DANCE FLICK

US, 2009, 88 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Damien Dante Wayans.

For years the Wayans brothers have led a way (not necessarily the way) for African- American comedy. They pioneered satire on television in In Living Color. Then they began a series of spoofs of popular genres which appealed world wide with the Scary Movie series. The comedy was broad (very, very broad at times), corny jokes, vulgar language, bodily function and bodily parts peppered dialogue – and a general dismissal by critics while they entertained the immediate intended audience (the black communities in the US) and often amused audiences beyond.

It's the same with this one – though it has given rise to a whole lot of critical comment along the lines that, while the reviewers can detect and pronounce on the low tone and banal comedy, the masses who like the film – and even laugh at the jokes – indicate how society and standards are crashing around us. As if people did not laugh at this type of ribald and spoof comedy and jokes in every generation.

So, this is a mere 83 minute satire with hit and miss humour that demands very little mental effort and is meant to be a bit of a giggle. It takes as framework the plot outline of the 2000 Save the Last Dance (which raised issues of inter-racial romance and which Dance Flick continues) and follows it fairly closely. Added in are street contests like those in the Step Up films and Stomp the Yard and How She Move, and references to Hairspray. There is also a camp parody of the basketball hero of High School Musical which breaks out into the song and dance of Fame (from 1980) which has been re-made and is about to be released.

David Alan Grier, in a fat-suit, has some comic moments of threat and of break-dancing.

The Wayans Brothers include Keenen Ivory, Dwayne, Damon, Marlon and Shawn (who have five sisters) who have written this comedy. The director is a nephew and the star is Damon Wayans Jr introducing the next generation of Wayans – and he enters into the spirit of it all with Wayans gusto.

If you are not into this kind of limited humour and have not seen the films it is sending up, then try something else.