Breakin' (*)
review by Jon
Waterman
A young jazz dancer meets up with some street dancers. After
seein’ them perform, she’s convinced that this
is the way to go. But first she has to be accepted into the
culture. After that, it’s just a matter of learnin’ the
moves, so the bad guys (and gal) of Electro Rock will be defeated
in dance battle by the good guys of TKO, once and for all – hopefully.
But that’s not the only reason for joinin’ up with
the break-dancers. She’s hopin’ this will be her
ticket to makin’ it big time. And just maybe, her agent
will help her out with some serious representin’.
I have a few problems with the whole creation of the project.
It’s obviously meant to exploit this urban trend to a
suburban audience. How else could you explain the main character
being this delicate, seemingly sheltered white girl who dreams
of being a classically trained jazz dancer? Or the fact that
the movie is directed by Joel Silberg, whose previous work
had been entirely made in Israel? Very street. So very street.
Also, at the end, they’re already promoting the release
of the sequel.
Notice that I didn’t mention the whole lame premise
of break dancin’ being a driving force as a negative.
I don’t really care that much. Goin’ in you sort
of expect that to be a large part of its campy appeal. It’s
even funnier when you consider the writin’ force. Conceivin’ the
story and writin’ the screenplay are two first and last
time scribes in Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise. Gerald
Scaife, whose only prior credit is as production assistant
on “The Big Chill,” joins them on the script. Can
you believe it took three people to churn out such a disjointed
screenplay? There’s a rivalry, but not really. There’s
supposed to be this huge drive to make it as dancers, but whatever.
There’s something of a love story, but it’s hardly
explored past crush territory.
The only redeemin’ quality would have to be the dancing.
There are a pretty good variety of moves on display here. I
don’t know all the technical terms, but you get plenty
of floor spinnin’, tons of poppin’ and lockin’,
some Kung Fu-like stuff, and of course the poetic graceful
jazz. The battle scenes were pretty lame, not because the dancin’ was
bad, but because both groups looked virtually identical. I
couldn’t tell what made one team the winner other than
the dejected looks of the losers. The audio for the movie didn’t
contain any crowd reactions to help us out, either. Instead
we’re given a barely audible Ice-T spoutin’ off
some whack rhymes old school style.
This movie is all cheese. It’s hard for me to say this,
but the unavoidable trainin’ montage didn’t capture
my interest. It went on for far too long, and I didn’t
see the progression that should have been there. The film is
the type that’s fun to watch for the incredibly poor
actin’ and the weak, unbelievable yet predictable storyline,
and most importantly for the dancin’. Those kids really
put on a show, especially the little kids. I’ve never
seen a five year old move like that before. If you’re
a fan of break dancin’, you’ll want to check it
out for that and that alone.
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