Although based on a true story, Take the Lead continually strains credibility.
Comment
04/07/06
Take the Lead (2006)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:118
Fresh:51
Rotten:67
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: Banderas is charismatic in the lead, and the dance sequences are captivating, but the story is too familiar and predictable.
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Mixing elements of sports film, feel-good drama, and teen movie--with a dash of social realism--TAKE THE LEAD is an inspiring tale of transformation through art and sports. Based on a true story,... [More]
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Alfre Woodard, Ray Liotta, Rob Brown
Director: Liz Friedlander
Reviews for Take the Lead
This handsomely lighted movie has the craft to make the dances vivid but not too spectacular, the dancers eager but not just showbiz animals. Take the Lead merits taking the lead for a weekend or so.
04/07/06
As it twirls and dips, Take the Lead leaves no cliché unturned.
04/07/06
A modest but enjoyable entertainment with handsome Antonio Banderas as the dance instructor.
04/07/06
One of the year's most uninspired inspirational stories.
04/07/06
It's a ballroom/hip-hop mash-up that, although at times discordant and at all times familiar, moves with Banderas' brio and bounce.
04/07/06
Ultimately Take the Lead is content to follow the footsteps of a dozen other movies, and there's another thing; for a movie about dancing, there is a lack of dynamic choreography to the final showdown.
04/07/06
Cute as a boutonniere and bouncy as a swing beat, Take the Lead is an 'inspired by a true story' spin on Mad Hot Ballroom.
04/07/06
Despite the fact that Take the Lead gets the cliche-o-meter ticking like a Geiger counter at Hanford, the movie is very entertaining. The kids are gorgeous. The dancing's fun to watch. Banderas is compact and cool.
04/07/06
The performances deserve applause. The script is another story.
04/07/06
Like the recent Glory Road, Take the Lead tweaks a true story to sell more tickets. But at what point do movies like this one begin to fuel the racial hatred that they ostensibly deplore?
04/07/06
Take the Lead is like that -- it may seem hokey, but it uses the tried and true to get a smile out of you every time.
04/07/06
It's a pleasant destination, to be sure, yet familiarity can't help but breed a bit of -- well, if not outright contempt, then ever-so-slight disdain.
04/07/06
Take the Lead is equal parts To Sir with Love and Fame and it’s a surprisingly effective mix.
04/07/06
Take the Lead is one of those inspiring teachers in the 'hood tales. And it's 'inspired by a true story,' which translated means 'as Hollywood cornball as humanly possible.'
04/07/06
Even the dancing feels phony in Take the Lead, a movie most successful at reminding us of just how good Mad Hot Ballroom was.
04/07/06
The film is over-long, plot heavy, needlessly complicated and lacklustre, but the moments of dance and music keep it from being a total waste of time.
04/07/06
Like its star, the movie verges on hooey but cuts too stylish a swath to dislike for long.
04/07/06
Si, Antonio is a charming man, but by the final bows the movie around him is all left feet and bruised angles, and much more of a farrago than a fandango.
04/07/06
What slop. Take the Lead is a rotted ground chuck of a movie, made up of the rancid processed parts of a plethora of films, good and bad, that have come before it. At first it seems awfully familiar, and then it just seems awful.
04/07/06
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