Dance movies can be interesting especially when it involves hot sweaty bodies and bodacious moves along a club floor. Did I just say bodacious? “Pauly Shore is on line one, please pick up the white courtesy phone”. I’ll ignore that for now. Dirty Dancing or Footloose are great examples. Some should be drag into the street and shot. I knew that Feel the Noise looked bad the minute I looked at the cover. What was that clue on the cover you might ask? Produced by Jennifer Lopez would be a very good start.
Rob Vega (played by Omarion Grandberry)is a straight up hip-hop rapper who gets shot at one night while he’s trying to perform. His mother decides to send him off to Puerto Rico to live with his father Roberto (played by Giancarlo Espositio)and his family. There he meets his half brother Javi (played by Victor Rasuk) and is introduced to Reggaeton, music that blends Reggae and Hip-Hop. The two team up for a single and eventual album as Rob tries to peace back a normal life which eventually leads him back to his home in New York where he has to face his demons.
Let me first mention, this isn’t a bad concept. In fact, if Jennifer Lopez had not been mentioned, I might have had hope for the movie. It started off okay, a little thuggery involving some rims gone wrong for young Rob. He gets shot at following his criminal escapade at a concert which sends him into the lands of Puerto Rico. Then the next fifteen to twenty minutes where they introduce us to Reggaeton along with Rob’s love interest CC (played by Zulay Henao)is the only passable part in the film that could be confused with the word “Cinema”. Then it all goes downhill from there. Rob in my opinion never grows. He starts out a thug, he ends up a thug. Sure, he gets the girl in the end, heartwarming, 2 little thug babies forthcoming, etc. But he never grows, his character will be dead by twenty-five years of age no questions asked.
Furthermore, that song that Rob and Javi create is atrocious. If I hear that damn bird whistle one more time, I will cram its beak straight up the producers of this picture’s hiney ends. The rest of the music is decent and the genre is listenable but the movie reeks. The story is so cliche and the acting is so vapid that it never gets where it should and you scratch your head wondering why you wasted 90 minutes of your life. It also frustrates me cause marketing didn’t even choose to put the main character’s name on the front cover. Instead all we get is “from Producer Jennifer Lopez”. A selling point it is not. Gigli taught us that. Marketing didn’t have confidence in the movie, why should we?
Video
The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. It looks pretty good. Colors are solid, a lot of the scenes are in clubs capturing the beat. It’s fairly easy to tell the action that is going on and there is nothing really solid to go against the video for this movie.
Audio
5.1 English Dolby Digital is the only audio choice given here. A Spanish audio would have made sense but sense in this movie was thrown out a long time ago. The music is well presented here (just wish there was more of it rather than the acting) and it fills the audio chambers of your speaker setup quite well. Dialog is also clear for the most part and plays well with the club setup. Subtitles are also provided for English, French and Spanish readers.
Special Features
- Automatic Trailers: Vantage Point & Across the Universe
- Feel the Noise: The Making of a Musical Movement 10:04: Here is your making of featurette. I would have inserted a line here that would tell you something whimsical about the featurette. I was still waiting for something whimsical to appear in the movie. Oh well.
- Reggaeton: A Hand Crafted Beat 8:18: Okay, explain this to me. The movie is about the new music sensation of Reggaeton. Why is the featurette only 8 minutes long? Has it only been around for 8 minutes worth of material? I think (hope) not. Since no commentary was provided, they truly needed a 45 minute documentary here. Instead this featurette feels like an extended section of the Behind the Scenes since it included more clips than actual talking to Reggaeton performers.
- Previews: You Got Served, Stomp The Yard, Rent, Dragon Wars, This Christmas, & Coming to Blu-Ray
Final Thoughts
It should come little or no surprise that this movie is currently sitting at #10 of the Worst 100 movies at Imdb.com. The writing direction is horrid, the acting is mediocre at best, and the film merely moves 90 minutes into the future with no change or growth to the characters before it. The plot suggests that it is supposed to be a rags to ritches story. It barely succeeds on the level of a son reuniting with his father. All that aside, the disc has reasonable audio and video. The extras and cover design show that the studios behind it had zero confidence in the movie in showing a musical genre that deserves a lot more press than this movie provided. Hopefully there can be other reggaeton movies, but ones with character and an interesting story. Not recommended, except as a happening frisbee to be thrown to your dog. Happening, *sigh*. “Fred ‘Rerun’ Berry on line two, please pick up the red courtesy phone”. Maybe I should get this one, take care folks.
Other Reviews
- DVDVerdict.com – “Feel the Noise isn’t horrible so there’s that. It’s fairly slow-paced and rife with clichés, but the acting is decent and the music is nifty.”
