Disco Godfather (1979)

"Put yo weight on it!" - Tucker

A disco club owner tries to clean the drugs out of his neighbourhood.
Starring: Rudy Ray Moore, Carol Speed, Hawthorne James, Julius Carry

Link to IMDB

There's two things you need to know about Tucker Williams: He is the disco DJ godfather of his nightclub where everyone has a good time dancing and grooving to his energetic tunes, and he also really hates drugs. When his nephew stumbles into the club one night, stoned out of his mind and having a real bad trip that puts him in the hospital, Tucker knows it's time to take action and investigate the drug menace that's invading the city. As a retired police detective, Tucker is no stranger to drugs and violence, but the new poison on the street called angel dust is destroying the minds and bodies of the younger generation.

Tucker goes to his old police boss and asks to work as a reserve officer, so he can track down the drug dealers with the full support of the law on his side. It's not long before a local hot-shot criminal, named Stinger, is aware of Tucker's plan and he sends some men to kill him, but Tucker's no fool and he has the fighting skills to defend himself from the thugs and goons that get in his way.



The whole community rallies together to fight the war on drugs, and they start a campaign to "attack the whack" and educate people about the dangers of angel dust. As Tucker patrols the streets, arresting small time crooks and shaking down thugs for information, Stinger is getting more anxious about the police closing in on his crime organization. The stakes are high, but can one man alone truly rid the city of angel dust?
The movie is beautifully clumsy and absurd, but it's the ending that really embraces total craziness, when the story goes to the absolutely last place you would have expected. It's a jaw-dropping twist that left me completely astonished.

"I have to do something about the whack." - Tucker

Street fighting action

The movie suffers from some painfully dull parts and there are disco dancing scenes interrupting the flow of the story, but when Tucker is working the case there's lots of deranged things going on to keep me laughing. The drug issue is delivered seriously and honestly, and yet very bizarre, which adds even more humour. Angel dust is portrayed as a literal force of paranormal evil, damning the souls of anyone that uses it and tormenting them with hallucinations of demons, vampires and other such horrors. These freak out scenes are probably the weirdest depiction of drugs you could ever hope to see.

Hallucination horror !

The dialog is so amazingly bad that I was feeling truly blessed just to be hearing some of it, and Rudy Ray Moore delivers his lines unlike any other person in the history of film. Words are often over pronounced and stilted, or just shouted incoherently. This isn't a negative though, and in fact it's part of his ridiculous charm that makes him such a great character.
Despite some tedious parts, this is definitely fun and unique enough to be well worth seeing.

Be sure not to miss:
- I counted Tucker saying "Put yo weight on it." 23 times, and I probably even missed a few.
- Sometimes people say "whack the attack" instead of "attack the whack." The mix-up seems to be a mistake, or the characters are just confused about what the heck they're doing.

Internet review:
"It might not make a great deal of sense but it does make for a great time." - Magnotta

Should I watch it?
Recommended.

Where can I find it?
This veehd link works, but it's real slow. The file can also be downloaded and that proved more effective.

Disco Godfather gets...

Empire of the Ants (1977)

"Have you ever taken a close look at what the ant is all about?"- Narrator

That pesky toxic waste is causing problems again, but this time ants gets involved.
Starring: Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, Albert Salmi, Robert Pine

Link to IMDB

Opening narration!? I love opening narration! This one sternly reminds us of the great power and skill that the tiny ant wields.

Marilyn Fryser is a real estate agent holding a tour for prospective buyers of a new resort she is planning to build on the Florida coastline. A mixed group of about a dozen people arrive for the tour, with most of them being rich snobs. The captain hired to pilot the boat is Cpt. Dan Stokely, and he seems like the only likable character among all the self-centered, rude passengers. All aboard, they sail off down the coast to a remote area in the swamp.
This group isn't the only thing visiting the resort today, because a radioactive barrel has decided to wash-up onto the beach!

Marilyn (center)  meets the group.

Ants on a boat !

The first 30 minutes are pretty damn slow, as we just hang-out with these people who are proving to all be even bigger asses than I suspected, but Cpt. Stokely is clearly becoming the main character here.
Come on, already! Where are the ants!?
Finally, a guy wanders away from the tour and is attacked by a monstrous ant the size of a horse! Everyone's freaked out when they find his body torn to pieces, but they don't have to wonder what happened for long, as the big ass ants start swarming in around them. The group tries to get back to the boat, but ants crawl aboard and destroy their plan of escape!

