The Younger Ones
Young Jaden (Akai Osei-Mansfield) loves to dance but his parents think it is a waste of his time and want him to focus on his studies, in fact he has been forbidden from dancing. It is why the youth club he goes to is so important to him as he is able to dance there in secret. The trouble is that the council are going to bulldoze the youth centre to make more parking spaces. With the help of the wheeler dealing Ethan (Theo Stevenson) they plan to put together a dance crew to put on a show to save the youth centre. It also may make Ethan look good then it comes to the attractive Lucy (Hanae Atkins) at their school.
A coin has two sides and so does this review. Side one is that "All Stars" is a movie which is made for young children, the under tens who won't notice things such as lack of originality or ropey acting and will be amused by the comedy. That comedy goes from Ethan being an over the top wheeler dealer to the comedy of two kids trained in classical dance who argue and fight. They will also enjoy the comedy of this bunch of misfits not being very good as a dance crew, throwing some terrible shapes and then you have Jaden who can really dance. And I would imagine for young children "All Stars" works because it is simple to follow, colourful and comical.
Then there is the other side of the coin, the I am a grown up who found himself watching "All Stars" and wished the world would open up and swallow me. Firstly there is that lack of originality; I don't mean that we have another dance movie. I mean we go back to the 60s with an update on "The Young Ones" with a group of kids trying to save the youth club combined with some 80s with a bit of "Some Kind of Wonderful" when it comes to Ethan not realising the girl he has known for ever is the one for him and not the popular new girl. Then there is the less than convincing acting and the essence of cheese which covers everything, yes it is intentional but for an adult it is painful. I could go on because whilst there are some supporting performances from the likes of Hugh Dennis, Kimberley Walsh and Ashley Jensen there was nothing which grabbed me.
What this all boils down to is that for me "All Stars" was a movie only for children because as an adult it is incredibly painful and lacking in originality, it is as simple as that
