Battle of the Year: The Dream Team 2013

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Battle of the Year clearly features lots of brilliant dancers, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy watching them move. But you wish there were more dancing here. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: A dead-in-the-soul cash grab of a movie set in the competitive world of B-boy dancing that thinks cliches, phony melodrama and product placement can substitute for real storytelling and actual characters. Read more

Miriam Bale, New York Times: The miracle of the new 3-D dance film "Battle of the Year" is how it can be so relentlessly boring while there is so much frenetic activity on screen. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: At the risk of sounding 100, I think it's regrettable this film had to be shot in digital 3-D. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Fatally frontloaded with endless training montages, awfully written, indifferently acted drama, sports-film platitudes and jaw-dropping product placements that only the hardiest of viewers will make it through to the payoff. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Destined to please only bad movie buffs desperate for a fix of awful dialogue, blatant product placement, and clunky exposition. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: If you can get past the mountain of cliches and poor acting and hackneyed story lines and the fact that someone let Chris Brown be in a movie, "Battle of the Year" is actually ... still pretty awful. Read more

Keith Staskiewicz, Entertainment Weekly: The actual dancing scenes are occasionally electrifying, if far too sparse, but other than that and the welcome sight of co-star Chris Brown getting clocked in the face, the film barely gets off the ground, much less sticks the landing. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Should satisfy the planet of b-boys and girls to whom it thoroughly preaches, while amusing anyone else who simply can't ignore the promise of an all-corn buffet. Read more

Annlee Ellingson, Los Angeles Times: This 3-D spectacle is less the dance movie that's going to make b-boying cool again than a shill for sponsors' gear. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: The dorky, jingoistic charm wins points just for daring to dress the team in red, white and blue Kangols while the judges scream, "Korea strikes back with an aerial assault!" Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Battle of the Year is too inept to make this tired premise sing. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: It's undeniable that the good-natured "Afterschool Special" vibe here plays to the film's corny strengths, and the dancing is impressive. So much so that it's almost impossible not to cheer during the final round. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The story is a derivative quilt, patching together cliches from every sports movie since 1976. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The 3-D is a pain, and the excitable editing, slo-mo and speeded-up action frustrate attempts to watch the athleticism on display ... Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Chris Brown gets punched in the face, so it's not a total wash. Read more

Todd Gilchrist, TheWrap: Its dramatization of a U.S. dream team's journey to the international showcase is leaden with predictable character types and storytelling cliches, neither of which its well-executed but oddly infrequent dance sequences are able to overcome. Read more

R. Kurt Osenlund, Time Out: The raison d'etre of popping-and-locking scenes is trumped by tired team-building bathos, whose flagrancy is anything but conducive to spreading the film's hug-it-out bro-love. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: A frenetic mess that makes Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloolook like a Fellini film. Read more

Sean O'Connell, Washington Post: Everything about Benson Lee's predictable dance flick "Battle of the Year" strikes me as old. Read more