Take the Lead, a dramatised retread of the hit documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, is so awful it defies describing.

| Oct 7, 2018

A scattering of dance sequences that fuse hip-hop and classical beats provide a few shots of energy, but Take The Lead otherwise plods through the motions.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 6, 2006

Take the Lead offers few if any surprises to anyone who's seen either the aforementioned Breakin', Beat Street, or, most obvious of all, Dangerous Minds.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 6, 2006

While their transformation is predictable, it's quietly enjoyable, and the teen angle opens the door to romance and gritty gang-war subplots.

Full Review | May 6, 2006

The energy and rhythm keep it moving along gracefully.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2006

it's just ridiculous, it's just ridiculous. One cliché right after another. Not for one second did I believe any of this.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2006

While we may be able to pretty much guess everything that's going to happen in Take the Lead, its considerable charm lies in the way it fulfills, rather than bucks, our expectations.

Full Review | Apr 7, 2006

Think of it as the fictionalized version of last year's engaging documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, with teen dancers and sexier moves. It is also more formulaic and clichéd, thanks to the predictable plot and theme.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 7, 2006

Take the Lead is pure entertainment, if only for the endless amusement of watching Banderas spread the gospel of ballroom like he was born wearing a tuxedo.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2006

A predictable and yet thoroughly enjoyable drama about the redemptive power of dance for a group of inner-city teenagers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2006

Although based on a true story, Take the Lead continually strains credibility.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 7, 2006

It's a ballroom/hip-hop mash-up that, although at times discordant and at all times familiar, moves with Banderas' brio and bounce.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 7, 2006

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?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 7, 2006

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2006

Like its star, the movie verges on hooey but cuts too stylish a swath to dislike for long.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 7, 2006

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 7, 2006

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.

| Original Score: D | Apr 7, 2006

A well-made if utterly unsurprising movie, which has its feet and its heart in the right place.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2006

You could go out and see this feel-good facsimile and be moderately entertained, or rent Mad Hot Ballroom and feel yourself becoming genuinely moved by the real thing.

Full Review | Apr 7, 2006

Take the Lead is the latest example of a silly and utterly predictable movie where the kids dance in the streets and we pray for a fleet of Humvees to come along and run them out of town.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 7, 2006