C Me Dance (2009) User Reviews

When will Christian movie makers learn?

[voxhumana · 1/10 · 6 March 2010]

There seems to be an unwritten rule within the Christian community that any film made with a Christian theme must be "gushed" about as if it is a cinematic masterpiece. A quick scan of Christian-oriented entertainment sites indicate that this film has been consistently rated 4 to 5 stars.

This is ridiculous because this film is embarrassingly bad. This misleading bias also means that terrible films like this will continue to get made.

The fact that these films get laughed at in the secular world is usually dismissed as "anti-Christian sentiment". The sentiment is not "anti-Christian", it's "anti-terrible films".

"Christian-themed" movies can (and should) be as good as any other film genre out there. But just like a building, a film requires good planning and skilled craftsmanship. If a local community built a church and it fell down, they would not be standing around saying "Oh what a wonderful church!". They'd be asking "what went wrong?" and resolving to never do it again.

No building is excused from the rules of good construction, and no film genre is excused from the rules of good film-making. As an (incomplete) list of principles:

1 - All characters (and especially the lead characters) must have a journey. In this film Sheri has a minor journey (though an implausible one - her response to contracting leukemia is as tepid as if she'd merely missed a TV show), her father and all the other characters are two dimensional puppets. (Their unsurprised reaction to the physical appearance of Satan is absurd. No matter how devout you are, if Satan really appeared in physical form you'd still be shocked to some extent.)

2 - "Show, don't tell". The film regularly stops for inane preaching and pointless exposition. If meeting Sheri has really changed a character's life - show it. Having the character sit on a couch saying "Oh, you've changed my life" is no more convincing or meaningful than them saying "Oh, I've grown two extra arms". The act of "showing" is simple. Before the "change" show me scenes of the character's behaviour. Then have the transformation. Then show me the character afterwards.

3 - Every moment of a film must either advance the plot or develop a character (ideally both). If you can't demonstrate what a given moment of a film is achieving, cut it.

There are some superb Christian-themed movies out there, eg. "The Apostle" with Robert Duvall. There are also dozens of truly superb subjects on Christian themes which could be made. 1 - A son raised in the church leaves so as to have "freedom", only to discover the real cost of this meaningless freedom (ie. a modern "prodigal son"). 2 - A skeptic who believes that Christians are "mindless drones" slowly falls for a Christian girl he works with and gradually discovers the true nature (and the causes) of his hostility. 3 - A Christian "faker" (someone who only claims to have faith so as to exploit the community for personal gain) is exposed and loses everything. Despite this he begins a journey to true redemption.

If you are a Christian and you are angered by this comment then I'm sorry. But if Christian films are to have any value at all then there needs to be an objective attitude towards quality.

Changed my life!

[rob-m-neilson · 1/10 · 29 September 2009]

There are few milestones left in this modern age.

First day of school, first kiss, first car....and now the first time you've seen C Me Dance.

With production values straight out of a public access show, and acting that is as wooden and stilted as a tele-novela C ME DANCE is a must see if you enjoy bad movies.

I myself was a little disappointed in the final "speech" that beats the powers of evil, but there's a few great laughs throughout the movie. Perhaps my favorite is the reaction shot of Greg Robbins as he wakes up from a "nightmare". My friends and I played it back several times in slow motion. Genius! There's also lots of Ed Wood style day/night continuity problems, as well as some very bad montage editing.

The worst part is that the producers believe that this Christian film, will move people towards religion. Wrong! This only preachers to the choir...and even devout Christian's will probably be offended by the gooey, backwards, and Saved By the Bell style sentiment that this film gives off like a bad odor...

One of the worst films I have ever subjected myself to

[dbh850 · 1/10 · 16 May 2012]

I cannot express how bad this film is. I feel bad writing this, but it seems I cannot help myself. I'm usually pretty generous in allowing bad writing, stiff acting, and weak directing not bother me too much. But this film was so filled with mindless, fundamentalist proselytizing, treacle that I can only say I'm glad I was doing file hygiene while I watched it on Netflix. Should have listened to their prediction... Netflix predicted I would hate it. I did.

1) Low intellectual level silly devil story.

2) Ghastly writing - bad dialogue, unbelievable personalities, and a story a 3rd grader could write.

3) Acting was just terrible and completely unbelievable.

4) Why not use a real dancer for the role? There are a lot of them around.

5) Doctors never, ever, ever, EVER date family members of patients. EVER.

6) So... even though the girl was a stage 4 patient, there was NO treatment of any kind? Nothing? Not even for symptoms? Oh wait... there were no symptoms. Right... a stage 4 cancer patient with NO symptoms. So stupid and ridiculous. Could the writer have spent TEN MINUTES talking this over with an oncologist? Everything about the illness was SO LUDICROUS.

