bob the moo The Tompkins's kids have a good life despite being raised by a single mum. However when Gail loses her job they look like they will have to make sacrifices to allow her to finish college so that she can get a better job to support the family properly. But the kids discover that, unknown to their mum, their dad has dumped them with a $5k bill from the IRS – something they can't afford without ditching the family plans and getting Gail back into a menial "just getting by" job. A chance meeting with struggling hip hop "star" Kendrick Bragg aka Kicking Back Flash gives them the idea of entering a talent contest with his help. Telling him they can help get his car back from the bailiffs, they convince him to coach them – however the majority of the kids have zero talent and although Jamie does, she refuses to sing.I don't think anyone approaches a television movie starring MC Hammer with any significant hopes of this being a great film – I know I didn't and perhaps that is part of the reason why, although cheap and basic, I still managed to quite enjoy the slight humour it produced. The plot is very obvious and goes just where you expect it to; it will give you no surprises along the way and nothing about it is particularly imaginative. The production values are also pretty low and I was never in doubt that I was watching a TV movie. However it was still quite solid fun because the writers were able to inject a lot of cheeky humour into what could easily have been a horribly sentimental mess filled with "cute kids" and "life lessons". It doesn't manage to totally avoid this but at least the occasional chuckle did a little bit to covering up all the major problems.The cast aren't great but at least they all seem to have bought into the humour of the situation. Hammer seems to enjoy himself without any real sense of ego in his performance. He isn't a great actor but at least he has fun, which does help the audience. The kids are mostly too cute and obvious to be of any real value but the fact that they are real siblings seems to help their chemistry and allows them to also do well with the sense of humour.Overall this is not a great film but it is maybe distracting nonsense for older children. The cast can't really act but they do come across like they "get" the material and help draw the humour out of the script. It is unlikely anyone has come to this expecting anything of any value but the low expectations might mean that you at least get a little surprised by bits of this.

schulze1231 why o why did I waste a Sunday afternoon watching this...to see the further demise of Hammer's career of course. What happened to my once heroic figure in his baggy parachute pants, dancing his life away. Its a sad day indeed when one who was as great as the Hammer man is filling roles such as this, showing off his receeding hairline. Sadly the unintentional comedy of his head is probably the best part of this flick. Please Hammer, Don't hurt me no more...Fade into the sunset as you should have done ten years ago instead of dumping all your money into your "posse." Hopefully this will be the last of Hammer's acting career, not to mention the Hart family. Oh the horror...

TheRingmaster Those who say that this movie is bad obviously prefer such movies as Fightclub or I don't know....Rollerball. This movie I agree is not a blockbuster big screen smash but it IS a good movie. It has a good storyline of a mothers children trying to help their mother out by winning a hip-hop contest to get 5,000 dollars so she can stay in school. The acting WAS good much to others critique, and all I can say to them is.....let's see you do better! All in all I say if you see it showing on Showtime or any of the such...give it a try...you'll be surprised

Sutter I have mixed feelings about this film. At least is was a TV movie, because it was not good enough for the big screen. The plot was really thin and unrealistic although at times is seems to go the realistic way. The Hart family needs to study some more acting and get much better screenplays for their films or at least something that makes more sense than this.But still it has some good points in their favor. First, they did not turn this movie into a resurrection of the Hammer man carrer (what a relief!). Next the children have some talent for dancing (although realistically not enough for winning a contest).Then Emily Hart, the cute little girl of the dancing group could turn out like her older sister Melisa Joan. Finally the always delightful presence of Melissa Joan keeps us begging for more of her.