THERE have been several parodies of late that have struck gold at the box office and Dance Flick is the latest hoping to lure summer cinema-goers.
The films up for a lampooning are High School Musical, Hairspray, Fame, Save the Last Dance and Step Up, amongst others.
Dance Flick isn't so much of a parody but a series of scenes mocking the above films woven around the flimsiest of plots th
at is barely held together by some truly puerile jokes that raise a grimace rather than a smile.
White ballet-loving suburban girl ends up at tough inner-city performing arts school and falls for black hip-hop dancing boy.
Not that that matters at all. The dance contest they enter and the morbidly obese gangster chasing them for money also count for nothing, other than as more set-ups for vulgar jokes.
Fat suits, dreadful wigs and false teeth, not to mention the shoddy editing and over-the-top performances make Dance Flick seem the work of a complete amateur. It's a surprise, then, to discover that this piece of cinematic piffle is backed by Paramount Pictures.
The film probably didn't struggle for financing so it seems a dreadful waste of money and a slap in the face to filmmakers with worthwhile projects who get can't financial backing.
Curiously, Dance Flick makes a less than half-hearted attempt at commentary on the onscreen representation of black people and the employment opportunities of black actors.
But why on earth wrap these issues up in such an unintelligent, dim film as Dance Flick?
Or is this the point the Wayans Brothers, who produced and directed it, are trying to make?
Black actors only play the fool in mainstream movies, so we'll have a film full of fools.
Damon Wayans appeared in Spike Lee's challenging and complex film Bamboozled in 2000, which deals with the media representation of African-Americans and to see his family name attached to Dance Flick is disappointing.
If his family's entertainment company really wanted to make some kind of social commentary, they should have invested their money and time in a decent script written by someone with original ideas and directed by a filmmaker with skill and talent.
But films like that don't always get bums on seats and that's what a huge film company like Paramount is interested in.
The one hope is that they have grossly underestimated the intelligence of cinema-goers, who will spend their money on something like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which has more warmth, intelligence and humour in a single frame than Dance Flick does in its entirety.
Before I seem harsh beyond reason, I'd like to point out that Dance Flick does have one redeeming quality – at one hour 20 minutes, it's thankfully short.
