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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 24, 2008

U2 3D ***

After all those hits and all those decades of playing together, U2 is still a tremendous live act - which makes the idea of a three-dimensional concert film seem sort of redundant. They're so vibrant and theatrical in their performances and they sound so powerful, it's as if they're already reaching out and grabbing you.

Thankfully, directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington mostly resist the urge to get all gimmicky with the effects in "U2 3D." Except for one moment during "Sunday Bloody Sunday," when Bono stretches his hand toward you while singing the line, "Wipe your tears away," it's as if the band members aren't even aware the cameras are there.

"U2 3D" boasts that it's "the first-ever, live-action, digital 3-D film," and while it does look crisp and clean and sharp, it's just as notable for what it lacks: any self-indulgent interviews or seemingly spontaneous moments behind the scenes. It's just an efficient hour and a half of solid music - you're in, you're out, you're done.

The technique works best when it makes you feel as if you're immersed in the audience, watching the group run through such classics as "New Year's Day," "One" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" as well as newer songs such as "Beautiful Day." (The footage for "U2 3D" was shot at various concerts in Mexico and South America during the "Vertigo" tour, and it all blends seamlessly.) Crowd members in front of you thrust their hands in the air and make you feel like you're one of them; one lucky girl finds a prime perch for herself on a guy's shoulders and it partially blocks your view.

Some of the overhead shots are also extremely cool, especially during more upbeat songs like "Where the Streets Have No Name," with the packed stadium audience bouncing up and down as one, undulating like an ocean wave that could suck you in at any moment.

But there's one song, "The Fly," that the directors absolutely ruin by going overboard on the 3-D. A rapid-fire succession of words and phrases that appear on giant screens behind the band also pops up on the movie screen, with the intention of leaping right out at us. It's stream-of-consciousness stuff like "believe," "lie," "impossible," "inevitable," ostensibly all meant to be relevant and meaningful. The result is a distracting annoyance, which climaxes in a multicolored waterfall of jumbled letters.

By the time U2 gets to the next song, the melancholy, high-school make-out anthem "With or Without You," you're just sitting there praying that no one messes with it - and they don't. It's one that you've heard a million times, but it still sends chills, as does Adam Clayton's bass line on "New Year's Day" and The Edge's distinctive guitar throughout.

When the music is allowed to speak for itself, it's louder than any amplified 3-D effects.

G; 85 minutes

Christy Lemire,

The Associated Press

HOW SHE MOVE

"How She Move" is "Stomp the Yard" without the yard, "You Got Served" with a Jamaican accent. It's a laughably over-familiar melodrama about stepping, the aggressive, confrontational street dancing that evolved from break dancing, kronking, and the like.

Most of the characters are cliches, and the "big contest" finale is a given. But at least the street-real grit and energy of the cast keep it on its feet.

Rutina Wesley is Raya, a teenager who recognizes the dead end where she grew up.

Raya has a plan. She is focused on it to the exclusion of everything else - private school scholarship, then Johns Hopkins Medical School, and never look back after that.

But Raya's need for school tuition meets a skill she hasn't used much of late. She hears of a $50,000 "Monster Step" contest, one she can win if she can get on the right crew. It's a sexist world, this step dancing. So she won't consider ex-pal Michelle's "Fem Phatal." She has her eyes set on JSJ, a crew led by the ever on-the-make Bishop (Dwain Murphy).

The movie makes much of Raya's mercenary pursuit of alliances that could get her the cash to put her dream on track, and much more of her rehearsals and her love-hate relationship with Michelle (Tre Armstrong).

But the bulk of the picture is just dancing - rhythmic, propulsive, athletic and suggestive, if only rarely graceful or pretty.

Wesley and Armstrong have a reality about their performances that make this Jamaican-accented drama feel like a slice of life. Unfortunately, they inhabit a hackneyed universe of "good crew" versus "bad crew," of obvious plot contrivances that yank Raya from one crew to another.

"How She Move" is all too content to step down a well-worn path.

PG-13 (drug content, suggestive material and profanity); 91 minutes

Roger Moore,

The Orlando Sentinel

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