One of the items on my Amazon wishlist this Christmas and last was the boxed set of Breakin' movies. I know, roll your eyes, but in the 80's when these movies came out, my sister, mom and I would go see them over and over. I longed for the studded belts and awesome off-the-shoulder shirts. I wanted a street name like "Special K". I even remeber that on TV at the time, Alfonso Ribero was selling a break dancing instructional video complete with a mat to use when spinning on your head, or whatever. It was $60 and I wanted it so bad.
This Christmas, when I unwrapped the boxed set, I almost fell off the couch. I wanted to see these movies again and try to remember why I loved them so much. I just never expected to really get them. Now everyone around me has been forced to sit and watch them with me and we're all better people because of it.
Although we can all agree that the word is a better place when men aren't wearing half-shirts and feathered ear cuffs, don't you wish there were more movies where people got really, really mad at eachother and showed their anger by dancing? That's right. Dancing.
Don't tell me you've never seen these movies. Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo starring Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers. Don't you wish more actors had nicknames? Watching the credits of these movies is almost as much fun as watching the movies. One of my favorites is the credit for the very young and skinny club MC played by Ice-T which says "Rap Talker". Love it.
These movies are so bad now that I watch them twenty years later, but I think I might love them even more than I did back then. Everything is so innocent and cheesy and the acting is so awful. Lucinda Dickey manages to maintain a sustained, perky whine throughout both movies and still she manages to be likable. The dialogue may be rotten, but the dancing is fantastic and the music is 80's crap, but it's great! Even as I type this, I'm humming in my head "din daa daa, din do do..." which you, too, will not be able to get out of your head after watching Breakin' 2.
If you've never seen either of these movies, you owe it to yourself to watch them. If it's been twenty years since you saw them last, pull on some spandex, dig out your studded bracelets and enjoy. Really, they're worth the time.
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3 comments:
I don't think I've ever heard of these movies but I DEFINITELY think you should have a street name.
She does-- it's Betty Homecrocker!
You're not going to believe this . . . but my "court name" was Special K! One of my volleyball teams decided everybody should have a "cereal" nickname and they named me "Special K." Go figure. I would have had me pegged as "Fruit Loops."
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