Lauryn Kirk (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from a small Indiana town goes to audition for the Chicago School of Music and Dance. They want real emotions and reject her. Her car gets towed and she is unwilling to admit defeat to her brother. She gets a place to stay from Dana (Tessa Thompson) who helps get her a bookkeeping job at the burlesque club Ruby's. Dana is one of the dancers and Russ (Riley Smith) is the music director.This is a worn-out formula. The plot is a copy of every other one of these dance movies. This has to distinguish itself with great dancing but there is nothing exceptional here. Winstead is not a big enough star to carry this although she does have that wide-eyed innocent quality. She's tall and lanky. She fits the character but the movie is not special.

just bought the above DVD from my local video chain outlet (ie. Video Ezy) where i'm blessed to have it in my possession as my country (ie. Malaysia) has a fairly high amount of pirated DVD's products which causes licensed video shops to have limited movie titles...well, to start off, apparently there were some deleted scenes in the movie where the producer / director decided to remove the story of Dana (ie.Tessa Thompson) getting pregnant and subsequent miscarriage....due to this removal, i guess viewers could not fully appreciate the close relationship between Lauryn (ie.Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Dana which the scriptwriter wanted to relay but was unfortunately chopped… in summary, some of the movie story reflected Mary's personal real life experiences such as being a ballerina when Lauryn was young, has taste for "off-the-beaten-track" music as composed by Russ (ie. Riley Smith) and I guess due to her holding steadfast to her personal principles, there were no revealing love or kissing scenes in the movie – hurray to Mary! Initially, I've watched this movie over YouTube but now with my TV, I could better appreciate Mary's expressive eyes and innocent looks which I guess you all guys are all infatuated to, like myself…ha..ha… happy viewing

Following the success of dance spectacles such as 'Stomp The Yard', 'Save The Last Dance' and 'You Got Served', film goers now have 'Make It Happen'…but can it step up to its predecessors and dance up a box-office storm??? Like its forerunners, 'Make It Happen' follows a generic storyline. Country gal' Lauryn (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) leaves hicks ville to pursue dancing in the big smoke…only to be bitterly disappointed when her audition for the Chicago School of Music and Dance ends up a spectacular flop. Dreams shattered, Lauryn finds work at seedy burlesque club 'Ruby's'. Here she meets disc jockey Russ (Riley Smith), where an inevitable spark is lit between the two. Pretty soon her dance career heats up also; she takes center stage, performing burlesque/hip-hop fusions to a screaming audience each night. It is at 'Ruby's' where Lauryn is forced to reevaluate her dreams, her family, her life and love…taking her on the ultimate journey of self discovery… Lauryn's transformation from heavily made-up, sexy country hick to heavily made-up, sexy dancer…is nothing short of…well…nothing. Lauryn is a flat, uninspired, martyr who comes across as the ultimate drip…a wet blanket some might say. Winstead has a certain screen presence…yet the script dumbs down any moments of authenticity in her performance. The supporting cast is not worth mentioning; they play it by the numbers and it's all a very trite."But who gives a Shiite about the characters and story?" I hear you say…"We're all watching it for the dancing!" Surely a film with such a wafer thin plot and stale protagonists would compensate with breathtaking, sexy and exhilarating dance sequences…right? WRONG. When the dance sequences should be sizzling, they end up fizzling…when they are about to pack a punch, they give the audience a floppy and limp wrist. They are competently filmed, and edited with a sense of rhythm, yet memorable moments = ZILL. The film attempts to explore the somewhat risqué style of burlesque dance…but wants to keep a PG rating…so everything about 'Ruby's' feels completely toned down.For a dance movie, there is very little dancing. Unfortunately this means the audience sits through excessive amounts of predictable dialog before anything remotely exciting happens. At times it almost reaches "it's so lame it's good!" status…but never quite gets there. 'Make It Happen' really doesn't make anything happen at all…save your money and watch highlights of So You Think You Can Dance on You Tube.

As another comment here pointed it out, this movie has lots in common with "Coyote Ugly". But it also reminded me of "Save the Last Dance", as the main character played there also auditioned for a famous dance school performing a dance routine that mixed classic ballet moves with modern hip hop ones. Also in both movies the main characters have lost their mothers (both of whom, if I remember this correctly 'cause it's been a while since I saw "Save the Last Dance", are dead). I actually looked rapidly at a couple of comments before deciding whether to watch "Make It Happen" or not after seeing the trailer, so I knew what to expect and I wasn't disappointed - that is because they updated the music, changed a little the location and the style, but all in all re-proposed two stories that had already been successful in the past (so we could consider it some sort of remake). From this point of view it wasn't that bad:P