Photo by MTV
February 26, 2010 MTV is gonna Turn the Beat Around with their second of a triumvirant of original movies (the first being My Super Psycho Sweet 16 from October 2009 and the last MADE, still in development.)
Turn the Beat around stars Romina D’Ugo as Zoe, a struggling L.A. hip hop dancer trying to make it in the music video scene. Her mother tried to break into the disco dancing scene in the 70’s but never made it, which inspires Zoe to convince a club entrepreneur to invest in a disco. Drama ensues as Zoe struggles with mixing her personal and professional relationships and clashes heads with a fiery choreographer played by Donna Summer’s daughter Brooklyn Sudano.
The drama and dialogue fall flat in MTV’s struggle to mix a new Melrose Place style plotline with Flashdance, but the dancing is entertaining enough to keep you awake in between the slow bits.
It’s a thrown together storyline to accommodate a pretty cool concept: bringing disco back. With better plot development, more fleshed out characters, and less stilted acting, this could have been a cult classic, but instead it’s a fun flick to watch on a Friday night when you’re a board teen.
If you miss the movie premiere on February 26, it’s coming to DVD March 9, 2010. Since the highlights of this move really are the dancing and singing February 16 you can download Turn the Beat Around soundtrack EP.
