Flashdance (1983)

The one over-riding theme in a lot of the comments here about Flashdance

is how it does not hold up to the test of time! What a load! It does

stand up and it is very relevant. Just check out all the dance studios

and comedy clubs full of wannabees. Most of us have dreams or had them.

When I first saw this movie I was 23 and I was full of hopes and

ambitions. And looking back now, this movie makes me see what happens

when you don't go for them. I loved Jennifer Beals when I saw the movie back then. Little did we

know that Jennifer was the original Jennifer Lopez. The whole Puerto

Rican babe with the bubble butt that drives men crazy these days was

actually on display in Flashdance! This movie sparked a fashion craze with the torn and cut-up sweats and

the leg-warmers. Who can forget the scene where Jennifer and Michael

Nouri character(who seemed too old for her actually) are in her

apartment and she takes off her bra from under her ripped up sweat top.

Was that erotic or what?!! It also had a memorable sound-track that

still has numbers like 'What a Feeling" and "Maniac" being played on

those 80's disco radio shows. All in all this movie was like the movie Rocky! Instead of Philly you

got Pittsburgh! Instead of a boxer, you get a dancer! Instead of the

theme song " Gonna Fly Now" with the line " feeling strong now", you get

"What a Feeling". Like the nobody club boxer with no real formal boxing

training, you get a dancer with little formal training who rises to the

top. Of course we know that in the real world, these characters would

have very little chance of becoming successes. Rocky Balboa would of

ended up a punching bag just padding future champions records, and

Jennifer would

Fmovies: Although I've long known, generally speaking, what this movie is about, I never saw it when it came out in 1983 or 1984, because I was too busy "living" the 80's (yeah, right, whatever that means!). But I just saw it recently, in its entirety, the other night on TV.

I don't know, maybe it's the current sorry state of affairs of the world today that made me want to watch this film, just so I could revisit the "happy days(?)" of the eighties, when, although the world was also in a sorry state of affairs, at least there was an underlying pretense of hope and glory, a pervasive (albeit childlike) adherence to the belief that wishes DO sometimes come true, miracles CAN happen, and for every ugly frog there IS a beautiful princess waiting to kiss him...

This movie sucks, bigtime... but it also rocks! And that, people, is the honest to God truth. This movie is so bad it reeks of the stench of the very phoney-baloney on which it is based (and we all know how awful THAT is). BUT, it also rocks you to your very soul, and hey, how can you possibly fault a movie that dares to offer people (and not just young people, but ALL people) that little thing called HOPE???

I hope you don't take my "critique" the wrong way... Honestly, I don't think the movie is really all that good, but the message, and the feeling, and the spirit of this movie, are all very wonderful and infectious indeed and should NOT be discounted. It makes it a wonderful movie. Strange, isn't it? If those of you reading this are parents with up-and-coming kids, make them sit through this film!! Make them watch it!! I guarantee you, at least there is not a single scene in it where some teenager just HAS to have sex with a baked pastry object!!

Finally, let me comment on the fact that many in filmdom have dissed Jennifer Beals over the fact that a stand-in dancer performed various or several of her dance segments. Well let me just mention, that at the very end of the film, in the credit roll, there is a disclaimer that states: "The people and events in this film are fictional. Any similarity to actual people or events is unintentional." So, with this in mindÂ… a stunt double performed some of the dance steps!?? I was shocked, shocked to find that stunt doubles are used in Hollywood!!

Sure, Flashdance will never make the AFI's Top 100, but it has an infectious charm. Jennifer Beals is really only so-so in the leading role, and her leading man Michael Nouri is no better off, but it doesn't matter. What does matter here is the great music! Really, the whole film is played like a 90-minute ad for MTV! Laugh at the dopey plot and listen to the great tunes. Great film to earmark the 80s.

Flashdance fmovies. As other users have said this film is very dated, but not necessarily bad. It was looked upon as a bit of fluff that was very successful in the box office. So now, it would come across as nostalgic (in the same vein as Dirty Dancing). But the thing I do like about it, is just that. Adrian Lyne perfectly captured the time, a post disco era when Break-dancing and Synth Pop were all the rage - Who could forget the FANTASTIC theme song, sung by Irene Cara (Fame) and composed by Synth Pop genius Giorgio Moroder (I feel love - Donna Summer among many others). So what if Jennifer Beals wasn't a great actress? So what if it wasn't her dancing? (Think one of them was a break dancer from "The Rock Steady Crew" - see? All about the era!) she was a good looking girl, and this was a harmless bit of fun at the time.

