Step Up 3D

A troupe of hip-hop dancers absolutely have to win the big “World Jam” dance contest or—God, I can’t believe I’m writing this—they’ll lose the mortgage on their home and be tossed out in the snow. The script (Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer) is primitive, the direction (John Chu) jittery in the dance scenes and perfunctory in others, the acting (various wannabes) substandard. That leaves the dancing. Adam Shankman (Hairspray) is listed as a producer, so maybe all that athletic dancing is the real thing. But the dances are juiced up with all kinds of snazzy digital effects, and we can’t help wondering: Were the dances digitally created as well? Maybe not, but the suspicion alone is fatal. All those credited dance doubles have wasted their efforts once we start thinking some computer tech made it happen.