It’s for the best that I had little to no expectations going into Feel the Beat, keeping its mediocrity and lack of any real development in characters and storytelling from being all that disappointing.

Basic Synopsis: A dancer takes advantage of a group of young girls in order to climb her way back to the top after being blacklisted from Broadway for stealing a taxi from one of the industry’s biggest names, just as her career is seemingly about to take off.

First Things First: If your grandma is not allowed to drive, DON’T LET HER DRIVE! SHE IS GOING TO KILL SOMEONE!

Brief Thoughts: Thank goodness the kids (and their pleasantly supportive parents) were as adorable as they were, otherwise Feel the Beat would have nothing going for it. The story is as paint by numbers as they come as the forward progression through the dance competition comes with little to no struggle – at one point they even have to raise a lot of money in order to advance, and either I zoned out during a fundraising montage (which in all fairness, is very possible) or the obstacle was hurdled off camera in seconds – and worst of all, main character April is insufferable. It makes sense to have her start out as an egocentric jerk to go through the typical character growth over the course of the film, but there’s never really an instigating comeuppance or lesson learned from those around her, she just suddenly shows up having learned sign language overnight and we’re supposed to take that as evidence enough that she is now a better person worth keeping around. Personally I’d be happy to see her leave my small town in the dust once more.

Quick Questions:

• Does anyone actually believe April would allow anyone to call her “Ape”? That has to be one of the worst nicknames ever.
• Where did all these trophies come from? I thought there were only 3 months til Nationals. Are there competitions going on every other day leading up to the big event? And did they hire professional kid dancers to compete in their stead for most of these?
• How easy is the Dirty Dancing lift? I probably can’t lift a 30 pound bag of dog food over my head, let alone an entire person. But everyone in this movie can do it?
• In addition to the possible fundraising montage, did I also miss some pertinent scenes making the absentee mom more impactful than I realized?

Favorite Line: “You can’t stop the beat-ing us all over the head with that dusty news flash.” I suppose some of the cheese did work on me…

Biggest Complaint: Unless she was a completely different person in high school, I will never understand what April’s love interest ever saw in her, or why he continues to hang around once she returns. He must be desperate. Personally I think that subplot should’ve been removed altogether, shifting focus more towards April’s relationship with her dad (Keith Mars is the best dad!), as well as with the girls as they slowly develop into more capable dancers.

Final Thought: If you’re looking for a new family friendly movie then Feel the Beat is passable, but it lacks any real substance to make it really worth your time.

So what’d you think of Netflix’s Feel the Beat? Be sure to let me know in the comments below or over on twitter, where you can find me at BewareOfTrees.