I know how much Flashdance became such a huge hit of the 80's, it defined a whole new generation of clothes, behavior, and dance moves. That's what made Flashdance so special. Now I was born in '85 so I kinda missed out on these things, but I understand it's importance. I just bought this movie yesterday, it was back to back with Footloose, two iconic 80's movies, and I watched Flashdance this afternoon. While this film defined a huge part of the 80's, it was an average film with a simple plot. The acting and story is just pretty average, but it's a cute and fun one.

Alex is a welder by day, but at night she is a sexy exotic dancer who grabs the attention of all the men. But she has big time dreams to become a ballet dancer, she has promised her grandmother that she would apply to the top ballet school and try to get an audition. But Alex is always intimidated by the other "proper looking" dancers with tons more experience than her. She falls in love with a fellow co-worker, Nick, who wants her to make it just as badly. She goes through rough times, but she just wants to make it and will do anything for that chance.

Flashdance is one of those must see movies if you wanna see the important films of the 80's. I just wanted to see what this movie was about since it's such a huge part of film culture. Jennifer Beals actually did a great job as Alex, she was absolutely beautiful and made the character very likable. While this film did not live up to my expectations, it still was a good film. It has an awesome sound track and really is a lot of fun to dance too. Now excuse me, but I wanna try to take my bra off without removing my shirt, lol.

5/10

There are already many comments on this film in the IMDb database, and I had no intention of writing another until to my surprise I noticed that it was frequently being replayed on several different local TV channels. Flashdance is a very outdated movie that has never appealed to most film critics, so I felt this was sufficiently unusual to justify an attempted explanation.

Since the DVD of Flashdance was released, it has appeared for hire in many small local convenience stores and service stations that only maintain a very small rack of films for hire Clearly although it is now very much of a period movie, it continues to retain an enormous appeal for many of those who have seen it before. Personally I have watched our tape of Flashdance more often than most of the other tapes we have at home. This is not because it would be my first choice, but because it is a film that my wife loves to watch again and again; whilst I find I can view it repeatedly more readily than many of her other favorite tapes, so when we are discussing what to view and have rejected a number of other possibilities we tend to turn back to Flashdance. This reinforces the comments already made in your database about Flashdance being a "feel good" movie for which most people seem able to ignore the faults and just enjoy the music, the dancing and the romance. (It also features "Grunt", a very appealing dog, who remains one of the reasons why my wife is always ready to rewatch this film.) As a film Flashdance is therefore something of a paradox. Originally the final product was not very highly regarded by the studio and only received a limited release. This was severely panned by most of the critics, and not surprisingly the film initially received very little support from the public. The reviews and the low attendance led to plans to withdraw it from circulation early, but before these were implemented the audiences started to grow and continued to increase until cinemas showing the film were mostly packed out. Clearly those few who saw the film at an early showing started telling their friends to ignore the critics and see it. This escalated exponentially until the film finished up as a major hit. In commenting on this film it would be equally invalid to ignore the very real concerns of the critics or the equally real appeal it had, and still seems to have, for most of the public.

The story is trite - a female welder in a steelworks dreams of being a ballet dancer and practices her dancing in one of the local bars at night. Here she meets and starts to fall in love with her fairly young divorced boss. With his support she is able obtain an audition with a major dance company who are essentially only interested in her dance training, and lose any interest they may have had when she says she has never attended a dance school. However she proceeds to audition for the very bored selection committee and gives an electrifying free dance performance that in true fairy story tradition brings the committee to its feet. Some critics have complained that doubles replaced the star Jennifer Beals for this sequence, but this is surely not important - the real question is how effectively the film plays, and this sequence has rightly been very widely admired. About the time the film was released, modern dance companies were being formed alongside traditional ballet companies in many major cities in North America and this sequence certainly added to the appeal of the film at the time, but it is decidedly not the only reason for watching it.