Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Vaughan Sheffield | ... | Young Sean |
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Christian Patterson | ... | Young Mitchell |
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Lisa Perry | ... | Sean & Mitchell's Mother |
Sam Worthington | ... | Mitchell | |
Adam Garcia | ... | Sean Odken | |
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Bruce Venables | ... | Williams |
William Zappa | ... | Walter | |
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Catherine Ajaka | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
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Luke Alleva | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
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Kurt Bardrick | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
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Danika Beckett | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
Angela Blake | ... | Walter's Tap Class | |
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Sam Buckley | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
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Steve Coppin | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
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Michael Edge | ... | Walter's Tap Class |
Born charmer Sean Okden gave up tap-dancing when he started working in the steel mill, but as that's going down the hill he grabs his chance being the only candidate in his coastal Australian home town Newcastle selected for a Sidney show. Being sacked soon just for a row with the arrogant lead dancer, he returns to find his girlfriend in bed with his brother Mitchell, and decides to start his own tap-dance group wearing hardhats, which he soon gives an original edge when the steel mill inspires him to weld metal on their shoes and dance on industrial steel, so it the metallic acoustics fit well with a local rock group. Financing their local debut is so expensive, even when the mill allows them free us of its premises -opening some acrobatic perspectives- while even his father won't allow him to touch his mother's inheritance for the project, that the 'Bootmen' need to steal the cheerleaders' podium in a televised sports match to get media attention. Sean generously helps his brother ... Written by KGF Vissers
The concept is good - to try to capture the style of the "Tap Dogs" and turn it into a feature film.
Sadly, the transition to the big screen was not entirely successful. In order to reach the big tap finale, we had to wade through an hour and a half of paper thin plot - nice guy fails to make it in the big city, father-son conflict, brother-brother conflict and small scale organized crime racket.
The quality of the acting left a bit to be desired (this is to be expected as the guys were selected for their tap ability, rather than their acting pedigree), and Sophie Lee was ... well, Sophie Lee (I'm yet to be convinced that she is an actor).
The bleak industrial landscape and cinematography were quite good, as were the actors in the small supporting roles.
So when push comes to shove - was the final tap spectacular worth sitting through the movie? Sure was, it's just a shame there wasn't a bit more of it.