The 2 greatest movies in the HISTORY OF FILM ITSELF! I love you so much, Shout Factory! (1 Viewer)

Behold! Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo!


No word about any extras, but hopefully Shout! will load them down with awesome!

I was pretty sure this post was going to be about those! I have the first one on CED videodisc (the 8-track tape of video formats!) but have never seen the 2nd one.

While neither of them are high art - in fact theyre both about dumb as hammers - they're still pretty fun. Sure it looks dated, but what's wrong with that? The movie was a product of it's time and culture. Yeah the plot is simple - but then does everything have to be a twisty, turny labyrinth of story telling? Not everything has to be heavy, angry and angsty In short, Breakin' is simple, harmless, entertaining fun.


Breakin' 2 has the exact same problems that the first one does: about twenty pages of plot to fill up an entire script, stock villains sent up straight from Central Casting and acting that while passable isn't all that stellar. Additionally, we have an awkward love triangle subplot added into the mix that the first film so thankfully avoided.


Okay - that's the bad news. The good news is that Breakin' 2 gets everything that the first film got right, and then a little bit more. We get more of the optimistic idealism that was the core of Breakin' (always a good thing), and the dance choreography is elevated to the next level. Hands down one of the best numbers of the movie is a solo scene with Turbo practicing in his garage studio when suddenly he channels the spirit of Gene Kelly and with no explanation begins dancing on wall, then the ceiling, then the other wall before returning to the floor and gravity's embrace. It's a really surreal, really cool moment and a very nice nod to the dancing greats of old.

The vibe of the old school musicals doesn't stop there - towards the opening, we get Ozone dancing down the street, with his infectious energy boiling over to the passers by, and soon mailmen, cops, firemen and old people walking their dogs are suddenly caught up in a huge dance number. Or later on, in the hospital, patients in wheelchairs and on crutches get the urge to get up and boogie while a quartet of Hawtie nurses suddenly appear out of nowhere join in the choreography.

It's a world where the Power of Breakdanceing can stop bulldozers, save the children, heal the sick and when Ozone, Turbo and Kelly have a Dance-off against the Evil Breakdancers, they of course come around and join our heroes in the struggle against The Man at the end of the film.

It doesn't sound like a bad place to live, does it?

That's what I love about Cannon films in general: they are great visual and aural documents of the era in which they were made. They were low-budget and quickly-produced, meaning that there usually wasn't much to be done in the way of fancy costumes or sets. (The glorious APPLE notwithstanding.) They used what they had. When I watch a Cannon film, I really feel transported back to a particular time. Are the scripts any good? Define "good". They're almost always entertaining. That counts in my book. The direction was usually, at the very least, competent if not mind-blowing. If I want to put something on and just sit back and be entertained for 90 minutes, I can always count on Cannon. I miss their output. You just can't find decent B movies in theaters any more. Everything has to be bigger and more expensive.


That was a long-winded way of me saying that I'm excited for this set.

I'd buy "The Apple" on Blu-Ray if they put that out! That movie should've been way bigger than it was.