Featured DVD Review: Go for It!

September 26, 2011

Go for It! - Buy from Amazon

Go for It! opened in May in just over 200 theaters and with almost no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I commented at the time that this was a really bad sign, but its box office numbers were even worse than expected.

The Movie

Aimee Garcia stars as Carmen Salgado, a young lady just about to graduate, but she doesn't have a lot of ambitions, outside of dance. She and her friend, Gina, spend most of their nights at clubs dancing. Carmen also spends her afternoons working on homework, her evenings working on dance routines, plus she has a job. She has a lot on her plate, and that's before Jared asks her out to dinner.

After Carmen is accused of cheating, she punches out the student who copied from her. This gets her a two-week suspension, but when her teacher, Mr. Martin, sees her practicing in the park, he starts to encourage her to apply to a dance school in California. Of course, the prospect of moving away from her family and her new boyfriend is quite scary and she doesn't know if she will take it.

Go for It! is less of a dancing movie and more of a coming of age drama. Unfortunately, it borrows too heavily from the pool of clichés those two genres have. Aimee Garcia does give a good performance in the lead role, but there are a few too many elements that distract from the central story. (Gina is dealing with an abusive boyfriend, Mr. Martin is losing his job, Jared's rich family doesn't like their relationship, etc.) Any one of these elements would be fine for the film, but having all of them means none of them get enough attention to be fully developed.

It's not a terrible film and there are certainly parts that are worth watching, but enough parts fail to click that the end result is middling.

The Extras

There is only one extra, an audio commentary track with the writer / director, Carmen Marron; the composer, Kenny Wood; and three of the actors: Aimee Garcia, Gina Rodriguez, and Derrick Denicola.

The Verdict

Enough of Go for It! works that for fans of the genre or those looking for Hispanic films will want to check it out. However, there are enough issues that it is not a wholly satisfying film and the DVD is only worth a rental.


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Filed under: Video Review, Go For It!