Kelly is a talented dancer training as a professional ballerina. One day she gives Adam, one of her fellow classmates a lift home and stays to watch a group of his friends break-dancing in a series of "battles". Despite being very, very white, Kelly joins in and quite enjoys the different movements it involves. When an unwanted advance and some poor auditions push her away from her chosen career, Kelly starts to fall in with Turbo and Ozone and, when they lose a battle to a group with a female dancer, she agrees to train with them and compete against the Electro Rock crew again.So the accepted wisdom is that Breakin' is a terrible film that happens to have a certain cult appeal with fans who spend their time appealing for a second sequel to be made. On the face of it one can totally understand why both ends of the spectrum would dislike it. On one hand those into hip-hop and b-boy/girl stuff perhaps dislike the way that it was sanitised and made "accessible" for white audiences. Meanwhile those same white audiences take the view that it has no merit and don't see much in the film to change their mind. I tried to come to the film with fresh eyes because, believe it or not, I had never actually seen it.The plot is kinda obvious and of course we have the necessary plot device of a white character as our way into this world – as Kelly gets gradually introduced so do we, it is a common device. It is not the device that makes it weak though but rather the fact that it does tread such an obvious road without ever really engaging or working in terms of being a story with characters. It is just too clunky and obvious to work as anything other than a basic frame for dancing and a flow to prevent boredom and the ultimate destination for the plot is incredibly sudden and unlikely where something much more low-key and character driven would have been better. The plot does work well enough to just about provide structure though and within this frame we do get lots of reasonably good old-school moves with a pretty cool 1980's soundtrack. It should be noted that the moves will mostly not impress those used to the amazing acrobatics that those that follow the modern equivalent but it is still pretty impressive at times.It is also very, very dated – and I mean very dated, time-capsule record of the period style dated. The fashions are cringe-inducing and it doesn't help one get into the film when everything looks so very awful. Likewise the acting leaves a lot to be desired – in particular the "extras". I'm aware that they represent some interest (Van Damme is in there) but other than this they are awfully stiff and, well, "white" and never convince as the crowds around any public dancing. I suppose it is part of making it accessible but to my mind it mostly served to make it painful to watch. The main cast are a bit better but not much. Dickey never struck me as a real person and, while not as bad as the extras, her performance is a bit wooden even if she is certainly skilled in terms of dancing. Considering they were representing their culture on this, Shabba-Doo and Boogaloo Shrimp both come over pretty natural and with a certain amount of charm. Their acting chops are not great when it comes to presenting emotions within key scenes but otherwise they are nice enough and also have plenty of moves. McDonald and Ice-T are both pretty so-so but now add a certain retrospective appeal by virtue of their later careers. Newborn is really too camp to work but is part of the dated appeal as well.Breakin' is far from a great film – it is too wooden, obvious, one-dimensional and sanitised for that; however this is not to say that it is awful. On the contrary the old-school appeal of it adds retrospective charm and the moves and a couple of disarming performances (at times) do help make it easy to enjoy even if there are plenty of aspects that will make you cringe. Come to it for what it is and it is actually reasonably fun to watch.

I owned this movie on VHS when it was first released, way back when wearing one fluorescent green sock and one fluorescent yellow sock was considered normal. I have very fond memories of this movie, which have stayed with me for the last 23 years. Every now and again, something on the TV reminds me of Breakin' (or Breakdance, the movie as it was known here in the UK) and I have briefly thought of tracking a copy down on a few occasions, but I recently got around to doing it and now own it on DVD. Yes, let's face it, the movie is not exactly Oscar material. The acting is most of the time, dreadful, but you get the sense that they were really into their parts and enjoyed making the film, which along with the great soundtrack (how can you not love Kraftwerks amazing "Tour De France", or Chaka Khans "Ain't Nobody"?) and the brilliant dance sequences, more than make up for this. Watching this film again after all this time has obviously put me on a nostalgia trip, which is the only reason this gets 10 out of 10. I totally understand that 20 somethings watching this film for the first time must think it's truly awful, I guess you had to be there the first time to enjoy it the second.

this film, really is bad. if you're not a light hearted person, this film will make you feel awkward, in the way that you are annoyed about wasting an hour and a half, as it's not as good as i enjoyed it.Why i liked it: it's poor quality of film was quite humorous. it had some funny dance moves. it had well good dancing, i really like break dancing, which is why i got this film.however, please don't mistake this for something good, it isn't. What the hell was the story, to me, this film was a load of random scenes of break dancing, and funny dialogue. i also want to know where this is set, some sort of magic land where everything is settled with dance. can you imagine someone attacking you in the street, by dancing in a comical fashion?me and my brother had cardboard laid out in the garden for about a month after we saw this, but you may act differently.

This movie changed the face of hip-hop! It was electrifying to watch dancers move this way. Now almost every video you see has breakers in it. Shrimp and Shaba-Doo turned the world upside down in 1983 with this movie. It was released the same weekend as 16 Candles and finished way ahead of them at the box office. Stars like Ice-T and Jean-Claude Van Damme were in this movie. It truly changed the face of hip-hop; taking it from just an art form to a mega-sensation.I am excited to see the co-producer, David Zito, and dancer, Boogaloo Shrimp, are speaking at the University of Redlands in Southern California on Sept. 27th 2005 at 7pm for free. The lecture is on the history of hip-hop and the making of their movie.