Jennifer August (Carson) is sent to spend the summer at her estranged father's hotel where she meets and falls in love with dishwasher Ken (Wespi-Tschopp). Things don't go smoothly for the couple as they face opposition from Jen's father who sets her up with snobbish bellboy Danny (Matt Marr) and a dance competition right around the corner. Take this plot and season it with lots and lots of dancing, and you have this movie.
Compare From Justin to Kelly.
Tropin': It's On:
- Advertised Extra: The black girl on one of the movie's covers would be this if she's the same person as the extra in the competition.
- Aerith and Bob: Jennifer, Ken, Danny and Shotsy.
- Almighty Janitor: Danny is apparently a bellboy, yet he bullies fellow low-rung employee Ken, a dishwasher, telling him to "learn [his] place", and doesn't get in any trouble.
- Always on Duty: The Captain appears to work at the hotel door at all hours of the day and night, as well as emceeing the off-site dance competition.
- Ambiguous Ending: The film ends only with Jen and Ken winning the competition, and Jen's mother giving Jen's father an embrace and a kiss in the audience. There is a lot left unexplained: what happens to Danny and Shotsy, whether Jen's father changes his views on his daughter's relationship, etc.
- Animation Bump: Ken and Jenny's kiss has better video quality than the rest of the movie.
- Angry Dance: As part of Ken's pissy attitude after angrily breaking up with Jen, he runs off, breaks into a bout of this and kicks a sunbed into the hotel pool in the process.
- Awkward Kiss: Jen and Ken's climactic Big Damn Kiss is interrupted by running commentary from random hotel guests watching them.
- Bad Date: Jen's dad forces her to go on one with Danny. She doesn't expect to enjoy herself, and she's right: Their conversation is beyond awkward, even by this movie's standards, and he still goes for a kiss at the end!
- Big Fancy House: Jen and her mother live in one and even have butlers. The interior of the house looks more like something out of a gothic horror movie than a cheesy teen musical.
- Character Tics: The Captain's habit of executing random dance steps after or even during anything he says.
- Dainty Little Ballet Dancers: Averted; both main actors are real-life ballet dancers, and ballet scenes in the film show both feminine and masculine routines.
- Dance of Despair: One of the Captain's random dance moments takes place right after Jen and Ken have their argument. He ends his usually jaunty dance with a heavy sigh and dismayed shake of the head.
- Dance-Off: Jen and Ken get into a flirtatious one when they first meet at a teen club.
- Dancing Is Serious Business: It's also ON!
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Jen's father will not have her dating a dishwasher in his hotel. He wants her to go out with the head bellboy instead.
- Divorce Is Temporary: Jen and Ken's victory at the competition makes the former's parents get back together.
- Everybody Was Ballroom Dancing: Nearly every major character is a dancer.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Captain is only ever known as the Captain.
- Flashmob: As Jen wanders around the city at night down in the dumps from her nasty breakup, she's greeted by a sudden crowd of street dancers. She joins them and instantly feels better.
- Foodfight!: At one point on Ken and Jen's date, they visit an ice cream shop and start throwing ice cream at each other, prompting everyone in the shop to start hurling ice cream all over the place too.
- Hell Hotel: Okay, it's not supposed to be this, but the Hit Parade Hotel is full of people breaking into song and dance and all manner of performance art at any given moment, which would probably be terrifying—or at least incredibly annoying—to some.
- Hong Kong Dub: Due to rampant poor ADR, dialogues often don't match the actors' lip movements.
- Ice-Cream Koan: What exactly does Hal mean by "you can play baseball, you can play tennis, you can even play football, but you can't play dance"?
- Informed Ability: Hal's dancing is treated as awe-inspiring by Ken and he becomes Ken and Shotsy's mentor, plus his actor David Winters was a respectable choreographer, but the dancing he shows on screen, which looks more like vague and indiscriminate limb flailing, says otherwise.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Shotsy sadly accepts that Ken will never be hers and encourages him to make up with Jen.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first Ken writes Hal off at the Jerkass who makes him perform chores that have already been performed out of spite. Turns out he's a very talented choreographer who's still grieving for his son.
- Lady Not-Appearing-in-This-Game: An alternate cover
features alongside the named characters a black girl who is either this or Advertised Extra if she's the nameless, dialogueless dancer in the climactic competition. - Mating Dance: Some of the dance routines are suggestive, but one performance in the competition where the shirtless male dancer is put on a leash and acts like the female dancer's pet takes the cake.
- The Mentor: Hal Sanders to Ken and Shotsy, and later to him and Jennifer after Shotsy pairs up with Danny.
- Missed the Recital: Subverted: Jen's dad nearly has to miss the dance competition due to a shareholders' meeting. He manages to get there at the last minute.
- Mr. Fanservice: Ken gets lots of opportunities to show off his well-built frame, even going shirtless at times.
- Ms. Fanservice: Shotsy wears increasingly low-cut tops in the hopes of attracting Ken's affection. It doesn't work.
- Mysterious Stranger: The Captain is a walking enigma; nothing is clear about him, not even his name or his actual profession (he's supposedly the hotel doorman, but he also hosts the dance contest). He's only a Token Black Friend who mysteriously and annoyingly pops up at regular intervals to act "wise" and "supportive".
- No Name Given: What the heck is the Captain's name?
- No OSHA Compliance: The hotel, where people are allowed to break into dancing and performance acts in risky places like the kitchen and the lobby, and no one seems to have a problem with this.
- Only One Name: Jennifer and Hal are the only full-named characters.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Hal lost his son in Iraq, because of which he swears off dancing.
- Pom-Pom Girl: Jenny is a cheerleader, as shown in the movie's beginning.
- Race for Your Love: Ken, for Jen, following their Second-Act Breakup.
- Recurring Extra: The mime. Seriously, what was the mime for?
- Scenery Porn: The film makes a point of showing off Panama City Beach's scenery and tourist attractions to the point of feeling like a tourism ad for the area at times.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Jen feels no compunction about making a mess in the hotel corridor, since her dad owns the place.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Winning, particularly at the climactic dance competition, is "everything" to Danny and Shotsy. And then they immediately decide Jen and Ken deserve to win.
- Speaks in Shout-Outs: The British receptionist who repeatedly quotes Shakespeare in his Incredibly Lame Puns.2B or not 2B, that is the question. Enjoy your stay.
- Spontaneous Choreography: The film is nearly made of this, as characters constantly break into dance at the drop of a hat no matter the time and place.
- Stock Footage: There are many shots of the cheering crowd during the dance contest that are clearly taken from other concerts or spring break events, which makes it stand out significantly.
- Sweet Tooth: Jen and Ken's all-day date starts with milkshakes and ends with ice cream.
- Token Black Friend: The Captain doesn't contribute much to the story aside from popping up on occasion to offer advice and encouragement to the heroes.
- Token Minority: The Captain, the only recurring character who's not white.
- Unfortunate Name: Shotsy, seriously? Could be explained that it might be a nickname.
- Uptown Girl: Jen, to Ken.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: Inverted: Jen goes to visit her father at the hotel he owns after several years with little contact.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: The Shakespeare-quoting receptionist
once again makes the "wherefore art thou" blunder by uttering this line while flipping through the guestbook looking for a customer with the last name Romeo. - You Know What You Did: When Jen goes to tell Ken her father makes her go out with Danny, his reaction is to… get mad at her, as if she's cheating on him.
… but you can't play tropes!
