Breakin' 2 - Electric Boogaloo

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!

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.

Rich girl Kelly Bennett is now a chorus dancer after the close of Street Jazz. She and Ozone are together and his ex Rhonda is jealous. Turbo falls for Latina dancer Lucia. Ozone and Turbo are teaching street dancing to the kids. Byron runs local community center Miracles where they hang out. Developer Douglas is trying to tear it down and build a shopping center. Sleazy minion Randall pushes the local government to tear it down. The dance trio defeats the Electros in a dance off. The community has to battle the developer to save their Miracles.

I don't remember Kelly having a rich family in the first movie. I guess it's possible that she was being independent working in that diner. It looks more like a manufactured class conflict between Kelly and her street life. This time around, the movie is asking more acting from the group and it's met with varying results. Kelly and Ozone have no real romantic chemistry. It double-downs on the first movie's little crush and the actors struggle to have any heat. It's cute to have love sick Turbo and he has one of the best upside down dance sequences ever. They recreate that shack so well that it's almost a perfect transition between the real world shack and the rotating one. The only truly awkward transition happens when Lucia walks into the room. She's stuck to the wall when Turbo is dancing upside down. This sequel is a cheesier effort highlighted by that one awesome dance sequence and a sequel title for the history books. Ice-T does return to do more rapping.

Let's get one thing straight......If you haven't lived the Hip-Hop lifestyle, you cannot properly judge this movie in ANY negative manner. I was a teenager in the mid 80's and danced (electric boogie) in the streets and roller rinks of NY for 4+ years. I went to LA when I was 16 and battled other dancers on Venice Beach, which was the MECCA of electric boogie street dancers.

This movie was the best of it's kind!! Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers was arguably the best in the craft and shined in both this movie and it's predecessor. Don't view this movie looking for a wealth of incredible acting, but do watch it for some amazing street dancing and a very likeable cast with a good storyline. I LOVED this movie and still do. Every time I see it, I'm transported from my office back to my carefree teenage years, where my biggest problems were what to wear when dancing and what music I was going to boogie to!

I'm popping and throwing waves as I write............

Let me start by acknowledging that Breakin 2 (the sequel to 1984's Breakin, which was a box office hit) IS NOT a great movie. The acting is weak, the plot very "Andy Hardy," and the dialog, well let just say, it wouldn't have been any better if Golan/Globus would have gotten Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep to star in this film. That being said, let me now state that Breakin 2 IS NOT a "bad movie" either. It is what it is, mindless entertainment. The dancing, while not as riveting as it's predecessor, is enjoyable. The clothes (remember this is the 80's), well they're a laugh in themselves. The cast are all attractive (Lucinda Dickey looks hot as hell in this one, and check out Sonny Bono's sexy ex-wife Susie Coelho playing Kelly's rival).

The thinly written plot of Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo takes up where Breakin left off. Kelly (Dickey), Ozone (Aldolfo "Shabba Doo" Quinones) and Turbo (the phenomenal Michael "Boogalo Shrimp" Chambers have finished up what appears to have been a short run of their musical "Street People." Having gone their separate ways, Kelly is finding life in the chorus line a dead end. Unlike Ozone and Turbo, Kelly is not a product of the streets, and must also deal with her stereotypically written "rich parents," who want her to stop wasting her life dancing and go to Princeton. Needing a break from the lifestyle of the rich and famous, she goes to visit her "boyz in the hood" buds Ozone and Turbo, who seem to have found a better niche in life, teaching kids at a community center in East Los Angeles.

Enter bad guy real estate developer Mr. Douglas (character actor Peter MacLean), who wants to buy the land where the rec center sits and build a shopping mall. Kelly rejoins her ghetto comrades to stand against Douglas, and the city, who holds the lease on the building. The city does gives the trio one month to raise $150,000 to get the old center up to building standards or lose it to Douglas. How will they do it? How else, by putting on a street carnival (I told you this wasn't Pulp Fiction). Sub-plots include Kelly's racist parent attempting to bribe her by offering to bail out the center(only if she denounces her street friends and goes to college), and Kelly and Ozone's phantom romance (they never seriously kiss or get romantic in either film, which was the norm for interracial affairs in the 80's).

As stated earlier, where this movie shines is in the dancing. Ozone's rooftop number and Turbo's dancing on the ceiling are very enjoyable. The soundtrack wasn't as ripping as the original, but it's listenable without being annoying. The one other redeemable trait of Breakin 2, is it's attempt (no matter how lame an attempt) to portray a part of American culture that few people outside of major cities such as Los Angeles and New York knew anything about. In the eighties, you could count the number of minority themed films on one hand, so given it's very low budget, Breakin 2 at least served up a decent laugh and some head bobbin "make you smile" hoofin'.

Bottom line, if you're looking for Academy Award performances, solid acting, excellent writing and a thought provoking storyline, AVOID THIS FILM. However, if you want a look (albeit a somewhat watered down, white bread look) at a phenomenal eighties American fad called Break Dancing, check it out and enjoy the music and the dancing. That's all Golan/Globus was trying to make, and that's all this movie has to offer.