Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Sequel to the '80s "classic" Breakin' with an old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland plot about putting on a show to save a community center. The same main characters are back and haven't changed any. Turbo (Michael 'Boogaloo Shrimp' Chambers) is still the fun and likable one with the best dance moves. Ozone (Adolfo 'Shabba-Doo' Quinones) is still kind of a downer with a huge chip on his shoulder. He's also the weakest dancer in the movie. Kelly aka Special K (Lucinda Dickey) is still the rich girl who has big decisions to make about her career and her love life. Her dancing has significantly improved from the first movie. Lucinda is as pretty as ever but she has competition now from Turbo's girlfriend, played by the lovely Sabrina Garcia (whose Spanish-speaking voice sounds like it was dubbed by a child). The epic rivalry with Electro Rock continues and we get a fun dance-off out of it. There's more dancing this time around with Turbo's gravity-defying dance scene a highlight. As with the first movie, it's pretty cheesy but amusing in its way. It certainly has nostalgic value for people of my generation. If you don't take it seriously you'll probably enjoy it more.

A while back, my youngest daughter was telling me how awful she thought fashions were back in the 1980s. Well, I am certainly NOT going to tell her about this film--otherwise she'll never let me forget about this! It features the worst clothing, highly infectious and repetitive music (while not bad at first, it makes your brain melt a bit after a while) and the most inane qualities in a film of the era. It's bad...really, really bad. See the hospital dance scene and the Combat Dance portions and you'll understand. "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" is a film with very, very little plot. Mostly, it's one dance number after another after another. Sometimes the dances are incredible (such as the athleticism of the break dancing)--but much of it is just stupid. To make it worse, their clothing consists of one fashion travesty after another. And, they repeatedly use the word 'whack'---need I say more?! Because the film is essentially just dancing, little was left for decent dialog (it often is VERY bad and the characters are mere caricatures). As for the plot, believe it or not, is a re-tread of an old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland film. I am not kidding. The 'kids' are about to lose their clubhouse, so they decide to put on a show to raise the funds to fix it up and keep the city from giving it to evil developers. There also is the brilliant rich girl who chooses to hang out on the street and dance instead of heading to Princeton (now THAT'S a good idea). To some, this movie is definitely a bit of nostalgia but for most, it is a chance to laugh hysterically at the silliness of 1984. See it and you'll understand what I am talking about...for sure. By the way, while impressive to see, the dancing up the walls and ceiling bit was actually taken from a Fred Astaire film. In both cases, the room could be rotated to make it appear as if the dancer is defying gravity. Also, look for a very young and skinny Ice-T as the rapper with the big shades at about halfway through the film. He's the guy breaking the record. He also sings a rap late in the film. And, listen to the 'Mexican' girl--with a horribly dubbed voice that sounds like a 6 year-old!

This movie was a torture, really. I watched it only because I liked the first installment and wanted to follow-up the guys' careers. The first movie was cheesy, yeah, but at least it had some heart and a storyline, it was enjoyable and you eventually started to like the characters, it made you feel good at the end. This one... well... it has no plot at all, it has a thousand of characters who don't really add anything and the worst fact is that it's actually a bunch of choreographies one after the other without any cohesive story. It's so obvious it can't be explained. At least in the first movie the dances were somehow part of the story, here they are not. The scenes where the 'Electro Rock' gang appeared made me laugh, because right at the end of the first movie those guys actually befriended the main characters. So what the heck were they doing now? 'the villains' were totally meaningless and forced. EVERYTHING was forced, even the use of little children. As if nonsense wasn't enough you get to know Kelly's parents who are VERY wealthy people! What's up with that? Overall it looks like there was no writer for this movie. Now I understand why they made such a joke of the 'Electric Boogaloo' line. This movie is a joke in itself.

First of all....there was no such thing as GOOD ACTING in the 80's. EVERYTHING was cheesy as all hell. Second, the movie wasn't about the acting, but about the dancing. Using it to express your emotions and differences in a positive way. Anybody who saw the movie for the acting is retarded! What did you expect? A drama? I happen to like both movies. I think these people are talented dancers and that both movies send a positive message out to people. Only narrow minded people judge a film by the acting. What's the message the film is trying to convey? Did the message come across? If so, then the film is a success. Therefore, keep the negative comments to yourselves!

