OxfordPress.com

Grade: B-

Verdict: Drums up a storm.

Details: Starring Nick Cannon, Orlando Jones, Zoe Saldana. Directed by Charles Stone III. Rated PG-13 for innuendo and language. One hour, 58 minutes.

Rate it: Write your own review

Review:

"Drumline" marches down familiar turf, but it struts enough of the right stuff to keep it from being the same old drill. And it can't be beat for its dazzling theatrics and foot-stomping fun.

The film's story relies on the well-worn tale of an intense team rivalry building to an inspirational climax, something we've seen many times in many variations, from "Hoosiers" to "Remember the Titans."

But "Drumline" freshens the formula with a bedazzling battle of the bands instead of the usual fare of jocks against the clock.

We're taken into the world of elite college "show-style" marching bands. Mostly from predominately African-American universities like Morris Brown, they shun the Sousa-like old-school approach in favor of electrifying arrangements and impossibly complex choreography, including using their instruments as virtual weapons of showmanship.

The film was entirely shot in Atlanta; Tina Gordon Chism, a former journalist with the Atlanta Tribune, wrote the screenplay and Atlanta music mogul Dallas Austin was the executive producer.

The story's hero, Devon Miles, played charmingly by Nickelodeon's Nick Cannon, is a drummer who has won a music scholarship to the fictitious Atlanta A&T. Once at school, he finds that joining the band is more like signing on for Marine boot camp. Regimental discipline and dedication to the motto "one band, one sound" are practiced as rigorously as the music.

Devon competes for the premiere section of percussionists — the Drumline. But he is a showstopper and a showboat, a combination that does not go down well with the band's director, Dr. Lee, engagingly played with authoritative dignity by Orlando Jones. Devon also butts heads with the upper classman leader of the Drumline, Sean, played by Leonard Roberts. It's the old story of the raw but talented upstart rebelling against the establishment.

Dr. Lee, a purist who thinks hip-hop and rap aren't real music, views Earth, Wind and Fire songs as ideal marching repertoire. But the dean and some school alums are pressuring him to emulate the award winning Morris Brown College Band, which includes hip-hop riffs and real rappers in their crowd-pleasing show.

Despite the backdrop of '70s funk versus millennium-age hip-hop, this movie is an old-fashioned morality tale with values and themes as enduring as those of "It's A Wonderful Life." The hero, Devon, learns a lesson in humility and, though tempted, remains true to his school. At the same time, Sean and Dr. Lee learn to fearlessly embrace the new. With the exception of a few mild profanities and a subtle sexual reference, it's a film the whole family could cheer for over the holidays.

While the film's presentation is as straightforward as the plot, the director, Charles Stone III, of "Whassup?" Budweiser commercial fame, does a yeoman's job of telling the simple, sweet story. There are only occasional lapses, such as an incomplete storyline about Devon's absentee father. But Stone is also astute enough to give us plenty of what really makes our hearts pound in "Drumline" — the bands.

And if you think you don't like marching bands, think again: you will be blown away by the dancing and daredevil drumming that will have you strutting and stomping an exit right out of the theater.

— Melinda Ennis, for (none)