Genre: drama, musical

You Got Served

Directed by Christopher Stokes

Starring Marques Houston,

Omari Grandberry, Steve Harvey

Classification: PG

Rating: *½

There ain't much to You Got Served, but at least this teensploitation flick is bookended by two frenzied sequences that fully exploit the visual potential of street dancing. Make no mistake: This is not your grandpa's breakdancing. Though many moves are familiar (some dancers spin on their heads, others go robotic, another rubber-limbed dude does what I call the Gollum), street dancing is wilder and more aggressive. Hectic formation routines are broken up by a flurry of leaps, flips and pelvic thrusts. While its hip-hop roots are clear, street dancing often looks more like Brazilian capoeira performed by Mary Lou Retton on amphetamines.

Adding to the intensity is the fact that the dance crews -- seen here in various Los Angeles locales -- are battling to out-do each other in hopes of winning over the crowd and taking home the cash prize. In case the audience doesn't get as stoked as the folks on screen by the outlandish moves, You Got Served director Christopher Stokes fills the soundtrack with so much hooting and hollering, he nearly drowns out the thunderous hip-hop tracks that energize the dancers.

Too bad the rest of You Got Served elicits a different kind of howling. Between the opening salvo and the equally staggering finale is a dull, dour drama that drains the movie of nearly all its exuberance. Elgin (Marques Houston of the R&B boy band IMX) and David (Omari "Omarion" Grandberry of IMX's main rival, B2K) are best buddies and the leaders of the neighbourhood's hottest dance crew. Night after night, they reign supreme at the warehouse battles supervised by fatherly impresario Mr. Rad (Steve Harvey). But their luck can't hold. For one thing, Elgin and David are supporting their dancing habits by working as drug couriers for a gangster who's the size of a redwood tree. For another, their crew gets beaten (or served, if you prefer) by an ambitious team fronted by a spiky-haired Aaron Carter lookalike from Orange County.

The last straw comes when Elgin gets robbed during a delivery while David is busy getting sweet with Elgin's sister. Will David and Elgin patch things up in time for the big contest, the winner of which will star in a video by the ludicrously buxom hip-hop star Lil' Kim?

It wasn't enough for Stokes, whose only previous feature was the direct-to-video House Party 4, to make a breezy update of eighties breakdance movies. Nor does his film do for street dancing what Bring It On did for cheerleading or Drumline for marching bands -- that is, showcase a youth trend in a manner that's bold, smart and engaging. Instead, Stokes goes for 8 Mile-style realness, albeit with PG-movie language and a young cast whose acting skills are unworthy of an after-school special. Houston and Grandberry are painful to watch whenever the action moves away from the dance floor, just like everything else in You Got Served.