CHOCOLATE CITY 2: VEGAS

US, 2017, 89 minutes, Colour.
Michael Jai White, Vivica A. Fox, Robert Ri’chard, Melanie Brown.
Directed by Jean- Claude La Marre.

This is a sequel to the film Chocolate City, a film about “exotic dancers� (the screenplay emphasising that the men dancing are not strippers). The setting is a nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia.

The film is geared to an African- American audience, most of the cast being African- American. Most of the cast of the original film appear in this sequel.

The film is certainly in the vein of those stories of groups struggling, entering a competition, spending a lot of time in rehearsal, with the personal problems of the dancers, family and parents, religious background and church, someone who betrays the group, seemingly impossible to win the competition until an expert choreographer comes in.

And the motivation is familiar, the owner of the club has a dying father, in need of money, and the club will be closed down for lack of finance. Michael Jai White is the owner and Mel C (Melanie Brown) of the Spice Girls comes in as a temporary manager of the club.

At the centre is a young dancer (Robert Ri’chard) who is seriously studying French, discusses his exams with his supervisor who arranges a time for an exam – but it turns out it has to be done by phone before the dancer goes out on stage for the competition finale. The young man is strong-minded, is at the centre of the group, keeping them together despite one defecting, and who has a supportive mother. She is visited by a Reverend from the local church who has found that his son is practising the moves – and is satisfied that there is no nudity in the exotic dancing.

There are quite a number of groups in the competition and a lot of time is given to their routines, the costumes and style of the group from Atlanta form a satisfactory culmination for the competition.

It is a complete example of incorporating the conventions of the genre, practically all of them.