Flashdance
Jennifer Beals sizzles on the stage in her nightly dancing at a bar and works hard during the day as a welder but has dreams of making it big as a professional dancer.
Film making 20/25
Cinematography 20/25
Audio 23/25
Bonus Features 5/25
Total 68/100
Flashdance is a great film with a really heartfelt dance and reach for your dreams mix that gets your feet tapping and heart pounding. Jennifer Beals plays Alex, a welder by day and exotic dancer by night with dreams of bigger things.
She takes her dancing seriously and wishes to become a professional dancer and wants to join a dance school with a lot of encouragement from her teacher and former ballet dancer Hanna Long played by Lilia Skala. One night at the club where she dances her boss takes note of her performance and physical attributes and starts to chase her down.
At first Alex snubs his advances and his persistence pays off when she dates her boss Mick Hurley played by Michael Nouri and he eventually helps her get an audition to the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory. When Alex finds out he set up the audition she gets mad but gets over it and does an excellent job at the audition that has the bored teachers of the school soon dancing in their seats.
The film contains several dance routines that make up music video like scenes such as one routine where several of the girls from the bar are working out or Alex is practicing at home. The film I think did a great job with these sections to add a not so believable but really fun look at the otherwise boring lives of everyday people.
Of course looking at some good looking girls dancing or working out is also a nice treat for us male types but the film does not portray women as mere sex objects but as the artists they can be in their chosen professional endeavors. While Alex has the dream of dance her friend Jeani Szabo played by Sunny Johnson also works at her dream of skating that is one scene of the movie where her otherwise cynical father is actually proud of her. During the scene her routine on ice starts off good but she falls a couple of times and quits the show but later jokes about her shot at the big time with her friends and family while they console her.
The movie really does a good job of showing real life people and their dreams of making it big in several different areas like dance, skating and even comedy with cook and part time comedian Richie played by Kyle T. Heffner. They show that not all dreams come true and not everyone is cut out to be stars in their profession but that reaching for your dream has its own rewards.
I read several reviews done soon after the film came out dishing the movie about its music video style and poor dance routine setup with so many stand-ins for Jennifer Beals but do not agree. The film does a pretty good job of showing the everyday lives of people who are struggling to get somewhere and how some do not actually make it big in the world.
Flashdance is a fun movie with plenty of great acting and some really well done dance routines that look good even if they are not all the same person in real life. The movie is filled with good music from the 80’s with some fun and excitement for a great movie that is quite entertaining.
The I Love the 80’s edition of Flashdance does not contain any extras other than set up with Dolby Digital English and French 2.1 surround sound and 5.1 English surround sound as well as English and Spanish subtitles. The film does come with a four song CD including Lips Like Sugar, Chains of Love, Need You Tonight and Take On Me form the 80’s music era.
While the I Love the 80’s series may seem simply like a company trying to cash in on old movies some of the oldies are really good and worth the cost of $10. I enjoyed Flashdance with its high energy and great story but also enjoyed seeing some of the characters not exactly making their dreams come true even when Alex does.