'Dance Flick' a comic misstep with vicious undertones

Hardly a filmgoer on the planet will go see the latest Wayans brothers spoof, "Dance Flick," and not know what to expect: A threadbare plot stuffed with pop movie references, tasteless gross-outs, exaggerated stereotypes and lampooned genre clichés.

The most audacious of the Wayans brothers canon remains 2000's "Scary Movie," a parody of the tongue-in-cheek horror film "Scream" and a bold flirtation with X-rated visual gags that stretched the R rating to its snapping point.

However, "Dance Flick" is rated PG-13, which already hamstrings the brothers from doing what they do best, and that's taking their parodies so far that you never know where they'll stop.

"Dance Flick" picks on almost every pop dance movie made, from "Flashdance" (with Chicago's Jennifer Beals) up through "Center Stage." Mostly, though, it uses the Chicago-set "Save the Last Dance" as its primary target, with Shoshana Bush stepping in for Julia Stiles as the new white dancer in town.

Like Stiles' character, Bush's Megan suffers guilt pangs from her mother's death during a car wreck while driving to her daughter's Big Dance Audition,

Megan befriends a local black high school student, Charity (Essence Atkins), who stores her infant in her locker for the day because she doesn't trust strangers to raise her child.

Megan instantly bonds with Charity's handsome brother Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.), who takes her to see the Joffrey Ballet's latest production, "Your Mother is Dead, Killed in a Car Wreck," or something to that effect.

So you see that the Wayans brothers don't set their comedy goals very high. Yet, even on this low level of expectation, the choppy, episodic and disjointed "Dance Flick" barely exceeds a junior high school student's concept of what an obnoxiously outrageous genre parody should be.

Comic allusion is the least demanding and easiest kind of parody to execute, and it's also the least effective. So when Thomas takes Megan to the prom and tells her "You need to see me in the light," what "Twilight" fan doesn't expect him to suddenly appear in Edward's garish, sparkling makeup?

Most of these movie references fall as flat as a dancer's arches. Chelsea Makela's parody of chunky Tracy Turnblad from "Hairspray" is a humorless waste, as is George Gore II's insipid take on the blind protagonist from "Ray."

During a dance class, the teacher, an aptly named Mrs. Cameltoe (Amy Sedaris), tells a student she should just kill herself. So the student hurls herself out a window. In light of a real-life case of a student who committed suicide because of cyberbullying, this scene feels particularly vicious.

David Alan Grier in a fat suit supplies the obligatory use of an overweight person for fun and ridicule. Brennan Hillard's homosexual son of the school's macho coach livens up a tepidly gay song-and-dance routine performed to the tune of "Fame."

At least that snippet possessed some small degree of inventiveness, an element sorely missing from the rest of this cinematic misstep.

"Dance Flick"

Rating: 1½ stars

Starring: Shoshana Bush, Damon Wayans Jr., Essense Atkins, Affion Crockett, Amy Sedaris, David Alan Grier, Chris Elliott

Directed by: Damien Wayans

Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. 83 minutes.