"You Got Served" is a movie that was aimed solely at the youth market. There is no obvious good reason for this middle aged guy to watch it....except that I take pleasure in watching the film on IMDB's ever-changing "Bottom 100" list. And, it seems that "You Got Served" is now on the list...and I have to see it and review it! So be forewarned...I am not the target audience for a hiphop dancing movie, that's for sure!

Before I get to the review, I also think it's important to point out that although a lot of folks obviously hate this film, it DID do incredibly well at the box office. It earned back about eight times what it cost to make (this only counts US receipts) and even hit #1 at the box office! So, although there are some haters, the filmmakers probably were laughing all the way to the bank!

So is the film any good and does it deserve to be on the IMDB list? Well, the answer is no and no. It's not a particularly good movie, at least in some ways. And, it does not deserve to be on such an infamous list. First, what I liked. Although I think there was too much dancing, to the point where I felt a bit numb, the hiphop dancing was incredible and very well choreographed. While I don't like the music, I found myself enjoying the athleticism of these dancers. You cannot totally hate a movie with this much energy and talent. What I didn't like was the plot...especially Elgin. Liking this jerk and caring about him to too tough and the character seemed unreal...and since he made up so much of the plot, I found myself longing for the next dance number! Additionally, at times the film appeared to want to look and sound tough...though I couldn't help but feel everyone was too well coiffed, too scripted and too much like actors instead of street-smart kids. Overall, worth seeing once just for the dancing...and a film not nearly as bad as I'd assumed.



By the way, sadly, Michael Taliferro (Emerald--that REALLY tough guy) died of a stroke only two years after making this film. He was 44 years old.

I pretty much would have to concur with everyone who has given this movie a poor rating and/or a poor review. If this movie just modeled itself after previous urban dance films, ala "Breakin" and "Beat Street", and just be a fun simple movie with good dance moves and great music, then "You Got Served" would have been alright. But this movie took itself waaay to seriously and tried to bring a heavy yet absurd plot to make the audience feel something and they left it up to terrible teenage actors to do it too. Get real. The acting was horrendous and the story was overdone. Memo to writer/director/production cast: keep dance films starring teens simple. The acrobatic dance moves and upbeat music is all that prevented me from giving this movie a 1 rating.

I got to see back to back hip hop dance movies, Stomp the Yard and now You Got Served. Now I liked Stomp the Yard, but I knew what to expect from You Got Served, it's been panned as one of the worst films of all time. But I had a bad attitude seeing this film, but you know what? I'm alright with this film. I'm not saying that it's good, but is it awful? No, I'm kinda in the gray area of this film where I don't love it, I don't hate it, I just think it's an alright film. I think people are just freaking out about it because naturally any film that has Lil' Kim or K-Fed in the titles, I mean, come on, it's insulting to our intelligence. But the acting wasn't horrendous, I was expecting so much worse, but it was believable enough to watch. The story is typical and predictable, but once again, it's tolerable, this is movie that I'm not sure so many people should just jump to hate.

David and Elgin are in a dance group together and they are the champions of their city. But when they are challenged by Wade, another group and they find out that one of their boys, Sonny, just spied on them and gave all their moves to Wade. They loose to them, but one night when El needs David for a job, David is out with El's sister and El gets beat up very badly. El ad David are on a non-speaking term, but when a little friend of their's is killed, they must pull together once again for the big dance contest up against Wade once again.

Like I said, this isn't a bad movie, You Got Served is just an alright film, I think it's watchable. I think people just jump so quickly on these movies because of it's theme, I also hate rap, I hate the rap society, I think it's disgusting how many sheep there are out there who try to act so "real" and "down with the hood", but You Got Served doesn't rub it in your face so much. I would recommend Stomp the Yard over this, but this is a watchable film, it's not too bad.

3/10