Battle of the Year Reviews

Like those it imitates, the film includes some energetic dance sequences and formulaic plotting that culminate in the obligatory final competition.

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If director Werner Herzog can do it with 'Rescue Dawn' and 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly,' why can't director Benson Lee?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

In particular, as mentioned, the dance sequences are a mess, which is the kiss of death for a film in this genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

Battle of the Year is no Step Up 3D. But then, what is?

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/10

Filled with fancy, if frenetic footwork but weighed down by all-too-familiar plot/characters/dialogue.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10

Athletic dancing and a patriotic theme make this movie better than it should be.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

Introduce female choreographer. Explore misogyny for 15 seconds. Become uncomfortable with ideas. Disappear female choreographer.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5

After months of patient waiting, 2013 has finally produced a movie that's so bad it's good.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10

Everything else in this pedestrian dance drama is either absurdly corny or just plain moronic, though the feature does win points for being so earnest with its hopeless pile of clichés.

Full Review | Original Score: C

its dramatization of a U.S. dream team's journey to the international showcase is leaden with predictable character types and storytelling clichés, neither of which its well-executed but oddly infrequent dance sequences are able to overcome.

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Eschewing shaded characterization and often basic sense, while establishing what should be the high-water mark for most crotch-grabbing in a single film in 2013.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

There's not nearly enough quality material to make Battle of the Year recommendable to anyone other than the most hard-core of dance fanatics.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5

The bar for urban-flavoured dance movies has already been set pretty low, but Battle Of The Year effortlessly leans back and limbos on below it.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

The actual dancing scenes are occasionally electrifying, if far too sparse, but other than that and the welcome sight of co-star Chris Brown getting clocked in the face, the film barely gets off the ground, much less sticks the landing.

Full Review | Original Score: D+

Passable drama has great dancers but no originality.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A dead-in-the-soul cash grab of a movie set in the competitive world of B-boy dancing that thinks clichés, phony melodrama and product placement can substitute for real storytelling and actual characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5

Battle of the Year clearly features lots of brilliant dancers, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy watching them move. But you wish there were more dancing here.

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Should satisfy the planet of b-boys and girls to whom it thoroughly preaches, while amusing anyone else who simply can't ignore the promise of an all-corn buffet.

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The movie's inability to showcase its greatest asset, the grace and control of its dancers, is its most conspicuous failing.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/4

The 3-D is a pain, and the excitable editing, slo-mo and speeded-up action frustrate attempts to watch the athleticism on display ...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4