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Make It Happen

Make It Happen (2008)

tomatometer

22

Average Rating: 4.2/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 14

Cheap, predictable, formulaic and unimaginative generic dance film. Comes across as Showgirls for simpleton teens, but with much less flesh on show.

No Reviews Yet...

Release Date: Aug 8, 2008 Wide

audience

53

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 12,682

My Rating

Movie Info

Grindhouse star Mary Elizabeth Winstead headlines the dance-themed picture Make It Happen -- a bleak drama about a small-town girl who migrates to the Windy City, where she hopes to build a career as a respected dancer. Instead, her life spirals hopelessly downward and she ends up working at a burlesque club to pay the bills and support herself. Scribe Duane Adler -- known for such dance-themed pictures as Step Up and Save the Last Dance -- authored the script; Darren Grant (Diary of a Mad Black

PG-13, 1 hr. 30 min.

Drama, Romance

Duane Adler, Nicole Avril

Dec 9, 2008

The Weinstein Co./MGM

Cast

All Critics (19) | Fresh (4) | Rotten (15) | DVD (1)

Another dance movie this year? Seriously, where the heck do they keep coming from?

April 8, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture | Comment

...yet another tedious inspirational tale revolving around a would-be dancer's efforts at transcending her wrong-side-of-the-tracks upbringing to become a professional hoofer.

January 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

We know the trajectory, it's a question of how brightly the rocket burns and how interested we are in the astronauts aboard this dance missile from small town Indiana to Chicago Big Time Dance School

December 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

This film's limp retelling of the against-all-odds cliche just doesn't bump, grind or sweat enough to make it happen.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Mary Elizabeth Winstead [has] star quality.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Courier Mail (Australia) | Comment
Courier Mail (Australia)

It's hard to dislike all these urban musicals aimed at teenage girls, and even harder to tell them apart.

September 5, 2008 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | Comment
The Age (Australia)

So predictable that you know exactly what's going to happen at any given minute.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment
This is London

Then you wait for the moment one of the regular girls gets injured, the hostess has to find a replacement and... the rest you know.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Independent | Comment
Independent

The film should have been called Rehash Dance, because it is Flashdance without any new ideas.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Sun Online | Comment
Sun Online

It's all just filler between the dance scenes, which are admittedly fun. Think Pussycat Dolls with slightly more clothes on. Unrepentantly formulaic, but enjoyable all the same.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

This awesomely unambitious film has all the depth of a Pepsi ad.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment
Sky Movies

Its just as cheesy and just as icky, but calamitously fails to offer any high-octane dance to ease the pain.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

It could be a contemporary take on classic backstage musicals. Or it could be the end of the cinematic arts as we know them.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]

There's dancing, there's emotion, there's an earnestly cheesy inspirational storyline, there's nothing you won't have seen before.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Despite boundless energy and some surprisingly artful photography, 'Make it Happen' is never more than product. Cheap, abysmally scripted and utterly soulless.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

The directing's lazy, the love interest is a smarmy douche and the dialogue is flatter than Winstead's toned tummy.

August 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

The story may be predictable but Winstead infuses every moment with an amazing amount of charm.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Teletext | Comment
Teletext

In short, this is a watchable dance movie and Winstead's performance just about compensates for the generally poor direction.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Make It Happen

Awesome and spectable dance sequences I ever saw. This dance perform movie is familiar as Flashdance meets Save the Last Dance. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is absolutely amazing in this film. Whilst most actresses would be quite happy to let a stand-in do all the difficult dance sequences, Winstead insisted that she be the

January 1, 2009
deano
Dean McKenna

Super Reviewer

It was no surprise that, throughout Make It Happen's 80-minutes duration, one would find this latest dance flick (helmed by occasional music director, Darren Grant) riddled with the most tiresome and obnoxious clichés that the genre could offer across its existence. The movie seems to be borrowing each scene from

March 1, 2009
husky10000years

Super Reviewer

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