Mad Hot Ballroom (2005)

Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In 1994, ballroom dancing was introduced to 5th graders in the New York area. There are thousands of public school kids trying to enter into the annual competition between the schools. These kids come from varying backgrounds. Some have heart-breaking stories as they find discipline and comfort in their new interest. The most compelling parts of this documentary are the snippets of personal opinions coming from the kids. The major problem is there are so many kids that it's hard to keep track of them. The film would do well to limit the number of kids and spend more time with them at home. The kids dancing is cute and compelling. Those little interviews are what make the film sings.

This movie was great! I grew up in Harlem, New York and I loved the programs the schools offer to children. I recommended this movie for the entire family to watch. This movie was very positive and as well as inspiring! If you have children that are not excelling in other areas this kind of program will help them. The teachers and dance instructor's were wonderful with these children. The children in the movie were excellent in expressing their views on school and personal issues. I have taken this movie to my job to show the residents there. Everyone enjoyed it so much, they watched it three times. This movie bought lots of good memories to the residents. The staff also enjoyed the movie and had great comments about it. Thank you so much for such a great movie!

This is amateurish, camcorder-level shooting. The content is essentially an argument by teachers for why the program should be funded, and would have been better off used for this purpose with the NYC Board of Education.I was sorely disappointed by this film, as I am originally from NYC, went to a "P.S." grade school, and was charmed by the idea of reminiscing a little watching the opening credits.It is a boring documentary with a few cute moments when the kids are dancing, and a few interesting comments by two children -- one a 10 y.o. girl, who is a sort of philosopher, and one a 10-y.o. boy, who is quite talkative. The reasons for my rating of 2 and not 1.The cutting is terrible. I enjoy dance, and some of the kids were good dancers, but the photography tries to capture faces (poorly), and jumps, as in an action movie, every 3 seconds. The included announcements of winners is trying to sit through, slow and trite.A minor complaint: It was also annoying to see that although this is about 5th grade, the winners of the "contest" seem to be kids who are at least 13 years old. They therefore are able to manage "Cuban" motion better, as they are apparently already postpubertal. Although the teachers seem to struggle with making the competition fair, and with not hurting any child's feelings (although sensitive, this also got repetitive), the entire contest actually seemed unfair to many, who were only about 10 years old.

OK, so it took me 3 attempts before finally being able to watch this - the first was free, but aborted because of timing. The second attempt, only the first 3 rows were available for a weekday evening, and I'm not too keen on craning my neck. The third and successful attempt had me walk all the way from Orchard Cineleisure to Shaw Lido, in 10 minutes flat on a crowded weekend afternoon. But the mad rush was well worth it.New York City elementary schools have a 10 week long co-curricular activity (CCA) for its students, where they learn ballroom dancing, and then compete in a city wide dance competition. How cool is that? Finally, a CCA from which you can actually learn something useful, a skill that stays with you for life. Imagine learning from young, the steps to the Tango, Foxtrot, Swing, Merengue, etc. Wow.But there's a much higher cause in teaching ballroom dancing to the students. And that is to inculcate in them from young, a sense of hope, responsibility - to themselves in mastering a skill, to their partners in performing well, and being a team player to the entire class/school, and a setting of an achievable goal if they were to work hard at it. Most students in the public schools come from the lower spectra of society, and as the movie goes, based on statistics, many may end up on the streets, probably living in the hood of crime or other vices like drugs. This programme allows the students to dream a little dream, work hard towards a common goal, build their self-confidence and esteem, and have them thinking about the kind of future they want to pursue.So we follow different classes, and their trainings with the teachers, where we see them learning the basics of the different kinds of dances. It's pretty raw at first, but by the time the movie progresses, from the quarters to the finals, you'd see a marked improvement in the slickness of their paces. Their moves might still not be as polished, but bear in mind that these are only 11 year olds, not your already established dancers, or make believe actors.The downside of competition is that for every winner, there'll be more losers, and the movie takes stock of this, and feature the losing teams as well, and how the lost affected the students, and the dread that the teachers have to go through to explain that it's part and parcel of competition, and life.The movie is interspersed with various interviews and candid discussions amongst the students, and teachers, and it makes it compelling each time as you actually see that despite their little age, they demonstrate much innocent maturity, listening to them talk about boys, girls, relationships, dreams, etc. There's this pudgy looking boy whom I thought was pretty natural in getting himself into weird situations, and taking it all in his stride, and providing some of the laughs too. The teachers have their work cut out, having to teach their class, and then selecting only a handful to compete, and also to prep them up for the competition, and potential failure of not being emerging champions.Before long, you'll find yourself tapping along to the various dances, making you want to get up there and move to the groove too - hey if 11 year olds can do it, and be good at it, why not give it a try? On the downside though, since the moves are done by students, they're taught really basic steps, and it does get repetitive, but hey, it's all in the name of fun.Do catch Mad Hot Ballroom! If I have a recommendation to make for movies this week, watch this before it gets pulled out from the theatres! Stay throughout the end credits as they'll be more discussion snippets from the tots.