7) That girl sure was healthy and robust right up until the day she literally dropped dead. I've had a lot of cancer patients. That was just plain stupid.

8) The doctor, upon seeing the girl's body, freaks out and drops her glass of milk? SERIOUSLY?!?!?! She's a DOCTOR. She works with cancer patients. She absolutely WOULD NOT do that. She would quickly go to the patient to assess what's going on - she did not know the girl was deceased. Perhaps I'm being defensive, but even in horrid films such as this one, I hate it when doctors are stupid or when they date people they absolutely CAN NOT date.

In summary, if you like those Bible church Sunday night dramas designed to scare you into religious belief, if you are a fundamentalist and thus are blinded to terrible storytelling simply because you are thrilled to see your beliefs represented on film, if the important aspect of your religion is avoiding hell rather than being the kindest, most loving and helpful person you can be... you'll love this. If you have even average intelligence and are NOT a Bible-literalist fundamentalist, you'll hate this thing. Don't waste your time.

For the record, I'm Christian - but I find proselytizing highly offensive. I don't accept the concepts of hell and the devil. I don't feel compelled to tell other people they have to become Christian; I respect other people's views. I value kindness towards others and a life of service. And I'm a doctor who is always disgusted to see stupid doctors on TV. I'm pretty sure there is little chance I would like this dreadful offering even if it wasn't so terribly written and acted. And what the heck is up with that title? I'm sorry - it's a stupid title.

I watched it because I studied ballet for years and I love it. I thought I would see some good dancing - and I was doing work on my computer, so I wasn't sitting in front of the TV, throwing out over an hour of my life that I never would get back. Now THAT would have been bad.

Maybe fundamentalist religious people just shouldn't make films. Perhaps it's just too tempting to come up with something to scare people into believing as they do. This was nothing less than an acted out religious tract - like those silly Chick Publications. The filmmaker tried to cram religious scare-tactics down the viewers' throats and it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Wow...What a Waste

[Leparsdon · 2/10 · 24 July 2010]

This film started off okay...and the actors started speaking. I was astounded at the sheer level of bad acting, half hearted dialogue and a plot that was strewn together from pieces of other films.

In the scene where Sheri is told she is going to die (and subsequent scenes where it is discussed) she acts in none of the ways that a 16 year old would act if they were given the same awful news. Also the way the characters interacted, it was as if they were strangers who were reading conversation off of a cue card or something. Also all their interaction were very wooden and unconvincing.

The plot is also incomprehensible. It jumps around from pointless scene to pointless scene, and as another reviewer commented, the thoughts and feeling are told more so than shown and don't really do much to convince you that are watching people who really care about each other

What did I just watch.

[sawsecake · 1/10 · 15 July 2015]

So... apparently this is a Christian film. Granted I watched drunk a friend had me watch it and then asked two questions, one was this a Christian film, and two was it a bootleg. And I have to say I would answer I suppose Muslim as it presents faith as good but Christianity as depressing and yes the editing is horrific, the cuts are utterly nonsensical it feels like 3 films smashed into one. Sadly I knew the answer was yes and no which is why he posed the question, but seriously the two main protagonists in the film suffer horribly and only convert people through magic which is never explained or even attempted to be explained. The antagonist in this film literally do nothing they take no action that affects the plot even remotely and yet the ending is still this sober confused jagged mess. I don't even know if it was intended to be happy, sad or bittersweet and thus is not any of them it is just a melange of wondering where any of the charter arch went to along with the story and any semblance of meaning whatsoever.

Who needs free will?

[CapnKaos · 1/10 · 25 January 2017]

Let me get this out there, this is not a movie for me. This is a movie made for the born again Evangelical crowd and unless you are part of that crowd you will probably hate this movie as well.

There is so much *wrong* with this movie. The dialogue was seemingly written by somebody who never wrote proper dialogue before. It's almost like they programmed a computer with some of the most popular scripts and it just muxed them all together in a meaningless way. Nobody talks like people in this movie talk. It felt like a bad sitcom in places where I guess they were going for levity but it just fell flat.

The acting is sub-par. Christina DeMarco who plays the main character is so wooden in most of her scenes that she could have been replaced with a puppet and I doubt anybody would have noticed. Greg Robins was okay, he's not going to win any awards for his acting but at least he's acting.

The main issue, beyond all that, is that due to some unexplained reasons she's now able to convert with a touch. That's right, even if you didn't want to be converted she can turn you into a Christian forever. And the movie plays this off like it's a good thing. But hey, forget free will. It's not like that isn't the cornerstone of choices where Christians are concerned so long as they win in the end.

