"Dance Flick" is a spoof-a-rama overflowing with Wayanses

OK, let's just admit it: There's something inherently funny about watching a guy slide down a city street on his head (thanks to a shrewd oil spill). And there's plenty of funny stuff in "Dance Flick," the new spoof movie written and directed by a slew of Wayans family members (directed by Damien Dante Wayans, and written by him with Keenen Ivory, Shawn, Marlon and Craig).

That's not to say that the movie's any good; it's a cheerfully tasteless mess, with the gags coming rapid-fire in the hopes that we won't notice that some of them fall flat. In theory, "Dance Flick" is a sendup of dance movies, including "Fame," "Footloose," "High School Musical" and most overtly "Save the Last Dance." In reality, it's a sendup of whatever the Wayanses feel like making fun of, including Dick Cheney, Halle Berry, baby daddys, movie graffiti (in a street scene, we see the spray-painted words "bad graffiti") and those great dance movies "Black Snake Moan" and "Twilight."

In the grand tradition of spoof movies, most of the best stuff is in the trailer: a ballerina in her living room whose whirling limbs keep clobbering unsuspecting family members; a funny bit about interracial romance; a head-whirling move in which the dancer bores into the floor.

Damon Wayans Jr., as hip-hop dancer Thomas Uncles (his team name is, you guessed it, the Uncle Toms), is appealingly unafraid of looking silly, and Shoshana Bush, in the Julia Stiles role from "Save the Last Dance," exudes doe-eyed goofiness. Amy Sedaris steals the movie as dance teacher Ms. Cameltoe. That's pronounced Camel-tois, by the way. Baby, remember her name.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com