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Breakin'

Play trailer Poster for Breakin' PG Released May 4, 1984 1h 27m Musical Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
33% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Kelly (Lucinda Dickey) is a classically trained jazz dancer who's tired of warding off her amorous teacher and hungry for a new outlet. When she befriends street dancers Ozone (Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones) and Turbo (Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers), she's blown away by their unique and original moves. She soon volunteers to help them defeat a rival group of street dancers, learning break-dancing skills along the way and sharing some moves of her own.

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: 2/5 Oct 2, 2004 Full Review Sean Collier Box Office Prophets When Turbo and Ozone are left alone to dance (which happens far too infrequently), Breakin' comes alive. Oddly, the problem here is not enough dancing. Rated: 6/10 Jul 3, 2020 Full Review Diego Galán El Pais (Spain) Its development and characters are clumsy. It all seems to indicate that Breakin' is more the product of fandom than of professionalism. [Full Review in Spanish] Feb 7, 2020 Full Review Kevin Carr 7M Pictures the movie has a certain entertainment value, especially considering its place in cinema history Rated: 3/5 Apr 27, 2015 Full Review Pablo Villaça Cinema em Cena Ruim a ponto de ser divertido, um produto tpico dos anos 80; uma verdadeira cpsula do tempo. Que, diga-se de passagem, jamais deveria ser aberta. Rated: 1/5 Nov 25, 2006 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 10, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (483) audience reviews
Matt S I grew up in the 80's had my beat box, seen beat street, popping locking spinning on an old bit of vinyl you found at the back of a skip somewhere. It's just an uplifting movie, sure it can be a bit cheesy in parts, great sound track chaka Khan, feel good message, certainly better than the rubbish that's being put out now, big up for this film. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/14/24 Full Review JP h This is THE breakdancing movie to me. HIGHLY underated so much so movies after it like "Body Rock" bit the whole concept and imitation is the highest form of flattery. It works so well because all the "actors" were DANCERS 1st. REAL SKILLS over acting is ALWAYS best. This movie captures the spirit of breaking in so many ways. Lucinda Dickey captures the innocence of someone just learning and enamoured with the dance, and Shaba Doo really encapsulates that ahole Crazy Legs type of hardcore person trying to guard the art from outsiders. It really captures those types of people, which were many in breaking as most triedt to "keep it real," and that concept really doesn't exist in today's society anymore. People just bite and fake and do whatever to get by on image, not skills. ORIGINALLY, all the aspects of hip hop were about creativity and skills from rappers and DJs battling to breakers/dancers, not so much anymore. It's all about looks now and fitting that look. Meanwhile in this film Lucinda Dickey was able to use her dance and gymnastics pretty much how breakers then and today have, mixing it with breaking. She had a HUGE learning curve to just learn breaking in a few weeks, which makes no sense as I did it for YEARS and it wasn't for several until it really came together for me. So big props to her and of course all the cast for breaking I LOVE that the "love story" is SECONDARY to the breaking, which is atypical for an 80s flick. There is no STUPID LAME 80s makeout scene. The romance between Kelly and Ozone is there but it isn't and it makes sense in the characters' world because Ozone/Shabba Doo is an angry artist who is incapable of love, and I'm sure Lucinda/Kelly could've sensed that so it wouldn't make sense for a deep romance to exist between the characters tho there is something like a shared respect and a possibility of a romantic relationship but it just isn't there, SO DANCE is where both of those characters put their passion. And I LOVE that. It's about the dance and art in the movie 1st. Great skills, fun to watch, decent story, and Lucinda Dickey is a skilled BABE from heaven! Awesome movie, and I'm glad she got to star in it and have fun as a dancer who came to Hollywood to make it, it was her dream come true. I love that she thinks only people care about Ozone and Turbo, they were great as typical breakdancers, but let's face it, it's ALWAYS about the underdog and outsiders and we're always on their side because we've all been there b4. Kudos to Lucinda Dickey for taking on the role, which from all accounts Shabba Doo made it hard for her, and most poeple wouldn't sign up for a part 2 AND 3, which Lucinda Dickey had done. I wish they would've made a Breakin 3 cuz who knows how it would've been. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/10/24 Full Review timmy b For Hip Hop Headz & Dancers in general, this Film is mad prolific. The Style, Soundtrack & especially the Dance is way Dope. It sits as a legendary classic in the Hip Hop zeitgeist. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/12/24 Full Review isa e good dancing, terrible dialog, van damme in a onesie, lucinda dickey cannot act. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 06/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Whether you know this movie as Breakin', Breakdance the Movie or Break Street '84, this film was inspired by a documentary named Breakin' ‘n' Enterin', which told the true story of the talent at the Los Angeles hip hop club Radio-Tron, which included Ice-T and Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, both of whom appear here. Menahem Golan's daughter saw breakdancers perform in Venice Beach and was so excited that her enthusiasm inspired him to rush this movie into theaters, hoping to beat Beat Street. This would not be the last time that Golan was in a mad rush to get a dance-themed movie on screens before anyone else. Kelly "Special K" Bennett (Lucinda Dickey, a Cannon all-star who is also in this film's sequel and the magical Ninja 3: The Domination) is training to be a dancer under the direction of Franco (Ben Lokey). To help keep her inspired, her friend Adam (Phineas Newborn III) introduces her to Orlando "Ozone" Barco (Adolfo "Shabba Doo" Quiñones) and Tony "Turbo" Ainley (Chambers), two breakdancers who are self-trained and have their own unique style unlike anything she's seen in dance school. Kelly is met with disdain by everyone when she attempts to bring their energy into the world of dance. And then Franco gets way too intimate with her, so she quits training and becomes a breakdancer, upsetting the rich side of her life but fulfilling her spirit as she and the newly formed T.K.O. Crew defeat other dance teams like Electro Rock and her manager James Wilcox (Christopher McDonald, who I will always just call Shooter McGavin) starts seeing dollar signs. Can Kelly unite art and the street? Of course, the story is very basic. But it's the sheer joy of seeing this dance on screen, the amazing soundtrack — which has everyone from Rufus and Chaka Khan, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Hot Streak and Ollie & Jerry — and the time capsule 80s nature of this movie that make it a winner. Somehow, Cannon would top it with the sequel, somehow, someway. Critics were all over this movie's lack of a story, but who cares? We're here for the music and the dancing choereographed by West Side Story dancer Jamie Rogers. It's also one of the rare times when Cannon was making the trend instead of trying to be part of one. Israeli director Joel Silberg went from this movie to a spiritual third film in the series, Rappin', as well as Lambada, which was choreographed by Shabba-Doo. That movie — and its competition The Forbidden Dance — is a story we'll get to soon. Breakin' is the final Cannon film production released by MGM/UA — to find out why, check out Bolero — which made Cannon become its own distribution company again. I wonder if MGM/UA had second thoughts, because Cannon turned this $1.2 million dollar movie into $38.7 million dollars at the box office. Breakin' opened at number one and even outgrossed Sixteen Candles, which played on two hundred more screens in their first week. Also, you probaby already know that this is Jean Claude Van Damme's first movie appearance. He's on the beach dancing next to Michel Qissi, who would be his rival Tong Po in Kickboxer. We should all aspire to the same joy that Van Damme has in this scene. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member https://youtu.be/0V1jNdl03dY Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Breakin'

