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Battle of the Year | 2013 | PG-13 | - 3.3.5

A man (Josh Holloway) struggling to piece together his life after the tragic death of his wife and son is recruited to coach a Bboy crew and help them qualify for the Battle of the Year, hoping to bring the title home to the USA. Also with Laz Alonso, Josh Peck, Caity Lotz, Chris Brown, Ivan 'Flipz' Velez, Jon 'Do Knock' Cruz, Anis Cheurfa, Jesse 'Casper' Brown, David Shreibman, Sawandi Wilson, Richard Maguire, Steve Terada, Luis Rosado and Joshua Lee Ayers. Directed by Benson Lee. [1:49]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A young woman wears tight-fitting clothing and a low-cut top that reveals cleavage as well as her bare abdomen and lower back in a few scenes. Women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage and bare shoulders in several scenes. Dance crews are shown shirtless during practices and battles (the young men's bare chests and backs as well as the tops of underwear are seen and some of them are tattooed). A man is shirtless and wearing sweatpants (his bare back, abdomen and chest are seen). A man wears a tank top and boxers or sweatpants in a few scenes and his bare shoulders are seen. A woman wears a dress that shows her legs from mid-thigh.
 A husband and his wife kiss. A husband and his wife hug and kiss. Several young men make catcalls when a young woman enters a gym and she puts them in their place and they stop.
 A young man says that he is gay in a few scenes and another young man appears to be bothered by that and avoids being around him. A young man says that he thinks about Bgirls when he is dancing. We hear that two young men dated the same young woman.
 Several dance moves include men grabbing their clothed crotches (sometimes appearing as a taunt).

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A young man punches another young man in the face in a bar and a bar fight starts with several people punching and shoving others (we see no injuries). Two young men shove each other and fight; punches are landed and they throw each other on the ground before being pulled apart by a man (no injuries are evident). A young man slaps a magazine out of another young man's hand and threatens him. A young man falls while dancing and hurts his knee (he yells in pain and we see him in a brace and on crutches later).
 A young man threatens another young man and says "I'm gonna bust your [anatomical term deleted]." A young man yells at two other young men, threatens one of them with a punch in the face and then throws a chair. A young man becomes enraged when he is cut from a crew and yells as his coach leaves the room. A coach is enraged and throws things around his apartment and bangs on a table. During a dance battle one team seems to lose control, becomes angry and lose focus. Two men argue. Several young men argue and insult each other until one shoves another and they fight. A man and a young man argue about a whistle briefly. A young man smacks another young man on the back of the neck (it appears to be playful). A young man slaps another young man in the face playfully. Several young men throw a large sheet cake in a man's face (we see icing on his face, hair, shirt and the wall behind him).
 We hear that a man's wife and teen son died in a car accident. We hear that two young men dated the same young woman and they are antagonistic toward each other because of it. A young man describes himself as "rhythmically challenged" and that being Jewish he lost it at the "circumcision." A dance crew is called "Sole Assassins." A man tells another man that he has vomit on his shoes.
 A man punishes crewmembers by making them do 100 push-ups every time they say "I."
 Dance crews are shown dancing and performing acrobatic-type moves with lots of jumps and spins on their heads and other parts of their bodies during practices and battles; other moves seem aggressive with their gestures suggesting weapons or taunts.

LANGUAGE 5 - 9 obscene hand gestures, 26 scatological terms, 19 anatomical terms, 20 mild obscenities, name-calling (foster kid, ignorant, punk, insane, gazelle with arthritis, stupid, distraction, ugly Americans, suckers), exclamations (shut-up ), 3 religious profanities (GD), 2 religious exclamations (Thank God, Oh My God).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks from a bottle of alcohol and stumbles around his apartment (presumably drunk), a man drinks from a flask in many scenes throughout the movie, we see a liquor bottle on a table in front of a man sleeping on his couch (it is implied that the man drank the liquor and passed out), young men are shown drinking alcohol in an airport bar, young men are shown drinking in a nightclub, people are shown drinking wine with dinner, people drink champagne at a celebration, and a man tells a young man "I'm gonna have a drink."

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Hip hop, Bboy, death of family members, grief, giving up, hope, honor, fate, respect, pride, commitment, disappointment, competition, need to win, self-expression, art vs. sport, foster care.

MESSAGE - There is no "I" in team.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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