This is a bad movie made by and for very stupid people.

Voxhumana is right!

[JointHeirMedia-1 · 2/10 · 16 March 2012]

As a Christian actor, I find that some Christian directors don't allow their actors to really act--especially if the actor is a Christian. Putting too much into the character "takes away from the message!" (worst excuse ever). I have to agree with Voxhumana. I wish I could meet you and shake your hand. Thank God for the filmmakers who are not afraid to let artistic excellence and talent shine. It makes the message even more effective!! My hat's off to you sir/ma'am. I promise you this: if you see a film written and/or directed by this Christian filmmaker, it'll have more than one dimensional characters and a strong solid plot, conflict, resolution and climax! Bless you for your candidness!

"Gimme a 'C', gimme an 'H'...."

[floraposteschild · 1/10 · 26 September 2017]

Not really a spoiler, since it's revealed in the first quarter hour, but the 'C' in the title stands for cancer. A high school girl with dance ambitions is diagnosed; how will she and her single father (who was widowed in an unexplained road rage incident) cope? All right, you think; it's that kind of movie. After some anguish, the girl will overcome adversity and become an inspiration to her peers. And you'd be right, but not in the way you expected. The 'C' also stands for Christ, which it seems she becomes, but her superpowers are limited to touching people and making them Christians, whether they want to be or not. Hilarity ensues, which is probably not what the filmmakers were expecting.

To add a comment to Voxhumana's superb post: his/her suggestions for films have already been made recently, and they turned out to be god awful, not in premise but in execution. IMHO, Christian/religious movies are not getting better any time soon, for the following reasons: 1) Unlike in the days of Milton and Mozart, religious belief is not mandatory, and patrons of the arts aren't almost exclusively religious. Artists of genius are not so much into religious themes these days. 2) Not as genius but religious artists are making movies with the message first, and the art second. Maybe they don't believe that by putting their God-given abilities first, they would be making the highest tribute to God. 3) Great movies demand great audiences. The audience for Christian movies is like the audience for superhero movies. For the most part, the bad guys lose, the good guys win, the outcome is in no doubt, and that's the way they like it. Yawn.

But maybe I'm wrong. If you are a religious person, I ask you to watch three very challenging, but good and thoughtful films about modern religion: The Apostle (1997), The Rapture (1991), and Calvary (2014). If you're like foreign/art films, watch Dekalog (1989), a film series selected by the Vatican in the "values" category of its list of 45 great films. Are these the kinds of films you want to see? Support them, and you will see more.

Makes 'The Godfather' look like 'The Hottie and the Nottie'

[shatterfaced · 10/10 · 1 April 2009]

I had a chance to view an early screening of this Godsend (all puns intended). As a non-denominational middle-aged man, I have to tell you, I was skeptical. A friend of mine told me that Christina DeMarco's acting would make me cry, and I told him he was crazy. Needless to say, by the half-hour mark, my popcorn was soggy and inedible, ruined by the shameless tears no longer under my control.

Of course, this was only made possible by the directing and writing of the incomparable Greg Robbins. Sheri's reaction of "I just wanted to dance, and hang out, Dad. And now all this." perfectly encompasses the emotions one feels when she is diagnosed with an unstoppable terminal illness. I saw this movie, and I read "Dubliners" the following evening, and I thought I was reading a 'Betty and Veronica' comic book. I literally laughed out loud to myself at the embarrassment Mr. Robbins's brilliant script put to James Joyce's writing ability.

I used to curse religion and judge anyone around me who entered a church; now, I have a pull-out cot underneath the altar of my local parish, for when I just don't feel like leaving. I have Greg Robbins, and C Me Dance, to thank. Christ, what a movie.

changed my life completely

[rk-music-iz-life-rk · 10/10 · 9 April 2009]

Not only is this movie about dancing and ballet, but it is also about Christianity and bringing people closer to God.This movie completely changed my life and my relationship with God. My friends and I were the only people in the entire theater building, even though it's usually packed. We think that means something. And at the end of the movie my friend sort of blacked out and saw God. I felt someone embrace me. AKA God! So if you have any rude or bad comments, keep them to yourself. You don't need to express your different religious beliefs on a Christian movie review.This is a fantastic movie. So, please go see the movie! It has a powerful, amazing message for everyone!

Great superhero movie

[allygrimestad · 10/10 · 20 December 2020]

My new favorite movie. This movie is a really interesting superhero movie about a girl who has powers but is also a ballerina. Ballerina by day, girl who converts you with her powers to become Christian by night.