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There used to be a time when you’d see the Wayans Bros. (or the other WB, as I call them) name’s come up and it inspired joy. They had arguably the best sketch comedy show with “In Living Color” giving us characters like Fire Marshall Bill, Blaine Edwards and Antione Merriweather, and best of all, Homey D. Clown. Everything seemed to go downhill the moment they unleashed Scary Movie into the masses and they’ve yet to recover by doing such unfunny schlock like Little Man, White Chicks, and a second Scary Movie. To add more fuel to the fire, the popularity of Scary Movie would lead to an influx of cheap and stupid spoof flicks that only Satan himself could unleash on the masses. I dare not mention them by name to protect innocent lives, but these films have caused people to walk out having AIDS and turned even the most well-read scholars into mentally handicapped individuals. So now we have Dance Flick, which returns the Wayans to the cancer they helped spawn.

The best thing going for the film is that it won’t make viewers believe Jack Bauer is forcing them into torture. Yes, shockingly there are things that help make this thing not completely a device for causing cancer. The first is how the film parodies Save the Last Dance with Shoshana Bush playing the Julia Stiles character. To help her get over the death of her mother, Thomas Uncles (Damon Wayans Jr, who looks just like his father) takes her to her to a play called ‘Your Momma Died In A Car Crash’ complete with a full orchestra and ballet performing the entire death of her mother. The whole sequence has operatic singers pronouncing “That’s right, she’s never coming back” as her actual mother flies up to Heaven complete with angel wings and a halo. It’s the highlight of the film and will evoke the most laughter out of anyone who braves the dangers ahead.

The next two laughs are more of my personal vendettas against two phenomenons that this film actually does a decent job of spoofing. The first rests more on Brennan Hillard doing an impression of Zac Efron we all know is going to be true one day. Yes, not even High School Musical is spared as Hillard’s Jack breaks out into a song and dance number that parodies the song “Fame”. In this ballad, Jack proclaims that he’s gonna be gay forever while he watched men undress in gym class. The character and sequence work because Hillard captures the essence of Efron to make this not feel like a cheap rip-off. The laughs here weren’t so much ‘this is hysterical’ more than they were ‘this is totally true.’ The second of these comes at the end when the film decides it wants to parody my all-time favorite punching bag of a film Twilight. The ending of that exercise in bad filmmaking gets spoofed as Thomas turns from his date due to her being white as black girls walk by him. It’s not a particularly funny scene, but for me it was nice to see someone try to spoof that crap.

And as you guess, everything else about the film doesn’t work. Most of the jokes end up being cheap pop culture references or end up running too long. For example, one character gets a gun planted in his face in order to shut him up which is fine. However, we don’t need fifty more pointed in his face when the desired laughter has been accomplished. Essence Atkins is probably the worst offender as Megan’s best friend best friend Charity. No one should expect excellent acting from anyone in the movie (except for Marlon Wayans who does a perfect job of playing an acting teacher) but they should at least not be insufferably terrible. She’s the Jar Jar Binks of this movie and is giving a strong running for Character Who Most Needs An Axe To The Face 2009. When the film isn’t beating pop culture jokes over our heads, it’s trying to force laughs with dick jokes all of which have one shaking their head in disgust.

The biggest success of Dance Flick though is that it actually evokes laughter during it’s sitting. Unlike the recent genre attempts at funny, you won’t contemplate a cyanide capsule midway through the film. However, even though there are laughs that are largely due to the Wayans’, the film isn’t worth tasking as the funny is too far and between. I want to believe the Wayans’ can still be hilarious and they can be good at spoofs as I’m Gonna Git You Sucka! is living proof. Unfortunately with their last few efforts they may have run their course and it might be time to, sadly, see them go into the sunset together.

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