Kickin' It Old Skool

Justin was a break-dancing child of the 1980s. At least, until he flipped off the stage and sent himself into a coma. Waking up twenty years later, he's a child trapped in a man's body and still has the urge to break dance. So what does he do? What anyone would do -- form the team together again to win the local break dancing contest and pay his parents back for all his medical bills.

This film comes from first-time director Harvey Glazer. For most people, this gives hi ma clean slate. For me, I look at his past endeavors as a producer and cringe. From 2006 through 2007, he produced a variety of awful straight-to-video horror films, which I've actually seen simply because Anchor Bay sends me copies for free. "The Mad", "Ultimate Killing Machine" and "Bottom Feeder" are not films you should necessarily be proud to have on your resume. This one, however, is an exception.

I was at a party, and a Blockbuster employee named Jared brought it over, more or less as a joke to have something playing in the background. And I was like "Jamie Kennedy? Straight to video? Oh no!" But before long, I found myself distracted from my Pabst Blue Ribbon and game of cards and actively watching this one. The 1980s references were cleverly woven in, and the style of humor was low-brow without being tasteless. It was right up my alley.

I'm not sure who this film is catering to, besides me. I suppose people in their mid-20s to mid-30s. The bulk of the humor relies on understanding a lot of the references and quotations used, which the younger crowd might not get. Some of them are very subtle. The rest of the humor might turn off the older crowd, because it has a youth focus. Urination, juvenile behavior and the like. Hey, I liked it... but would my mom? Probably not.

So if you're in your twenties and want a flashback, this might be something for you. Rubik's cubes, DJ Tanner, He-Man and Rockem Sockem robots are the name of the game here. If this sounds like something you'll appreciate, dig in. And, if that doesn't sell you: there's a special appearance by David Hasselhoff and KITT. What more do you want?

This movie was fun and witty in my opinion. I went just looking for some laughs. Myself and everyone in the theater was laughing the entire time. Rosenbaum (Kip) played an excellent jerk and I find his versatility as an actor impressive. Going from a drama (Lex Luthor of Smallville) to a witty comedy; I imagine is tough for most actors to pull off. As far as realism in a movie goes, this story line was pretty good. Is it a little far fetched, sure, but it's a movie and the intent is to be funny, not real. But the plot is tame, nobody is saving the world or surviving gun shots or performing impossible stunts like riding a motorcycle while doing and indo and shooting people. Overall, I thought the cast acted this story line out as well as it could have been. If you grew up in the 80's and are looking for some witty humor and good laughs, I think you'll really enjoy this movie.

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.

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.