Save the Last Dance
Metascore
53 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 24
  3. Negative: 1 out of 24
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    Above all, this is a movie where the characters ask the same questions we do: They're as smart about themselves as we are.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    75
    Sure, you've seen some of these moves before, but Save the Last Dance triumphantly passes the audition.
  3. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Sara Wildberger
    63
    All in all it's a decent, well-put-together romantic drama to hold hands to on the weekend.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    While it flirts with "After School Special"-ness, at least has the courage to address racial and cultural cliches with a degree of honesty.
  5. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    The most traditional of Hollywood romances, in that it's resolutely about nice people with nice problems.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    It's about as routine a movie as they come, but it features plenty of endorphin-releasing hip-hop choreography as Derek teaches Sara to get jiggy with it.
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    The result is more like an epic "After School Special" -- preachy, runny and oddly warm.
  8. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    50
    Thomas' easygoing warmth helps to melt Stiles' icy veneer, and one of Dance's few pleasures is an extended musical segment where she tries to ape his homeboy posturings.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    Recycles every cliché of the genre to sleep-inducing effect.
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    An utterly formulaic, teen-oriented romance whose greatest asset is charming leads Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas.
  11. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    42
    This wan, formulaic teen movie from ''Metro'' director Thomas Carter is afraid to pump up the volume on its own interracial, hip hop Romeo and Juliet story, lest it challenge even one sedated viewer or disturb the peace.
  12. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Kim Morgan
    42
    Filled with too many issues -- along with young motherhood, street gangs, city life, sex, peer pressure, grief and, oh yes, dancing, which is nearly lost in so many poorly written subplots.
  13. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Gemma Files
    70
    Breaks virtually no new narrative ground, yet treads the familiar territory it does cover with grace, style, wit and fun.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    The story comes full circle in a way that might seem overly schematic did it not have the courage to wear its heart on its sleeve without losing its head.
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    70
    This is a spirited, dirty dance between the polished inauthenticity of Hollywood romance-musicals and hip-hop's central tenet: keeping it real. It's an intriguing combination, if nothing else.
  16. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    60
    It's pretty good, really.
  17. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    60
    Carter can't sidestep the script's cliches, so he wisely cuts to the fancy footwork whenever possible.
  18. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    60
    This sweet-tempered retelling of "Romeo and Juliet," which substitutes uplift for tragedy, gives off enough energy and light that the audience wants to believe in it even if society's impacted prejudices continue to say otherwise.
  19. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    60
    Bland but poised.
  20. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    50
    For all its dumb clichés it offers the basic appeal of teen movies: the pleasure of watching kids be kids, acting as they do among themselves instead of how parents and teachers expect them to act.
  21. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    50
    The disjointed plotting and afterschool-special dialogue offer scant opportunity for the charismatic leading duo to work up much chemistry.
  22. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    50
    Grounded in bedrock formula and earnestness.
  23. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    50
    Takes its cues from the musical dramas of the '70s, but this otherwise engaging young-adult romance never quite catches Saturday night fever.
  24. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    50
    This teenage interracial romance runs hot and cold, sweet and silly, with many more fits than starts.
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User Reviews

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User Score
9.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 162 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 113 out of 116
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 116
  3. Negative: 3 out of 116
  1. NikolaK.
    10
    Great movie.
  2. MiaT.
    10
    This is the coolest movie ever i really like the dancing, it proves that no matter what color you are you can be accepted, i mean she was acceptd before she learned how they are she fit in right away she just had to open up and once she did everyone realized how great of a person she was. What an amazing movie, i really likes the song true colors it was inspiring and i liked the part which is my favorite is where sara and derek do the competition dance that was so cool and i learned that dance.… Full Review »
  3. BrianG
    10
    I absolutely loved this movie. It's inspirational in a sense, and is the only 'chick flick' I've watched more than once.
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