Earlier this week I told you that the latest DCOM, Let it Shine was premiering June 15th. If you missed it last night is is re-airing on Disney Channel this weekend and I assume over the rest of the summer. I watched last night and it was better than I expected it to be. While this is no High School Musical or Lemonade Mouth, it was a very good movie.

The movie follows 16 year old Cyrus DeBarge (Tyler James Williams), an aspiring musician who has the gift of rhyme but lacks the self confidence to take the stage.Cyrus and his best friend Kriss McDuffy (Trevor Jackson) both enter a songwriting contest and Kris is mistakenly named the winner for the song Cyrus wrote, a song where Cyrus shares his feeling for his longtime crush, Roxanne Andrews (Coco Jones). Cyrus panics and lets Kris take credit for the song and soon he is on the sidelines while Roxanne begins to fall for Kris.

As the movie progresses we learn that Cyrus’ father, a Baptist minister is very anti hip hop and rap, the music his son is passionate about. So along with the confused love triangle and web of lies, there are also themes of redemption, reconciliation and understanding that are woven into the fabric of the movie.

The story is strong, though somewhat predictable. The music and dancing are very well done, though especially in the final scene, there are some very obvious lip synching issues. I was very impressed with the caliber of acting. Newcomer Coco Jones reminded me a lot of Keke Palmer in Jump In! I was most impressed with Brandon Mychal Smith as Lord of Da Bling. I have always seen him playing a good guy and I actually had trouble accepting him as the bad guy at the beginning of Let it Shine. Brandon did a great job and I really disliked his character at the end of the movie.

Let It Shine is a great movie for families, tweens and teens. I hope your family enjoys this Disney Channel Original Movie this summer.

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