Breakin' (1984) Directed by Joel Silberg

It's actually pretty fun to watch the evolution of dance movies, over the decades. And I have to say; "Breakin'" seemed pretty ahead of its time with its approach and concept and actually feels very similar to the genre movies of this present day. But is it a good movie as well? I'm still not really sure about that.

On the one hand it's a totally silly and simplistic movie but on the other it exploits its concept- and uses its genre elements well. It's an effective movie, with what it's trying to achieve. I'm pretty sure that this must have been a pretty popular movie at the time of its initial release. An alternate title of this movie is "Breakdance: The Movie" and that pretty much also already tells you what this movie is all about. Break dancing was pretty hot and popular at the time of this movie, so i'm sure lots of people must have been very excited seeing a movie, based around this 'new' and all hot dance style.

There really isn't all that much to its story and it all feels very underdeveloped. Yes, even for a dance movie. Of course all dance movies basically feature a similar sort of concept and characters in it but at least there always is a clear point- and goal in it. In this movie there isn't a clear enough goal really. I guess it's about making it as a dancer but I don't really see how joining a street dance-crew could help your career to move forward and to eventual get a decent paying job in the industry as a dancer. Well, guess I'm just over-thinking things. Perhaps you should just look at it as one that's about living your dream and do the things you like to do and listen to heart and all that sort of stuff.

I'm pretty sure this movie gave me an headache though. Not because of its complicated story but because it's a very loud movie, with constantly '80's music booming in the fore- and background. Really no awesome sounding musical numbers in this movie, though in the '80's people would have probably disagreed with me on that. I'm just not a big '80's music fan and it all starts to sound alike in the movie after a while.


It's funny how all of the dancing doesn't impress much neither. basically the dancers are just flapping their arms a bit, move as robots and spin on their heads, from time to time. When you start to compare it to the stuff we get to see on TV and in movies nowadays, everything in this movie feels somewhat lame and tame as well. Perhaps it's not entirely fair to judge this movie its dancing by today's standards but it's somewhat inevitable. I'm mean, this movie is really a product of its time and it's hard to look at it and not to laugh or at least chuckle at some of the character's clothing, hairstyles and music and dancing.

But perhaps its style and approach is also what saves this movie. Because it constantly features music and lots of (random) dance sequences, you sort of tend to forget the movie its story. It obviously also never feels like a slow or boring one, due to its approach.

It's pretty entertaining for what it is, just not a movie that's going to blow you away with anything. Not even with its bright colors and '80's soundtrack!

6/10

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