Kickin' It Old Skool

i saw this movie last night at a sneak preview. i wasn't expecting a whole lot from this movie except maybe some cheesy one liners that would get a laugh. the movie actually had me laughing the whole time. the sound track is excellent! the movie has so many references to the 80's! it was great. the basis of the movie is a kid has a break dancing accident and goes into a coma for 20 years. this concept of the kid having to grow up in a hurry reminded me of movies like 13 going on 30 or Big but what separated this movie from others like it is he didn't grow up because of some wish or magic Gennie. the circumstance of him being in a coma and waking up 20 years later was much more realistic.

i definitely recommend seeing this movie if you grew up in the 80's!

Young Justin Schumacher hits his head during the school talent contest and falls into a coma for 20 years. Justin (Jamie Kennedy) wakes up and tries to revives his dancing dreams his friends Darnell (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.), Hector (Aris Alvarado) and Aki (Bobby Lee). Meanwhile his girl Jennifer (Maria Menounos) is now engaged to his nemesis Kip (Michael Rosenbaum).

I didn't actually laugh once at Jamie Kennedy's antics. The jokes sound clunky and are more angry than charming. Being dumb isn't a bad thing but badly written performances are. The 15 minutes prologue of the characters as kids is more compelling than the rest of the movie. The humor is so lifeless that it's more sad than anything else. Jamie Kennedy is unable to play dumb with joy. His friends are much funnier which means they're tolerable. Bobby Lee is probably the funniest of a bad lot.

As a young boy, Justin (Alexander Calvert) felt down hard on the floor trying to do some fancy break dancing for a talent show at school. Twenty years has passed, Justin (Jamie Kennedy) woke up from his coma. Although he still has the mind of a twelve year old trapped in a 32 year old body. He finds out that his parents (Christopher McDonald and Debra Jo Rapp) might lose their home, after trying to pay off Justin's medical bills. He decides to get back his old dance crew (Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Bobby Lee and Avis Alvarado) to help him win back his parents house. Justin discovers that his long time crush (Maria Menounos) is marring the bully (Michael Rosenbaum), he truly hated. But Justn hasn't realized yet that music has changed and a whole new generation of fancy foot-steppers are far superior. Since he missed two decades, it is time to grow up... a little.

Directed by Harv Glazer (Bitten) made an silly comedy that has some goofy laughs. Kennedy offers more charm that he did in "Malibu's Most Wanted". But the differences between the two, his early starring role had a much slicker look. It will certainly remind you of the film "Big" and other break dancing movies of the 1980's. The movie has a cool retro 80's soundtrack and some of the dance moves are good. "Kickin It Old Skool" is not a great comedy but it's not boring either and acting or the quality of the feature looks truly average. But it does offers some laughs and probably fans of Kennedy will enjoy this one best. Some amusing cameos as well. Super 35. (*** 1/2 out of *****).

After cringing through Son of the Mask in 2005, I was convinced that trying to be funny could not get any worse for Jamie Kennedy. ... I was wrong that things couldn't get worse and the funniest thing about Kickin' It Old Skool, yet another in a long line of not particularly funny Kennedy movies, is how little we actually have advanced since the '80s.. may be the reunion of the multi-ethnic Funky Fresh Boys triggers a fusillade of un-PC misfires as the not-so-fab four try to alleviate their personal woes by entering an American Idol-esque dance-troupe contest.

Kevin Peterson http://www.schoolanduniversity.com

I generally like Jamie Kennedy and thought Malibu's Most Wanted was pretty funny. But holy crap, this movie was a pile of ****.

They had a great premise to build on and they blew it. Could have had cameos all over the place, Turbo and Ozone from Breakin', Kool Moe Dee, Grandmaster Flash, etc etc.

Instead, they put in a bunch of Busch league dancers who were flat out annoying, and jokes written with zero creativity. It reminds me of another turd that came out recently, Drillbit Taylor.. Annoying characters, a script that wouldn't pass a 5th grade Creative Writing paper, with a few people that *could* have been funny (and are in other movies).

At minimum it should have been funny and it should have had some ridiculously good breakers and it failed miserably on both counts.

I'm being kind by giving it 4/10.