Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Cartoony variation on "Fame" concerns a group of teenagers enrolled at the American Ballet Company who rebel against their instructors, struggle with their weight, battle with their parents and--most especially--check each other out during morning ballet exercises! While cobbling together scenes from "Flashdance", "All That Jazz", "A Chorus Line" along with "Fame" (its prime inspiration), director Nicholas Hytner and screenwriter Carol Heikkinen appear to assume that a few jazzy dance montages set to an artificial backbeat will substitute for the lack of honest characters--or any kind of characters, for that matter. Despite stray vulgarities and a bit of underage sex, "Center Stage" is squeaky-clean and square, the kind of matinée underachiever which attempts to combine Michael Jackson moves with tutus. As timid over its sexuality as it is about dramatic backstage business, the movie is nothing more than a smelly soaper scored for gullible 'tweens. * from ****

If he were to make a dance film it might be something like this only much more extreme and there would have been the unexpected, don't ask me what. Still when I watch it I think of Kuchar, I see a film that ought to be attributed to the master underground dramatist as the means of its redemption. So I have a great affection for this so bad it's so good movie. I am a big dance fan but I honestly don't remember anything about the dance sequences in the movie. Except that the last number is so over the top it's under the bottom and Ethan Stiefel is sort of painful to watch as the bad bike boy Anacin to the disco beat. Anyway the movie is succulent it goes down like cheetos and coca-cola.If you want to see something with more depth I'd suggest "Stepping Out" with Liza, which is actually a pretty profound movie that suggests that the audience need not only pay tickets and watch, that they might also do and that that might be even better. I'd like to think that's dangerous stuff but of course no revolution resulted. Possibly because when Liza kicks up her heels in a solo turn, we're put in our proper place! And probably in the film the benefit of doing your own things are linked to romance. Still, there are people in the movie, amateurs, rising to the occasion and in the end getting in their small way to be artists.And, of course, "The Red Shoes"!!

The first time I saw this film, it was at the behest of friends - "this is the greatest film ever!" Bit of an exaggeration. I offended this friend by saying about halfway through "er... this is just Fame, redone for dance school." And it is - it's the plot of Fame, with the American Ballet Academy substituted for Juilliard, and dance scenes substituted for songs.But you know the weird thing? I hated Fame, but I love Centre Stage. Can't explain why! The dancing is brilliant, the plot is transparent but let yourself be swept up the dancing and that becomes a bit irrelevant. Then it's just a fun film with some amazing choreography.

i quite enjoyed this movie.it follows a group of people as they try to make it as as dancers with a prestigious ballet company.as soon as i saw it was about ballet,i groaned inwardly.i thought there's no way this could be anything other than boring.but i was proved wrong very quickly.this movie is not just about ballet.there's more going on.lets just say this is a very high energy movie,with some great dance sequences.if you don't like ballet,i feel very confident in saying that won't matter in this case.for one thing the performances are all very good,both the dancing and the acting.and the movie is choreographed very well.not to mention the great soundtrack.for me,this is a really good 115 minutes. 8/10