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| I'm no expert, but that shoe looks impractical for dancing. |
Directed by: Joel Silberg
Produced by: Allen DeBevoise, David Zito
Written by: Charles Parker, Allen DeBevoise (screenplay), Charles Parker, Allen DeBevoise, Gerald Scaife (Story)
Budget: Low
Starring: Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo "Shabba Doo" Quinones, Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers
When an evil realty developer wants to demolish the community center and replace it with a
I might be reading into that a little bit, but you get the idea.
The movie takes place in the 1985, the most 80s year of the 1980s, with all the male belly shirts, big hair, and choreographed street dance routines you could ask for. While Killer Klowns may have been the epitome of the Ugly 80s, Breakin' 2 portrays the glam-80s, where all we wanted to do was dance and get perms. There was probably still the cocaine problem, but it helped us look good in spandex, so it was all good.
The acting throughout is the epitome of phoned-in 80s sequel acting, the sets and costumes would seem exaggerated if that wasn't what people actually wore, and the writing is what you'd expect from a dance movie. It's interesting seeing that dance "films" up to, and including, the most recent Step Up still follow the same beats and plot points.
The Rad
The dancing is the focus of the entire thing, and at least everyone in this movie can dance. And when I say dance, I mean they move. Not only that, but the movie embodies all the classic cheesy 80s tropes: evil realty developer, a group of misfits fighting the man, a dance battle under a graffiti-dappled bridge, and at one point a group of people dance battle with nunchaku and trash-can lid shields. If that's not rad, I don't know what is.
There's a scene where Michael Chambers dances up the wall and on the ceiling, and it's actually really impressive as an effect thanks to its execution. Here's the scene in question, if you're curious. The weirdest part is that this happens in the universe of the movie. Yeah, partway through one of the characters walks in and notices him literally dancing on the ceiling, which means that at least one of the people in this movie can violate the laws of gravity through dance. Why couldn't the entire movie be about that?
The Bogus
The movie speeds through every single dialogue scene to skip to the dancing, which makes it feel like an advertisement for a community center, rather than an actual movie. While the dancing is entertaining to watch, it's pretty much fluff without anything of substance to support it. If you cut out all the dancing, you'd have a movie that lasts maybe twenty minutes. There are also numerous montages of city life, so many that it's probably appropriate to refer to most of this movie as pure filler.
In all honesty, nothing here really happens, despite the fact that there's so much going on. It sounds like a contradiction, but after all the dancing, conversations, and "plot" finishes and the credits roll, you realize there wasn't much to the movie. It's all glitz and filler, and though the dancing may be well done it gets tiring after a little bit.
At the one hour point (gee, notice a trend) the movie grinds to an emotional halt. This is about where the "Storming the city hall meeting" scene takes place, and it feels like it should instead happen at the end. Instead we follow with an assault, hospital dance number with nurses who heal the sick (and resurrect the dead!) through dance...not a joke, this all happens within the movie's universe, and is clearly not supposed to be a musical-style dance scene. No one comments on it, no one mentions it ever again, and it's treated as if it's completely normal.
The Rest
"2: Electric Boogaloo" has become a pop culture monument, indicating a sequel that no one really needed. It's actually the reason I chose to watch this movie, because until I watched it I didn't have much context for it aside from the fact that it was a sequel title. I did some research and it doesn't actually seem that the movie showcases the actual Electric Boogaloo dance much, if at all.
This movie was produced by Cannon Films, the iconic studio behind a huge number of the memorable low-budget releases ranging from the 60s to the 90s. The first Breakin' was actually one of the last financially profitable movies released by Cannon before their distribution deal with MGM fell through. Apparently there were some major contentions between the writers and producers of Breakin' 2, primarily due to the fact that the producers wanted to maintain a G-rated movie and the original writers trying to create a more serious look at inner-city 80s culture. Yeah, seriously.
I want to see a Cabin in the Woods style deconstruction of dance movies, where dancing is a method to unlock some sort of primal underlying hive-instinct in the human mind. Something a little like the music video for LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem, but actually, you know...well done.
Will You Dig It?
Though I found it entertaining, you will have to have a high tolerance for the 80s in order to watch this. It kept me entertained for the most part, but I found my attention wandering whenever the on-screen action slowed down.
However, as a white guy whose signature dance move is "Bend your knees in time to the beat," I had a pretty good time overall.
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