You Got Served
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| You Got Served | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Chris Stokes |
| Produced by | Marcus Morton Billy Pollina |
| Written by | Chris Stokes |
| Starring | Omarion Grandberry Tanee McCall Jennifer Freeman |
| Music by | Tyler Bates |
| Cinematography | David Hennings |
| Editing by | Earl Watson |
| Distributed by | Columbia Tristar Films |
| Release date(s) | 2004 |
| Running time | 95 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
You Got Served is a film written and directed by Chris Stokes, manager of its stars, recording artist Marques Houston and the members of boy band B2K. It was released by Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems division on January 30, 2004, during the Super Bowl XXXVIII weekend and was produced by Billy Pollina. It was the most seen movie during the Super Bowl weekend with $16 million USD grossed in its first week, a record until late 2005; the movie went on to gross over 40 Million USD.
The plot concerns a group of friends, participating in a breakdancing crew, who take part in a street dancing competition.
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[edit] Title
There has been some attempt to break the titular expression into the mainstream. The expression "you got served" has been used to describe someone or something that has either lost badly or been humiliated (or possibly both). Also, "to be served" is legalese for facing litigation, i.e. being served with a subpoena; or, a reference to serving food, or one's head on a platter. The key concept is that to be "served" is against one's will - to be given something that is undesirable.
[edit] Plot summary
David (Omarion) and Elgin (Marques Houston) lead a promising hip-hop/streetdancing/breakdancing crew in Southern California, who participate in street dancing battles produced by a local club owner (Steve Harvey). All is well... until Sonny, a member of the crew, expresses dissatisfaction over the subordinate role the other members of the crew play.
When David and Elgin are challenged by "some rich kids out of Orange County" for five thousand dollars, they think it's easy money. They deal drugs for Emerald (a local drug lord) to cover their half, never dreaming they would lose the battle.
When Sonny (Young Rome) sells them out by going to the other side ("Wade's crew"), he teaches his new companions moves from the David and Elgin group, and in the battle they are badly defeated ("get served.") Wade, crowing over his success, delivers the titular line, "You're just mad, because tonight you suckas got served."
Meanwhile, David and Elgin's sister, Liyah, are falling in love. At a restaurant, Liyah turns off David's cell phone immediately before Elgin attempts to call him to say that Emerald has given them a job earlier than expected. David fails to show up for the job, and Elgin is beaten and robbed.
Consequently, Elgin gets very angry at David for attempting to "hook up with his sister when he should have been taking care of business," and is also annoyed at his sister for "acting like a ho". Elgin is also worried, since he owes Emerald money to cover for the loss of his goods.
Each split up and form their own crew, but neither is as good as the original. They learn about the "Big Bounce," a $50,000 dance competition purportedly sponsored by MTV which will provide the winning crew the opportunity to perform in a Lil' Kim video. Elgin sees this as a good way to pay back Emerald.
Attempts to bring Elgin and David together, particularly by Lylah, are fruitless, and twice they nearly come to blows and have to be separated. One of the younger members of the crew dies prior to the competition; while all are saddened it is not enough to bring the warring enemies back together yet.
At the "Big Bounce" competition, Elgin's crew beats David's crew in semifinals, and then ties the finals against Wade's crew. Lil' Kim, guest referee, on advice from Harvey's character, declares a playoff competition, "straight hood," with no rules, even allowing other people to join the battling crews.
This proves the catalyst for Elgin's feud with David to end (though only after prodding by crew members and threats of forfeiting the competition to Wade), and together they defeat Wade's crew in a mesmerising final battle. They shout the "You Got Served" line in retaliation to Wade after he claims the battle settled nothing. The partisan crowd, elated, begins chanting "Served! Served! Served! Served!" getting louder and faster. Elgin accepts David's relationship with Liyah at picture's end.
[edit] Critical Response
Critics were none too kind to You Got Served. It opened to generally poor reviews, earning a 17% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes[citation needed]. While many critics enjoyed the dance sequences, they found the rest of the movie to be rather generic. Currently, the film has a 2.1/10 rating on IMDB, earning it the 25th spot on the dubious Bottom 100 list.
[edit] Trivia
- There were strong rumours throughout January 2004, before the movie's release that a sequel was in the works. Demario and Druex reportedly confirmed this themselves in a February 2004 episode of 106 and Park. The plot was about David finding out who his father is and that Wade's cousin was a one of the street gang members who ordered that Lil' Saint be killed and had killed Rico inbetween parts one and 2 himself. The plot of the first one was still intact for the sequel; such as the dance competition but stakes raised. Magazines like Entertainment Weekly, The Source, and others published articles about it in December 2004 and January 2005 issues. However, the actual production of the movie never got underway and the script has since been locked up. Despite negative reaction, there are rumours that a sequel could be possible.
- Despite being rated overall as a horrid film (due to the crew's "horrible acting abilities"), the movie received high praises for the dance scenes; a few movie critics have given the film a high rating due strictly to the dance routines.
- This movie follows the recipe for the original breakdance film Breakin', produced in the 1980s.
- Prior to the movie being produced, there were tryouts for all (actual) dance crews around Los Angeles to participate. Winners were featured in the film.
- Despite breaking up before the release of the film, B2K still performed songs for the movie in what was said to be their final performance together.
- Was perhaps the first movie in which the infamous Crip Walk was featured throughout. It should, however, be noted that when performed in the film, the Crip Walk was seen as a dance, and not an offensive ritual. However, B2K in particular (expecially Omarion were criticised for Crip Walking while wearing red, which is a Blood colour (the official colour of the Crips is blue, which one member wore). They were also criticised for Crip Walking despite not being Crips themselves.
- This movie was labeled as being racist, mainly because the villains (Wade's Crew) were White and the heroes (Elgin and David's crew) were Black. However, if one looks carefully at both crews, there were a mixture of races in both crews. Also, Wade's crew were depicted as being "rich white kids from Orange County" and David and Elign's crew was from a rather urban-type neighbourhood in which drug dealing was the main money-making venture. This, however, was supposedly seen as a mere coincidence.
- A couple of weeks after the film's release on DVD, another DVD titled You Got Served: Take It To The Streets was released, in which actors teach the viewer some of the routines in the film.
- Some of the dancers are actually professional dancers or backup dancers in real life. The long red haired dancer in the fifth dance battle is actually one of Britney Spears' backup dancers for example.
- Kevin Federline, Britney Spears' fiance at the time of production, appears as a background dancer on Wade's crew.
- Two future So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) judges and choreographers were involved with the movie: Shane Sparks as choreographer and Brian 'Be Free' Friedman as a dancer in Wade's crew.
- The plot of the movie was parodied in a South Park episode titled "You Got F'd in the A".
- There was rumors that former B2K singer, Jarell Houston was originally going to play the role of "David" and singer Omarion to play the role of "Rico". Ultimately, executive decisions lead to Omarion winning the lead role of David and Houston playing the supporting role of Rico.
- Ironically, the movie's sub-theme of ending fueds in a time of need came at a time when the stars of the film, B2K, was going through their own fued with management which lead to their breakup.
- The featured dancer Flipz was booked directly off of a private screening of Honey (2003 film).
- David Elsewhere and R&B singer Keithian also made a cameo appearance in the film.