Fear, despair and distrust has everyone arguing and crying, but Stokely takes charge and plans to walk through the swamp to a nearby town. The ants are chasing right behind them, attacking anyone that makes a mistake. Stokely finds a rowboat which they use to navigate the canals, and it offers some safety from the ants. I hope you like rowboat scenes, because there's lots of them.
Eventually, those that survived make their way to a small town and are rescued by the local police. But wait... There's still 30 minutes left of the movie. What can happen next? Well, everyone seems a bit peculiar in this town and they're definitely hiding a secret about the nearby sugar refinery. I can't explain any further without major spoilers, so I'll just leave you with two words... Ant farts. Yes, you read that correctly. Ant farts.

Ants beside a boat !

It takes awhile to get going, but it also gets more ludicrous as it goes along. It's hard to tell how serious the movie takes itself. It is either aware of how weird everything is and wants to accentuate that, or it might honestly be trying to create an epic survival adventure. Either way, it provides some dumb fun with classic overacting and a very surprising third act.
The ants themselves are a mix of wobbly puppets and clumsy superimposed footage of real ants into the scenes. Crude but occasionally effective, they are undeniably bonkers to see in action!

Be sure not to miss:
- The taxi driver right at the start. He does nothing, and yet somehow manages to be the worst actor ever.
- There's a few moments where it looks like the ants are crawling on the sky.
- Giant ants constantly make a high-pitch screeching noise. Isn't nature wonderful?

Internet review:
"This is clearly the fourth-best ant movie ever made." - madden2

Should I watch it?
Not a classic, but lots to laugh at.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Empire of the Ants gets... (an extra half for ant farts)

Truck Stop Women (1974)

"Would Jackie Onassis eat a chicken fried steak?" - Rose

Truckers clash with the mafia over a smuggling ring.
Starring: Lieux Dressler, Claudia Jennings, John Martino, Paul Carr

Link to IMDB

Mac and Anna

Anna is a tough old gal that owns a truck stop in the New Mexico desert, but it's not your average place (or maybe it is, I don't frequently visit them enough to know) because it's also a brothel and a "chop shop" for trucks that Anna's gang hijack for the valuable payloads. The guys Mac and Curly take care of the smuggling operations, while the ladies who work in the brothel are in charge of stealing trucks out on the highway, using their sexual skills to trick the drivers. Anna's daughter, Rose, is part of the gang but she's been getting restless lately, yearning for a more glamours life in Las Vegas.

Troubles coming for the gang though, when two mafia goons from the city arrive in town looking to take over Anna's smuggling business. These slick hoodlums try to be reasonable about it at first, but Anna is stubborn and smarter than they expect, and her gang chases them off. Rose, however, is enamoured by how cool and sophisticated the mafia guys act, and she starts hanging with them in hopes of getting to Vegas.


The first half is a bit uneventful, as we get a lot of trucker talk and sloppy bedroom scenes with the hookers. There is a remarkable montage that's worth seeing, giving us a humorous glimpse into the madness and debauchery of trucker life on the highway.
The story eventually starts rolling, as the conflict intensifies with people getting killed and Rose realizing she's gotten in over her head by making friends with the enemy. There's a lot of chaos, as people are backstabbing each other and most of the dialog is just blurted out haphazardly. It's kinda hard to follow, but the premise is simple which makes the finer details mostly irrelevant. Trucker stuff is happening, so the movie is delivering what I expected.

"I'm a truck drivin' woman and I live by the code of the road." - Anna

Rose

Truck stuff

It's never truly boring but it does steer off the road a few times, and most of the action is saved for the last half. Drinking some beers will definitely help get you in the proper mood, because pretty much everyone except Anna and Rose are disheveled fools yelling gibberish and slamming whiskey. This ensemble cast of mavericks and degenerates are the kings and queens of their exploitation trucker kingdom. It's a weird mix of grim treachery and low brow antics. The music helps keep you in the zone with lots of honky-tonk driving tunes and Dukes of Hazard banjo plucking for the chase scenes.


