My Review of "Work It"

Work It is definitely what you'd expect from a run of the mill dance movie. It's got all of the usual themes that you would expect from it. A family aspect, a relationship aspect and a realization of priorities in the main character's personal life. What makes this movie succeed is the animated characters that are brought to the screen by a dynamic cast of amicable actors.

This movie starts off just like a lot of Netflix teen romantic comedy movies. They always seem to start off with the main character narrating a quote from someone to explain their journey. In this case it's plucky can do girl named Quinn. She's adamant about going to Duke university as it's kind of her last connection to her father that had passed away. Throughout her life she's been aspiring to go to her father's Alma mater.

She's done this by being a diligent student and pretty much checking all the check-boxes that one would think a university recruitment person would want. You name it and she's probably done it. Unfortunately for her, this turns out to be the problem with her application. There's so many people that had followed the same path as her that it's hard to distinguish her from all of the other candidates.

Fortunately for her one of the recruiters has heard of her high school due to the fact that they do very well at a particular dance competition. She can't dance at all but she was their light technician. A recently fired one at that because of her clumsiness. Luckily for Quinn, her best friend happens to be on the high school dance team because she's really good at dancing.

A series of miscommunication allows the recruiter to believe that Quinn is actually in her high school dance team and changes the trajectory of the story. Now Quinn has to join the dance team without any dance skills at all. With the help of her best friend Jasmine they seek out dancers to create a new dance team as the snobs of the high school dance team won't let her in.

We have a few introductions to various dancers that will join their team but don't really have much face time in the movie. This movie focuses on Quinn's adventures as she discovers what makes her happy and recognize what is important in her life.

For the most part this movie is a very predictable and corny movie. That's not totally a bad thing though. A lot of people need to wind down with movies like this. They're guilty pleasures that are easily digestible and the fact that all of the actors did a great job in creating life in their characters made this movie a delight to watch.

There are a few edgier jokes that they try to slip in and they kind of feel a little out of place as the movie sort of feels really family friendly and clean. There are certain scenes that I think would be a little inappropriate for some kids to watch. The problem is that I think this movie is made to market to kids at a younger age and some of the jokes really don't feel on brand and out of place. So there are inconsistencies. That's not to say that the jokes aren't funny. The actors do a great job in their timing and delivery of a lot of the jokes.

Overall, I had a blast watching this but I think you may have to think twice to show this to kids depending on how old they are. There are some things that I thought were really weird for them to put into this movie but it's their movie so they can do whatever they want to do. I have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. If you're an adult this can easily be a guilty pleasure for a one time viewing.