You Got Served is a 2004 drama film written and directed by Chris Stokes, manager of its stars, recording artist Marques Houston and the members of boy band B2K. The plot concerns a group of dancers, who take part in a street dancing competition. It was released by Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems division on January 30, 2004, and was produced by Marcus Morton, Cassius Weathersby, Billy Pollina. It opened at #1 at the box office during Super Bowl weekend with US$16 million grossed in its first week.
Plot
David (Omarion) and Elgin (Marques Houston) lead a promising unstoppable dance crew in Los Angeles, California who participate in street dancing battles at a warehouse owned by a local club owner, Mr. Rad (Steve Harvey). Mr. Rad is highly respected and is looked at as a father-figure or mentor. The film opens up with their crew battling another crew led by Vick (Raz-B). Their crew wins and Vick's crew is very disappointed, thinking they should have won.
After the battle, David and Elgin go to a club to deliver drugs for a drug lord named Emerald (Michael Taliferro) in order to get money for the battles. When David and Elgin are challenged by Wade (Christopher Jones), a rich kid from Orange County for five thousand dollars, they think it's easy money. Wade and his best friend, Max (Robert Hoffman) meet Elgin at a park. Elgin tells them that his crew will battle their crew next Saturday night, but Wade and Max think that Elgin's crew are not good enough to battle them at night. Furious, Elgin accepts their offer.
Mr. Rad also announces that there will be no fighting during the battle. A fight breaks out in the middle of the battle between the two crews and Mr. Rad and Mr. Chuck break it up. The crowd applauds for Wade's crew and David and Elgin become furious that they have lost for the first time. Elgin tries to tell Mr. Rad that Wade and his crew stole their moves, but Wade, crowing over his success, delivers the titular line, "You're just mad... 'cause tonight you suckas got served!" David and Elgin's crew leaves very angry.
Meanwhile, David and Liyah (Jennifer Freeman), Elgin's sister, are falling in love. David picks her up from work and they go to a restaurant. While playing basketball with Vick, Elgin gets a cell phone call from Emerald telling him that he wants them to come earlier to do their job. Elgin tries to call David immediately, but before David can take Elgin's call, Liyah turns off his phone, leaving Elgin to do the job himself.
The friends split up and form their own crews, but neither is as good as on their own as they are together. Elgin forbids Liyah to see David, ignoring the fact that she and David want to help him. Rico (J-Boog) tells David and Elgin 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 and his grandmother. Attempts to bring Elgin and David together, particularly by Liyah, are fruitless, and twice they nearly come to blows and have to be separated.
Soon after, Lil Saint, who has been accepted into the crew, gets killed by a drive-by. The next day, Rico goes over to Elgin's house and tells him that they should reunite the crew in honor of Lil' Saint. David arrives a few minutes later and is told the same thing, but he and Elgin disagree.
Elgin's crew, going by the name "The Lil' Saints", shows up to the finals of the "Big Bounce" competition. Wade Robson and Lil' Kim host the competition. The finals begin, but when they announce the winner, they discover there is a tie between "The Lil' Saints" and "Wade's Crew". Both crews refuse a tie. Lil' Kim gets advice from Mr. Rad, who declares a battle competition, "straight hood," with no rules, even allowing other people to join the battling crews.
They battle Wade's crew, dedicating the battle to Lil' Saint.Wade and Max walk up to them, very upset, saying that it was not fair them to lose against them. David replies with, "Ya'll just mad, 'cause today, you suckas got served" They shout the "You Got Served" line in retaliation to Wade after he claims the battle settled nothing.
Cast
Soundtrack
You Got Served Soundtrack features mainly music by B2K, but also Marques Houston, and many others. There were some profanities in the soundtrack such as "Streets Is Callin'" but did not receive a PA label. The soundtrack was released on December 23, 2003. Also, there was a release of a music video for B2K's single "Badaboom" featuring Fabolous and Marques Houston was the guest appearance. The music video contains B2K and Fabolous in a female club while showing the "You Got Served" movie shots.
Reception
You Got Served opened at the #1 spot, knocking The Butterfly Effect out of that spot. It had generally poor reviews, earning a 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1] While many critics enjoyed the dance sequences, they found the rest of the movie to be rather generic.
The film is also credited with launching the current surge in dance films such as Step Up, Stomp the Yard and How She Move in film and television.[citation needed]
Parodies
- You Got Served was parodied in the eighth-season episode of the animated series South Park entitled "You Got F'd in the A".
- The film Meet the Spartans parodies this movie in a scene where the Spartans face off the Immortals.
- 2009's Dance Flick also parodies this film.
- The 2004 video game The Bard's Tale had a parody scene with a dance off between zombies and skeletons.
- The show Robot Chicken the parodies this film using characters from the anime Voltron.
- In the online game Guild Wars: Nightfall if the dance command is entered at the correct place before the final battle the boss will dance and instantly kill you. The words "You Got Served" appear afterwards.
References
External links