The climax is a big showdown between Anna's gang and the mafia goons, and there are some shocking surprises at the bittersweet ending. But that's what life on the road is all about, you never know what adventure is coming around the corner.

Be sure not to miss:
- Rusty's reaction to crashing his truck.
- Death by cow...? Did that just happen?
- Painting the truck pink must surely have been a nod to the song Little Pink Mack.
- Curly's list of who has died and who is still alive. I almost think the writers did that for our benefit.

Internet review:
"This little rig is well worth taking for a haul." - Boris Lugosi

Should I watch it?
It has got some trucker fun, but not a must see.

Where can I find it?
I used the stagevu link here.

Truck Stop Women gets...

Weasles Rip My Flesh (1979)

"Some people wish they were never born, others kill others out of hatred or madness,
and then there is the meat." - Narrator

Radioactive waste from space creates a weasel monster!
Starring: John Smihula, Steven Kriete, Fred Borges

Link to IMDB

In the beginning, the theater was formless and empty, and then a 16 year old boy named Nathan Schiff decided to pick up a camera and the 8mm world was born anew.

It didn't take long for me to see that I had found something special here, as the opening narrator promises a perplexing tragedy, condemning all the fragile life on Earth to bear witness to the upcoming horrible events.

A space probe has traveled to Venus (which is depicted here as a cardboard diorama on a kitchen table,) to collect some radioactive slime samples. Upon returning to Earth, the probe crash lands into a lake and disappears. Two curious boys find some canisters near the lake and discover that they're full of space goo, which they promptly pour down a weasel hole in the ground. Some thing starts boiling and bubbling in that hole. It could be a pile of green eggs and ham as far as I can tell, but it eventually transforms into a six-foot tall weasel monster that resembles a deformed turd with arms and teeth! Suitably upset, the weasel monster digs out of the ground and kills the two troublesome kids with its monstrous hands.

This is all pure low-budget clumsiness, and it's absolutely fantastic! By the time the monster claims another victim I realized I hadn't blinked in 10 minutes, not wanting to miss a single moment of the ambitiously unconventional nightmare unfolding before me.
Eight months pass by and two detectives finally arrive to investigate all the deaths that have happened in the area. They meet a crazed scientist wandering in the forest that takes them to his secret lab where he has the weasel monster in captivity. The scientist is scheming to create an army of monsters, so he can rule the world and become immortal. As you can guess, things don't go as planned.

"I think this situation is getting a little out of proportion." - Det. Anderson

At a brief 60 minutes the movie wastes no time explaining what it's doing, so it often felt like my brain was having an out-of-body experience due to the unfiltered absurdity. To be fair though, most plot points are explained and are quite simple, you just have to wait for the answers to click. For example, it takes about 15 minutes to realize that the story jumps ahead eight months at one point.
Considering this was made by a teenager for $400 it is damn impressive. Schiff had the imagination and drive to create the best movie that he was capable of making with his friends. It's a revelation of raw, primitive cinema.

The movie delivers non-stop weirdness, ketchup blood and laughs. You get weasel versus weasel action, weasels gone wild, and even a goddamn shark makes an appearance!
This is a perfect example of the type of eccentric movies that I love to find and constantly hope to find again.

Be sure not to miss:
- "This looks like some kind of laboratory!" Spoken while standing in an ordinary living room.
- Yes, the title was inspired by the Zappa album.
- Rats enough?? It might be a guinea pig, but definitely not a weasel.

Internet review:
"To enjoy a movie like this, one needs to exist on an alternate viewing plane." - JudgeDJ

Should I watch it?
Yes! Cancel your plans, strap yourself to a chair, and fall deep into Schiff's rabbit weasel hole.

Where can I find it?
stagevu link here.

Weasels Rip my Flesh gets...

Pieces (1982)

A chainsaw wielding killer is loose on a university campus.
Starring: Christopher George, Ian Sera, Jack Taylor, Lynda Day George

Link to IMDB

I was in the mood for a twisted slasher flick, but found something a bit more interesting...

The detectives meet the Dean

The prologue shows a young boy being scolded by his mother for playing with a jigsaw puzzle of a naked lady. He retaliates by attacking her with an axe and chopping off her head!! 40 years later and the grown man still has that puzzle and he still hates women. His identity isn't revealed, instead we just see a shadowy figure dressed in black.

