depicted throughout the entirety of the film. “Battle of the Year” is another messily done attempt at recreating the successful dance movie, “You Got Served.” Viewers will have to wait for another film to accomplish that feat.