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Purely Joyful Movie!

Beautiful, moving film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

To say Drumline: A New Beat was predictable is, well, predictable. The female lead goes from an ultra successful, intelligent, self assured but pampered high school senior inundated with full academic scholarships from top universities to lack-luster, insecure college freshman whose only goal, only passion is to play in a marching band at so-so college as a P1 drummer in the center of the front line. And throughout the movie there is little if any, mention of anything to do with actual day to day requirements and the reason for attending college....(classes, grades, studying and earning a degree) just high school like drama of being in the marching band. The college, A&T, while never mention in the film as such, appears to be an HBCU (Historically Black College and Universities) as the only white -or Asian, Hispanic- people are seen in the background and only briefly. Additionally, the fictional A&T marching band is reminiscent of Florida A&M University's marching band that was disbanded and several members were prosecuted for the death of Robert Champion, one of it's members as a direct result of hazing. I won't go into how many stereo-types were displayed throughout the movie (gold chains, black males calling black women "bi!ch", chocolate used to describe black skinned men being black). Finally, when all is said and done, this is still just a movie about high school "band geeks" that are now college "band geeks". A movie where they try to equate the demands, rigors and competition of playing in a college marching band to those of playing a college level sport be it football, wrestling, basketball or swimming. In this regard, they failed.

When I first heard VH1 was making original movie sequel to Drumline, the first thought through my head was ' Oh god, not another Stomp the Yard: Homecoming'. But as I sat down in my bed to watch the premiere, it did have it's corny moments, but as the plot thicken I found myself watching through the commercials. I have to say VH1 is very well known for their amazing shows like Single Ladies & Hit the Floor. I would definitely love to see them work with more movie like this even though it did have it's moment. My favorite parts would have to be the battle specifically the final battle. The acting department was also favorable with Nick Cannon returning with amazing acting in the speech scene <*MUST WATCH*. Plus the return of my childhood crush, Jordan Calloway. Just being surprised how he has grown since Unfabolous <3. In all words, Drumline: A New Beat scores a nine out of ten from me. :)

To start off, I do not think it was absolutely horrible, but it also wasn't very good either. One of the good things they did, your eyes won't be sorry you watched this movie, there is plenty of sexy eye candy for girls and boys. Overall this movie seemed a lot lighter than the first. Some of the acting was either over the top or below the bar. The actor playing Kevin Taylor- they should have picked someone else, he just doesn't fit the role. Nick Cannon's short reprisal of his role felt forced and fake. The story was way too predictable, you knew that ANT was going to win, you knew that the white boy and black girl would get together, you knew that the gay guys crush was on the down low, etc. But I guess what else is there to expect from this type of movie, originality? Also, a lot of the band music and step moves were just watered down copies of the first movie. There a few good moments like when the lead actress is trying to help her boyfriend get past family drama. Also the role they had for one of the characters playing the butthole/meathead, he didn't want a girl on the line, they never resolved this, the character did not repent of his ways or get his comeuppance. This was kind of annoying, a bad character just stays bad with no consequences? One of the good things about the first movie was seeing how Nick Cannon's character went from an arrogant punk to being a team player. Well that's my 2 cents, take it or leave it, you won't miss anything if you don't watch this movie.

So many amazing action and drama packed scenes, and the acting was beyond perfect. The movie teaches that you have to follow your dreams no matter what other people will think about you. "Drumline: A New Beat" was something amazing and I hope they'll make a 3rd movie sometime soon. Hopefully the future generations will get a chance to see this movie and understand that no matter what you do, you cannot give up if that's what you want to reach. Alexandra Shipp nailed it with her amazing acting skills as well as the fellow cast stars like Jordan Calloway, LeToya Luckett, Jasmine Burke, Nick Cannon etc. I really enjoyed watching this movie.