Saturday, March 27, 2010

ice-t is in the movie breakin'

i watched the movie breakin' this morning. there's some scenes at an underground street dancing club where dancers (or groups or dancers, what have you) vie for supremacy. who should be there providing musicial inspiration, but ice-t. i think this movie is from 1984.

i should've watched this movie a long time ago. first, it's somewhat entertaining. second, there has been a number of different comedies reference this movie. third, it provides a nice retrospective on some of the dance-inspired fashions on the 80s.

remember capezios? i think they still make these, actually, as i'm pretty sure they're just dance shoes. i had a pair of capezios in the 80s. i am not a dancer. my roommate in college studied dancing and she dancy clothes, so she stuck with the capezios way longer than i did. (i will say they are comfortable shoes) although, she didn't fully indulge in some of the things that were more trendy. i do think she wore her hair in a ponytail for our entire freshman year though (she wasn't my roommate yet, but we were dorm neighbors). haha anyway, no one cares about me and the wayback machine..

back to the movie... so this chick is waitressing at the type of place that seems only to exist in the movies... (imagine mel's diner california-style) and she's also taking a very exclusive dance class (cuz they tend to be economical). she is friends with this gay black guy and he is friends with some "street dancers". he takes her to watch his friends and, long story short, they make the dance group a trio rather than a duo and convince people of the legitmacy of the style.

given that type of dancing has pretty well taken over at this point (variations of it) on shows like america's best dance crew, so you think you can dance, and step it up and dance.... i suppose it makes a good point. one of the characters "turbo" does a dance with a broom that's pretty cool. the dance "crew" we're concerned with are known by real names and street names: tony/turbo, orlando/ozone, kelly/special k. INTERESTING NAME, kelly. haha

here's the weird thing about dance... it seems to be kind of a difficult way to make a living. if you study, say, ballet... this is a very competitive art and look at someone like mary carey. she studied from a very early age until her injury at 19 and now all of those years of ballet have done what for her? i suppose if she hadn't gone into porn she could have been a ballet teacher (i know they offered her such a job on the first sober house, but even in california i would think most parents would think twice before getting mary carey to teach their young children). for less formal types of dance, it seems some people do make a successful career about it.... but, i'm not sure of all the opportunities they may or may not have. there doesn't seem to be nearly enough jobs to warrant the HUGE numbers of people who go through dance classes, especially since some of the so-called dance classes are more interested in $$$ than in talent.

it seems like a lot of the people we see dancing (unless we seek out dance somehow) are in videos, so it's people like britney spears. is britney the best dancer ever? or is the whole package (looks, singing, figure, permissive parents who allowed her to be marketed as a sex symbol when she was underage, etc.) that makes her successful? (not taking away from whatever dancing talent she may have... i am just saying, it's not JUST her dancing).

speaking of dancing... bad segue... i have a showtime preview and TWILIGHT is coming on in half a hour. oh, you know i gots to see that. expect a rant. love shampoo

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now you have to see Breakin' Two: Electric Boogaloo.
lol. I have to differ with you on this, Poo. Breakin'- in fact all dancing movies- are horric. If they were used at Guantanomo Bay, even Dick Cheney would balk. Okay, not him, but everyone else...
But then, I'm a straight guy, so I'm probably not exactly the target audience.
As for Twilight... One doesn't watch that movie so much as endure it. Neither Kristen Stewart nor Robbert "Pussy Allergy" Pattinson can act worth a shit, and they show off their not-acting chops on every inch of screen they can. The evil vampires are the only interesting characters in the movie, though the girl that played Alice was cute.
Still, it's a fun movie to make fun of, spider monkey.

Ricky Sprague said...

I saw "Breakin'" in a MOVIE THEATER WHEN IT WAS ORIGINALLY RELEASED. I also saw B2: Electric Boogaloo in a theater. I wasn't even into break dancing (I dance like my feet are fighting), but I have always liked movies about dancing. Go figure.

Anonymous said...

lol.
So did I. Until I was 12 I wanted to be a professional break dancer!

But these days, sadly, the magic is gone for me and my dancing fever.

shampoo said...

ricky spraguek, haha.... back in the day the movie pickings were slim when it came to movies about something other than baby boomers and what they were doing. but, somehow i missed this one... electric boogaloo... for some reasons, i thought all ths time that had something to do with flashdance (shows what i know).

allen tdg, i think they're sort of popcorn movies... but, they're not for everyone. dance movies, i mean, not twilight. twilight is a whole 'nother thing. but, i will say there are some dance movies that are pretty bad. breakin' was pretty decent though. but, then i got a little nostalgic so maybe that made me like it better.

Allen the Duck Guy said...

Most of the dancing craze going on now just gets on my nerves. Just like the musical revival. Bleaccch.
But I know I'm in the minority because it both are huge at the moment.
I still think dancing movies are mostly aimed at kids because I remember every one I knew was carzy into Breakin' at the time. Mercifully, since we were all white and devoid of rhythm, we out grew it.

shampoo said...

high school musical is a totally different story than breakin. as in one has ice t and the other does not have ice t.

Allen the Duck Guy said...

As far down the ladder of street cred as Ice T has come, he might be in the next High School Musical...

shampoo said...

oh lord, please no. but if he is, he must bring coco! (have you ever seen coco? ever seen ice t posing with a blonde who's pointing her booty at the camera? tis coco.)

Allen the Duck Guy said...

Actually: my bad.
I had Ice T confused with Ice Cube. Cube is the one in that godawful piece of shit Are We There Yet.
T is pretty cool. He was in Johnny Mnemonic and I love that movie.
But I still don't like movies where the cast must express itself through interpretive dance.