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Cast & Crew

Breakin'

Breakin': Official Clip - Get My Boogie Down Breakin': Official Clip - Get My Boogie Down 2:54 Breakin': Official Clip - Breakin' at Venice Beach Breakin': Official Clip - Breakin' at Venice Beach 2:23 Breakin': Official Clip - Electro Rock vs. Turbo & Ozone Breakin': Official Clip - Electro Rock vs. Turbo & Ozone 2:49 Breakin': Official Clip - Turbo Teaches Kids Breakin' Breakin': Official Clip - Turbo Teaches Kids Breakin' 1:14 Breakin': Official Clip - Street Sweepin' & Breakin' Breakin': Official Clip - Street Sweepin' & Breakin' 2:11 Breakin': Official Clip - James Comes to the Dance Breakin': Official Clip - James Comes to the Dance 1:12 Breakin': Official Clip - There's No Stopping Us Breakin': Official Clip - There's No Stopping Us 3:50 Breakin': Official Clip - Street Dancing Won't Get You to Broadway Breakin': Official Clip - Street Dancing Won't Get You to Broadway 1:44 Breakin': Official Clip - That's Dancing, Kelly Breakin': Official Clip - That's Dancing, Kelly 1:44 Breakin': Official Clip - Ice-T Raps Breakin': Official Clip - Ice-T Raps 2:24 View more videos
Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo 29% 67% Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo Watchlist Beat Street 57% 83% Beat Street Watchlist Roller Boogie 0% 54% Roller Boogie Watchlist Salsa 20% 79% Salsa Watchlist Yentl 69% 75% Yentl Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Kelly (Lucinda Dickey) is a classically trained jazz dancer who's tired of warding off her amorous teacher and hungry for a new outlet. When she befriends street dancers Ozone (Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones) and Turbo (Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers), she's blown away by their unique and original moves. She soon volunteers to help them defeat a rival group of street dancers, learning break-dancing skills along the way and sharing some moves of her own.
Director
Joel Silberg
Producer
Allen DeBevoise, David Zito
Screenwriter
Allen DeBevoise, Charles Parker, Gerald Scaife
Distributor
Cannon Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp.
Production Co
Cannon Group
Rating
PG
Genre
Musical
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 4, 1984, Wide
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 5, 2003
Runtime
1h 27m
Sound Mix
Surround