Breakin'

Hi Guys.. I am a mid 70's child and remember Breakin quite fondly, some of the clothing worn and language used at the time may seem a little funny today, but the breathtaking dancing will live on forever. Its a shame that street dancing only lasted for a short while, real street dancing that is.I recently bought Breakin' on DVD. It has only just been released on DVD here is Australia. I was told by a friend that Michael 'Boogaloo Shrimp' Chambers had died. I know he went on to make a few other movies and starred in Sugar Ray's 'Fly' music video in the late 90's, but haven't heard or seen much of him after that. Can anyone help??

Formula dance movie with the distinctly '80s flavor of break dancing added to it. Aspiring jazz dancer Kelly (Lucinda Dickey) teams up with two street dancers, Ozone (Adolfo Quinones) and Turbo (Michael Chambers). They prepare for the inevitable "big audition," as well as dealing with Kelly's villainous former dance instructor and a rival street dance crew. The tension with the rival crew named Electro Rock provides for the movie's most unintentionally hilarious scenes. It's hard to take that crap seriously. Several dangling plot lines are left unresolved, which shows you how much attention was paid to the script. Turbo has a dance number with a broom where you can see the wires attached to the broom handle, which shows how much attention was paid to direction. Objectively, it's a bad movie but not without its charms. Corny in the extreme but some genuinely entertaining moments, as well as some laughs to be had at its expense.

There's something about a cheesy 80s movie that pleases me to no end, and this is one of the cheesiest. Made simply to cash in on the break dancing fad that was popular at the time, the film stars Adolfo "Shabbadoo" Quinones and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers as two inner city toughs who battle their enemies by lockin', popping', and, of course, breakin' instead of with knives and guns. Lucinda Dickey plays our white suburban tour guide to the inner city as a jazz dancer who falls in love with street dancing – and possibly a black man, though the movie is so coy about the interracial relationship romance that it is only ever implied – even through the film's sequel – that there is any attraction whatsoever between the two. While the cheese never stops flowing and it would be a lot of fun for no other reason, the dance sequences are actually very impressive. Boogaloo Shrimp is particularly great in his dance with the broom (even though I can see the strings attached to it). The film also features Ice T, some eight years before he penned "Cop Killas", and apparently Jean-Claude Van Damme, though I missed him. Lucinda Dickey starred in one of my other favorite cult classics in the same year, Ninja III: The Domination.

Way better than it has a right to be, this well photographed and charming 80s fable takes us back to a simpler time, with the dawn of the break dancing phase, and a great soundtrack. For those who lived this era, want to learn about this era, or just enjoy fun 80s nostalgia, this is recommended. The dancing scenes are often spectacular.

Yeah you heard right jean Claude van dame is in this movie! Yuh a break dancing movie

this film, really is bad. if you're not a light hearted person, this film will make you feel awkward, in the way that you are annoyed about wasting an hour and a half, as it's not as good as i enjoyed it. Why i liked it: it's poor quality of film was quite humorous. it had some funny dance moves. it had well good dancing, i really like break dancing, which is why i got this film. however, please don't mistake this for something good, it isn't. What the hell was the story, to me, this film was a load of random scenes of break dancing, and funny dialogue. i also want to know where this is set, some sort of magic land where everything is settled with dance. can you imagine someone attacking you in the street, by dancing in a comical fashion? me and my brother had cardboard laid out in the garden for about a month after we saw this, but you may act differently.

Breakin' is one of the movies that put hip-hop on the map. It turned disco into a new form of enjoyment. During the early 80s disco faded and from 1981 thru 1983 music groups introduced funk and techno type beats. At that time there was no specific dance to these songs. But I guess a couple of guys from the Bronx created a new dance that interested thousands of people in the metropolitan area. There was graffiti in the subway that displayed a urban form of art. The big boom boxes (large am/fm cassette radios) that young guys carry along the street. This was all hip-hop. The movie just inspired urban youth to do something creative with their talent. Though sadly it quickly sudsided by the beginning of 85'.

I owned this movie on VHS when it was first released, way back when wearing one fluorescent green sock and one fluorescent yellow sock was considered normal. I have very fond memories of this movie, which have stayed with me for the last 23 years. Every now and again, something on the TV reminds me of Breakin' (or Breakdance, the movie as it was known here in the UK) and I have briefly thought of tracking a copy down on a few occasions, but I recently got around to doing it and now own it on DVD. Yes, let's face it, the movie is not exactly Oscar material. The acting is most of the time, dreadful, but you get the sense that they were really into their parts and enjoyed making the film, which along with the great soundtrack (how can you not love Kraftwerks amazing "Tour De France", or Chaka Khans "Ain't Nobody"?) and the brilliant dance sequences, more than make up for this. Watching this film again after all this time has obviously put me on a nostalgia trip, which is the only reason this gets 10 out of 10. I totally understand that 20 somethings watching this film for the first time must think it's truly awful, I guess you had to be there the first time to enjoy it the second.

I bucked convention and saw this movie's sequel, "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" first. Well, no biggie...and don't worry if you cannot see this saga in its proper order. Like the sequel, this film is an amazing window into the garish 1980s. I remember the decade well...and can remember many of the insane fashions in the movie. Fortunately, my two daughters don't know about this movie...otherwise they'd tease me incessantly about it! But, if you can ignore that there's hardly any plot and the dialog is god-awful, you can enjoy a trip down memory lane...especially since some of the dancing is actually very good. The story is about a whitebread sort of lady, Kelly (Lucinda Dickey), who has been taking dance classes but learns about street dancing...breakin'. Soon she makes friends with some of these dancers and she's finds her true calling with break dancing. While there might be a bit more to the movie than this...there isn't much. Mostly, it's one dance number after another after another and the film clearly could have used more substance. By the way, if you do watch it, look for a couple things. First, in the dance where the guy is dancing with a broom, notice that there are wires on the brook...not too cleverly hidden ones at that. Second, although he later cultivated a tough street-kid image, Ice-T is in this one and his rapping is pretty lame compared to what fans later came to expect. I like this singer/actor...but know he must cringe whenever the film is aired on TV.

Woeful, and blatant, attempt to cash in on the "Breakdance" craze that swept the western world in the early to mid-eighties. The script (from Allen DeBevoise, Gerald Scaife and Charles Parker) is a terrible "Flashdance" clone with street dancers Adolfo Quinones and Michael Chambers trying to get their big break on the stage, and show the world what they can do, with the help of classically trained hoofer Lucinda Dickey. The only thing worth watching is the dancing itself, with some well choreographed pieces blending easily with the natural 'breakin' talent. There is absolutely no acting prowess on show, and director Joel Silberg would be well advised to stick to putting up the money for someone else to run things. For something a little more down to earth and closer to reality, try "Beat Street". Music was penned by Gary Remal and Michael Boyd. Sunday, August 18, 1996 - Video