Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984)

Mere words are not going to do justice to the experience of watching Breakin’ 2 Electric Boogaloo, so I would advise just watching it for yourself if you are interested, regardless of anything I have to say.  It’s a truly audacious endeavor, almost surreal in its approach to music.  Obviously, Polish director Sam Firstenberg (American Ninja) had no clue as to what he was doing in shooting a musical, letting things run completely out of control.  He probably flipped on MTV, watched lots of music videos, especially by the red-hot Michael Jackson, and did his very best to emulate the look, style and feel.  Outside of a very flimsy, almost nonsensical plot (though based on a true story of a community trying to save a youth center in the Los Angeles region), all stops are pulled out in an effort at entertaining at any cost.  Say what you want about the film’s quality, but even if you think it’s terrible, you have to admit it’s pretty fun to watch.  Guilty pleasure favorite, anyone?

It’s a thin and not altogether interesting plot, and I realize no one cares to watch a film called Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo because they think they might be interested in a good story, but for the purists, I shall continue.  Somewhere underneath the never-ending music and dance numbers is a story about keeping Shabba-Doo’s community center for inner city youth (named “Miracles”) from falling into the hands of a slimy developer who wants to bulldoze it to erect a shopping center in the middle of the community.  This would leave the kids nowhere else to go, so obviously they choose to fight the city council’s decision to shut it down, but a window of opportunity exists, which calls for $200,000 in necessary repairs.

Obviously, dealing with the story anymore than one has to would be a recipe for certain disaster, so we can all be thankful that a wise decision was made in ignoring it as much as possible at least half of the time.  Breakin’ 2 rushed out about seven months after the release of the first Breakin’, which leaves very little time for development of a major motion picture, so if it seems like it’s slapped together in haphazard fashion, there’s good reason.  Basically, it was meant as a cash-in flick, getting it out the door while the dance craze was still hot and the first film was fresh in the minds of the viewers.

Although it’s a sequel, the three main stars are about the only significant characters returning from the first film, unless you figure Ice-T or Hot Tot (or whatever the hell that little kid’s name is) to be vital to each story.  A few artistic liberties are taken, most notably that Kelly (Dickey) is now from rich parents (she was nearly dirt poor in the first film), and apparently has been in some sort of romantic dabblings with Ozone (and yet has no idea where he works, or who any of his friends are, save for Turbo).  It’s a stretch, but necessary for the ambitious film to work, as there’s themes of class battles and prejudices that run throughout the film, although actual racial epithets are completely danced around, so to speak.

It’s not a heavily plotted film in general, but, in addition to the main plot at hand, subplots abound to complicate the matter.  One happens to be the acting gig that Kelly is asked to do in Paris, a golden opportunity that just so happens to coincide with the deadline to save Miracles.  Another involves a rival for Ozone’s affections from a former flame who apparently can’t let him go, further complicating Kelly’s ability to roam comfortably in the hood where Ozone resides, and to have the most awkward dance number of the film, where Ozone and Turbo alternate dancing with a doll that turns into one of the several love interests in their lives.  Then, there’s Turbo’s would-be love interest for Turbo in the form of a hot Latina dancing cutie who rarely speaks, and when she does, she’s obviously dubbed by someone else.

So with a thin story, poor plotting, and some questionable acting, you’re probably asking yourself why I should be so generous as to give it a non-abysmal grade (which isn’t much, I admit).  All I can say is, when the music is on and the dancers are performing, no matter how incredible the scenario or how silly the situation, the inventiveness of break-dancing and the no-boundaries feel of the music video numbers manage to entertain me.  I’m not sure the original intent was to make me laugh, but laugh I did, again and again, until I was no longer laughing at the film, but with it.  This is not a movie about serious social issues (though it may pretend it is), or even about the characters, but about having a good time.  I have to admit, as cheesy as every single frame of Breakin’ 2 is, I admired it for what it was trying to accomplish with so little going for it.

Although Breakin’ had been a major hit for the oft-struggling studio knows as Cannon Films, Breakin’ 2 did not fare so well, earning less than 40% of the take that its predecessor had just a few months prior.  Its soundtrack also was a but compared to the robust chart-toppers that the first film had in abundance.  The cast, nevertheless, was still able to capitalize on their success.  After doing the choreography and appearing in the music videos for Chaka Khan’s “I Feel for You” and Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long”, Shabba-Doo drew the eye of Madonna, who went on to use his choreography skills for her upcoming “Who’s That Girl” tour, as well as her “Ciao Italiana” concert video. He would also choreograph the Academy Awards stage performance for Three 6 Mafia’s Oscar-winning song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” and did work choreographing movies like Jamie Kennedy’s Kickin’ It Old School.  

Chambers continued working with Michael Jackson on various dance moves he would perform on stage, though it is questioned that he was rumored to have shown Jackson how to ‘moonwalk’.  After his appearance in Breakin’, he would also appear in film and television, including, famously, performing as the “Urkelbot” on TV’s “Family Matters”. He choreographed the dance moves for the animated rapper, MC Skat Kat for Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract”.

Dickey’s career was much more short-lived, starting in the early Eighties as a dancer on the TV music variety show, “Solid Gold” and then her three films for Cannon, both Breakin’ films and Ninja III: The Domination (which was also directed by Firstenberg).  She stopped acting in 1990 after getting married to future popular reality TV power player and producer Craig Piligian.

Meanwhile, the phrase “Electric Boogaloo” would become the satirical secondary title for just about every sequel deemed unnecessary by those who follow the movie industry. The actual origin of the name came from that of a street-dance crew based on Fresno, California, called the “Electric Boogaloos” in the late 1970s, one of whose members, Boogaloo Sam, had a signature dance move called the “boogaloo”, which came from a James Brown track and record from the 1960s.

So, should you watch it?  I would say yes for the following groups of people: (1) if you’ve seen and liked the first film, (2) if you love musicals, no matter how silly they are, (3) you are a street-dancing historian, or used to dance in the streets around the time of this film’s release, (4) if you love every damn film that exemplifies the 80s, and lastly, and perhaps most importantly, (5) if you love those “so bad their good” films that aren’t ashamed in reveling in gratuitous excess.  The Fred Astaire-inspired scene where Chambers break-dances around on the walls and ceiling built in a rotating room (which had been built and used for a scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street) is practically worth the price of admission alone.

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo is by no means a good film (though Roger Ebert famously gave it a ‘thumbs up’), but it never really had any intention of being one.  Like a street musician, dancer or mime, it’s not out to change your life or awe you with artistic significance.  It just wants to arrest your attention for a moment, and leave you walking away with a smile.  I’ll drop a quarter in the hat for that.

Qwipster’s rating: D

MPAA Rated: PG for some sexuality
Running time: 94 min.

Cast: Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones, Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers, Peter Maclean, Susie Coelho, Ice-T, Harry Caesar, Sabrina Garcia
Director:  Sam Firstenberg
Screenplay: Jan Ventura, Julie Reichert