As much as it pains me to do so, I had to close this site. The inactivity is eating me up inside and I'm far too lazy to update this site because of its manual straight-to-the-code nature. Thank you everyone for visiting my blog and being with me these past few months. My big switch to blogspot is something that my current schedule and position calls for. I don't have the time to manually edit the html code for this site anymore.. the convenience of blogspot's wysiwyg system of editing is too tempting to resist. That's why my current blog is now named Sorbetera.

Please join me at my new home.. I hope to see you there!

I'll be leaving this freewebs site open in case other people might come here. I might even use freewebs as an external page and set up a banner and avatar service for those who are too lazy to make their own avatars. ^___^ It's a sort of thank you note for everyone who had been visiting this wasted site of mine.. ^__^ I love you all!

Please join me at Sorbetera Girl

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"Take the effing Lead!"
"The OST kicks major ass" -- me

This is pretty old news for most of you guys but I just have to rave about it. Let me get one thing straight first before proceeding though. If you're looking for mind-boggling puzzles or tear-jerking moments then it is best if you stop reading right now. Take the Lead is a friggin' sucky drama flick. It's a pathetic mystery-solving movie. But let me tell you that it is a captivating dance movie. Way better than Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

Since I absolutely suck at giving synopsis, I'll just borrow one from iMDB.com

Based upon a real story, the movie tells the struggle of Pierre Dulain (Antonio Banderas), a dance teacher, to give to a group of problem kids a second chance, exploring their dance skills. One night, Dulain sees astonished a boy, Rock (Rob Brown), destroying the car of his school director. Next day, Dulaine goes to the school to asks the director for a job of dance teacher. She doesn't believe to much in Dulaine's idea: helping a group of in-detention-kids (including Rock) to reform themselves through ball dance classes. Even for the kids won't be the greatest idea, whom prefer hip-hop or rap. But Dulain catches their attention after a tango session despite their indifference at the beginning, the rejects of the formal Dulaine pupils in his dance academy and the critics from parents and other teachers, whom believe that the kids need more maths and less dance. Nevertheless, our dance learners will compete in a dance contest, because the important thing isn't winning, but make the difference.

Summary written by Alejandro Frias

One of the things that probably did it for me was the fusion of hiphop and jazz tracks. You have to forgive me since I haven't heard stuff like that before. I really liked the opening credits of the movie mainly because of thge song. The way the two cultures meshed together is so cleanly made, the transition makes it pretty and intact. The song "I Got Rhythm" by Lena Horne feat. Q-Tip got me addicted for several weeks. The music producers of this movie certainly know what they were doing. They had songs made, filtered, mixed.. remixed and jumbled all over exclusively for this movie. It's a shame though that the OST didn't feature the songs used in the Tango dances.... those were extremely sexy and eccentric in the sense that it had hiphop beats mixed onto it. There are rumors that they will be releasing a 2nd volume of the first Take the Lead OST and in this version will include the tango tracks as well as the other jazz music played in the movie.

Sure the music's good but what about the actors? I'll share a little secret with you: I really, REALLY like Antonio Banderas.. ever since his role as Che in the movie Evita way back in the 1996. BUT I didn't like him in the Zorro context. It's too cheesy for my taste. I prefer to see him in roles that require dancing and singing than swishing swords. Anyway, Antonio Banderas who played the ballroom dance instructor Mr. Dulaine, make his role seem really easy. It's no walk in the park teaching a bunch of rebellious and misunderstood kids in a public school how to dance ballroom. However, Banderas' natural charisma oozed over to his role as Mr. Dulaine and managed to channel all that hiphop body-grinding into conventional ballroom. And what is the result? A funky, hot-as-hell, three-way tango.

The cast includes Yaya DaCosta (yeah that girl who got 2nd place in America's Next Top Model) and Dante Basco (that 'Rufio' guy from Robin Williams' Peter Pan). I admit, even though Dante isn't really the hottest teenager in hollywood, I find him charming in this movie. He's just soooo.... Rufio. Whenever I look at him, I remember the kid swinging in the trees and leading the Lost Boys to challenge Peter Pan. Yaya did an unexpectedly nice job playing the role of LaRhette. I didn't even notice that she's from ANTP until my boyfriend pointed out her name in the credits. Overall, the cast did a fantastic job. I found myself laughing at their genuinely backstreet humor. And with Antonio Banderas' cute spanish accent mixed in the bunch of ghetto talk, it's just painfully cute.

The movie is light, expect LITTLE drama, LITTLE depth but a LIGHT and ENJOYABLE experience. You will enjoy it not because you found the story engaging but because you'll just have so much fun watching the "school rejects" learn ballroom and forcefully insert hiphop moves to Mr. Dulaine's foxtrot.

Watch it especially if you'd be going out dancing. This movie will make you want to go to the nearest bar and dance your heart out. ^__^

Here's the OST tracklist: (try to download it or buy the album and listen to it! It's REALLY good ^__^)

1 I Got Rhythm [Lena Horne feat Q Tip]
2 Take The Lead (Wanna Ride) [Bone Thugs and Harmony feat Wisin & Yandel]
3 Feel It [Black Eyed Peas]
4 I Like That (Stop) [Jae Millz]
5 These Days [Rhymefest]
6 Here We Go [Dirtbag]
7 Whiteva [Remy Ma]
8 Ya Ya (Al Stone Mix) [Empty Heads]
9 Never Gonna Get It [Sean Biggs feat Akon & The Topics]
10 I Like That You Can't Take That Away From Me [June Christy, Mashonda, Jae Millz]
11 Fascination [Kem]
12 Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) [ Sly & the Family Stone ]

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