Take the Lead

Pros: Great acting, good message, good soundtrack...
Cons: ... some weak tracks, predictable in places

Take The Lead is part of a conspiracy I think my wife is planning against me. We seem to be watching an increasing number of movies featuring dancing, and increasingly frequent suggestions are being made that we take dance lessons… ...

Pros: Performances, themes, dance scenes
Cons: More about the other students would have been nice

Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) owns his own ballroom dance studio. It caters to wealthy clients, and is struggling but slowly becoming successful. On his way home from an exhibition one night, he witnesses a student vandalizing the principal's ...

Pros: visceral, poignant, smart - with effective performances
Cons: formulaic material

Movies about the "Jesus Teacher," who breezes into a classroom full of knuckle-draggers and gets them to walk on water, are a dime a dozen. So, in the last little while, have been Dirty Dancing lookalikes - including Dirty Dancing Havana Nights and ...

Pros: Dance scenes were exciting, Banderas was inspiring.
Cons: Too much trite plot, not enough dance.

I may be a little too hung up on both Antonio Banderas and ballroom dancing to review this movie without any bias...but, although it was flawed, I enjoyed it all through the closing credits. It's true that "Take the Lead" could have benefitted with ...

Pros: Unique idea (ballroom dancing), two great tango dance clips, great DVD featurettes.
Cons: Cliched storyline, not enough dance clips, big Hollywood style ending.

Generally speaking, this is a "just ok" movie. We have all seen such movies where a teacher or a coach inspired misbehaving students to learn teamwork, respect, and the desire to succeed. This movie is not much different, except that it was about ...

Pros: Antonio Banderas charms, Alfre Woodward holds it together. Music and dance sequences.
Cons: Too long, the actors portraying high-schoolers are not believable.

Most of the public has seen news clips about the New York Public School’s ballroom dancing program. Or the documentary, “Mad Hot Ballroom” upon which Take the Lead is based. The program was inspired by Pierre Dulaine who convinced the ...

Pros: Dancing
Plot
Message
Cons: Difficult to tell how much was "True"

In the history of true stories turned into films, the subject of reaching out to urban youth has been addressed more than a few times. It seems that urban youth is considered one of the last groups that aren't getting the attention they deserve. I'm not ...

Pros: Fresh faces. Excellent choreography. Great story line. Super performances.
Cons: Ending was mildly disappointing. Does Dulaine fall in love?

In a return to a quasi musical, Take the Lead was indeed a winner in my opinion. The actors were well chosen for the parts they played. A great mixture of "barrio" kids with the uptown "snooties". Each with personal pain and personal issues, but ...

Pros: Banderas,statements,plot,and dancing
Cons: Perhaps a little more dancing to show more of their progress.

Plot: Take the Lead is an inspirational film of real events about Pierre Dulaine, a ballroom dance teacher, who after coming across a student vandalizing a vehicle decides to teach a group of students ballroom dance during their detention period. At ...

Pros: Some cute dance scenes plus one really good Tango number.
Cons: Really predictable storyline and trite socio-economic issues are discussed.

Warning: This review discusses the movie at decent length and will probably spoil some parts. Take The Lead is a rather predictable movie that very much resembles The Sister Act 2 except the kids are delinquents who dance instead ...

Pros: Great scenes and the dancing was wonderful.
Cons: Could of had more dancing.

When you watch this movie all you can see really is the life of a man trying to help students. By seeing what happens when this man goes to their school is a great part of the movie. The more he gets involved with their life, the more they get involved with the dancing and it makes the movie more valuable.