Let's start with the obvious. This is a sequel, so already you go into it with diminished expectations. But I read Ebert's review and thought it was actually going to be good. Nope. Here are a few of the most annoying things about this movie. 1) Break dancing gets very tiresome after a while. It's really not that many different moves. Yes, it looks hard to do, but it also can be hard to watch after so many similar routines. 2) Kelly is not very likable. Given that she's the main character, that's a problem. 3) Why is there a secret Fight Club hidden inside the break dancing Miracles palace? 4) Why was Turbo on the ceiling redoing a routine from a Fred Astaire movie? 5) If they had just taken the father's deal Kelly could have gone to Paris and had a successful career, and they would have gotten the money they needed to save "Miracles". 6) Why are they spending $200,000 to fix a building owned by the City? Why don't they buy their own building? Then the rich dude can open his mall and there will be jobs for these broken break dancers to take when they decide they want to eat some day. 7) Why have they kidnapped Cindy Brady and forced her to join their break dancing cult? 8) In the credits they mention a Michael Jackson impersonator, who apparently was so bad I didn't even notice that there was one. Well played. 9) The rival gang is actually much cooler than the break dancing gang. They have a car. They have a cool underpass that no one is going to steal by building a mall. When asked to help with the fundraiser they defy all expectation and say no. They remain true rivals. 10) The mime.

I remember being three years old the first time I saw this movie. Yeah the plot just like the furst one is a bit corny. But the soundtrack and chorgraphy are very top notch. All the actors play their roles good, but the high is when Shrimp dances on the celling to Mark Scott's I Don't Wanna Come Down. Check it out for Notsgala.

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo serves as a perfect example of the more often than not erroneous 'bigger is better' philosophy that pervades American society. This movie, if nothing else, reminds us that more is not always more. This stinker of stinkers succeeds only in cheapening the impact of the dancing in the first movie by reducing it to an ornament for an absurd non-story. In its predecessor one can detect a tiny drop of integrity where the precepts of story forming are concerned. The conflict set up between 'street culture' and society's 'upper-crust' was less than realistic, but break dancing, as a form of urban art, was presented interestingly enough to capture my interest (I'm willing to forgive a lot for the sake of entertainment). The dynamic dance moves were just enough to suspend not disbelief, but dismissal of the ridiculous. In Boogaloo, that hint, that tiny drop of integrity became a drop of spittle on a hot iron. More thought and attention is generally given to the flushing of giant smelly turds than were given to the creation of characters, dialog, and scenarios in Boogaloo. Sam Firstenberg is no Joel Silberg. What? I'm not sure what that means myself. In fact I'm ashamed I said it. It's not difficult to see why this movie was made. It was the decade of cashing in on flashes-in-the-pan. If a teet squirts milk, then squeeze it for all it's worth, right? Breakin' 2 is nothing more than a poorly conceived advertisement for the flavor of the month. Sadly, this confusion of marketing and entertainment is not only alive and well today, it's grown into a gigantic retarded baby that's painting everything with a thick coat of mediocrity if not out and out stupidity. This is the devolution of popular culture. Art is no longer a part of the everyday.

For all the B-Boy and all the B-Girls.... This movie represents! I wouldn't expect anyone who didn't live the breaker life to appreciate it. I get just as excited watching this film as I did when I was little. It's a classic!

If for no other reason, watch the film to see poor Ice-T delivering what may be the most badly written rap lyrics of all time! This is an unintentionally very funny film. Funnier if you were a teenager in the 80's, because you remember it all. The kids do dance well. The 'gang members' are so un-menacing, it's just precious. The dance number in the hospital is breathtakingly ridiculous. Have Fun!

I remember 4 years ago while in the air force working night shift, I and another 12 or so soldiers sitting in the crew room watching channel bravo at about 2 am We were treated to this movie and I have never ever laughed so much in my entire life, we put national security in jeopardy because there were people actually crying with laughter and rolling around on the floor. To remember now, the very beginning scene where all those *'s are dancing around in the street spinning on car bonnets etc. Most funny movie ever, will never be triumphed. Hey, a friend of mine said that Jean-Claude Van Damme appeared in this movie, is that right ?