Flashdance (1983)

Best movie ever!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

(Start 'What A Feeling' now)Man, I really love Jennifer Beals. Jennifer Beals is a classic beauty. Jennifer as Alex in Flashdance is super hot. She is perfect for the part. She's got the look, she's got the attitude and the moves. Jennifer is super sexy and really delivers an all-around awesome performance. Flashdance is an all-time classic. It's a smash cultural hit and it's definitely from the '80s. Jennifer's dance sequences in Flashdance are really beautiful and seriously moving and absolutely unforgettable. I love watching this movie over and over again. It's a classic. Flashdance's 'What A Feeling' by Irene Cara is forever classic."All aloooone I have criied silent teeaars full oof priiide. In a woooorld made of steeel made ooof stooooone. Weeelll III hear the muusic. Close my eeyes feel the rhythmm. Wrap aroouund take a hooold of myy heearrrt. What a feeeeling..beings belieeeviing..I caan have it aall now I'm dancing fooor my liiiiiife..Take your passioon..and maake it happeen..Pictures come aliive you can dance right throough your liiiiiiiii-i-i-iife!!!"Irene Cara is awesome. If there were an all-time greatest Oscars ceremony for every movie ever Irene Cara's 'What A Feeling' would be nominated in the category for best original song for a motion picture and it would probably win. If I were a judge I don't think I would have to consider anything else. It fits the movie to an '80s over the shoulder tee. I love it. Irene can wail!"Noow IIII hear the muusic. Close my eeyes I am rhythm. In a flaaash it takes hooold of my heeeee-aa-aaart. What a feeeeeliiing..beings belieeeviing..I caan have it aall now I'm dancing fooor my liiiife..Take your passion..and maaake it haappeen..Pictures come aliive now I'm dancing throough the niiiiiight. What a feeeliiiiing!!!"Jennifer Beals is awesome God she has an incredible body! She's a great dancer. The Jennifer Beals' sultry Flashdance stage dance is all-time classic and hot and the end dance is even better. Jennifer is awesomely gorgeous and awesomely hot and awesomely sexy. Yeaaahhh!"What a feeeliiing (I am music now) Beings belieeeeviiiing (I am rhythm now) Pictures come aliive you can dance right throough your liiiiiiiiiii-iife!!!"I'm listening to 'What A Feeling' as I write this I suggest you do the same as you read it.

Style-over-substance films usually annoy me. When those movie are as bad as Flashdance, I just want to ask the people who made them what they were thinking. Actually, this was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who are well known for making films of cinematic gloss, but nothing with real humanity. The story is so simple, the whole thing is probably 50 minutes too long. This is basically Rocky if the story has dance scenes for filler, the numerous subplots went nowhere, and the characters weren't appealing.For a story, Jennifer Beals plays a young girl named Alex who wants to be a professional dancer, and not just to dance at a small nightclub. By day, she works as a welder at a steel mill; shocking since she is only 18. The steel mill boss's son falls in love with her and later tries to help her get into the professional dance group that she yearns to be a part of, if only she had more confidence.Everything that I highlighted in just three sentences is everything there is to know about the main story. Everything else is just music video-inspired dancing scenes (which, unfortunately, are mostly performed by Beals's body double instead of Beals herself) set to popular 80s songs, and subplots that go nowhere or are resolved in five minutes. For one thing, Alex sees the boss's son with his previous wife, she gets mad and throws a rock at his window, but the next day, he explains why his ex-wife was with him in the first place. Later, her friend joins a sleazy strip club, and Alex forces her to leave after three minutes. There is even an old woman who is Alex's friend, and conveniently, was also a famous dancer. Not enough time is spent on the relationship they have and the film never establishes how they met.The acting is average at best, with Beals giving the warmest performance of the whole cast, and most of the characters act like old stereotypes, such as the pathetic friend who makes useless jokes (which leads to another sub-plot that goes nowhere) and the aggressive jocks who have eyes for the main heroine. Alex herself is also the victim of the horrible screenplay. Close to the beginning of the film, she actually does come close to signing up for an audition for the dance group, but she backs out because she is afraid. Not a good enough reason? Well, the film still has an hour and fifteen minutes left, and if she did get her confidence at that moment, it would be nothing more than a short film.I have very little to say about Flashdance because the film offers so little. I guess the dance scenes are well shot, and Beals performance makes things a little more tolerable, but everything else is quite awful. Even some of the 80s songs are poor. This is easily one of the most uninteresting pieces of nothing ever made.

What makes a good film for me is that it is enjoyable, entertaining, gripping, likable and emotional. Flashdance without a doubt ticks all these five boxes. Flahdance is a very retro, cheesy entertaining film that is at no point boring and never drags, and is also a very clear symbol of the great 1980's and the night club exotic dancing scene of the time. Jennifer Beals puts down an amazing performance, as a dancer and as an actress. I guess the story comes down to the fact that reality bites, that life is tough, but if you push hard you just might make it.All in all, Flashdance despite its few undeniable faults is a very decent and enjoyable film in my opinion. As it mostly meets all of my requirements I am happy to give it a positive review. This film is one of the quintessential 80's films, that works well as a symbolic artifact of its time. I highly recommend this film to anyone who loves 80's.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

I really liked the first half hour of this film because of Lyne's fantastic direction and the great editing and sound. However, after that, the lack of story began to take its toll and I found the film dragged. I also felt the story was quite confused, with characters and sub plots popping up without rhyme or reason and being left with loose ends.I didn't like Jennifer Beals's acting and I found the portrayal of her character too aggressive. You can imagine her becoming a diva if she ever hit the big time. She wasn't given much back story so I never felt I know who she was, why she was working as a welder or why she wanted to get where she was going.The last 5 minutes, with the dance audition, became horrendously cheesy and quite out of tone with this otherwise mature film.