Two detectives have arrived at a university to investigate the recent murder of a girl on campus, they are greeted by the school's Dean and Professor Brown who are willing to help the police as best as they can. The detectives presume the killer is a student or staff member of the university, and begin questioning people and looking for clues. There are many suspects introduced, since basically any man in the movie could be the killer, but some are obviously just red herrings to keep the audience guessing and the detectives distracted. The killer strikes again, and we realize that he's collecting body parts of his victims!

"I'll send you a box of lollipops." - Det. Holden

Brown finds some pieces

Kendall is a student that gets involved with assisting the detectives when he discovers one of the bodies, and they also get help from their secretary, Mary, when she goes undercover as the new tennis teacher on campus. Despite all these people working together, the body count is rising as the killer keeps finding girls he can chop into pieces.

The movie focuses on the detectives trying to find the killer's identity more than it does the teenagers that become victims. This adds some intrigue, making the plot feel like a crime mystery more than just a traditional slasher. Although not frightening in any way, there are still some eerie moments when the shadowy killer is stalking his victims. This is helped along by some chilling electronic drones. The gore gets pretty gruesome, with some great make-up and effects on display as each victim loses a few limbs and a lot of blood.

"The most beautiful thing in the world is smoking pot and fucking on a waterbed." - Girl

What prevents this from being effective horror is just how incredibly corny it comes across. The characters often behave like no one you would encounter in real life, and there are so many unintentional laughs from the awkward acting and dialog that it just cannot be taken seriously. This, of course, is what makes the movie so enjoyable! The combination of sleazy slasher and Italian giallo mystery works well enough to keep the thin plot moving, but the filmmakers didn't realize their delivery was so sloppy and goofy.

Frustrated Mary and Kendall

Overall, this is an often forgotten gem of the genre, with lots of carnage, laughs and a truly demented ending that left my mind spinning.

Be sure not to miss:
- The last 10 seconds!
- Bruce Le (not Lee) has the most random cameo ever with some kung-fu moves.
- "Bastard! BASTARD! BASSSSTAAAAARD!" Oh wait, there's a video of it. (volume warning)

Internet review:
"I love this movie more than spaghetti. And I love me some spaghetti!" - Mr. Canacorn

Should I watch it?
Essential for slasher fans, and still good enough for any fan of weirdness.

Where can I find it?
Stagevu link here.

Pieces gets...

The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! (1972)

"This place isn't conducive to happiness." - Gerald

A cursed family deals with the problems and secrets that plague them.
Starring: Hope Stansbury, Jackie Skarvellis, Noel Collins, Douglas Phair

Link to IMDB

Look at that amazing title! Okay, now it's all downhill from there...

Diana

The year is 1899 and we are introduced to the troubled Mooney family at their manor as the youngest brother, Malcolm, is being beaten on the lawn. He was born a feral simpleton, but often escapes from the attic where his older siblings keep him locked in with live chickens. This first scene is complete disorder, and sets the tone for the incomprehensible madness ahead.
Once again, my mantra was often "What is happening?"
The youngest daughter, Diana, is returning home from med school with her new husband to visit Papa Mooney who is getting closer to death in his old age.
It took me about 60 minutes to piece together these basic facts about the family, because information is constantly being interrupted as the characters argue and complain about everything imaginable. They basically all hate each other, and are always yelling about what's best for the family and Papa's health.

Monica with rat

The movie refuses to say that the family are werewolves, but it's obvious that is what their "cursed bloodline" is referring to. Papa's life work was to find a cure for their affliction, but he was never able to finish his research.
Another daughter, the sadistic Monica, is always full of jealousy and rage, and she stirs up conflict every chance she can. To further terrorize her family, she decides to buy some vicious rats from a demented rat-dealer (yes, that seriously happens.) The next day, Monica gets rid of the rats when they prove to be too much of an annoyance to tend. What!? That's it? No rat action like we were led to believe!!
The movie is not about rats and werewolves, it's more of a soap opera about a cruel family trying to destroy each others happiness. There's barely any plot and no attempt to even find one until near the end when things start to get a bit more demented and violent.
With the night of the full moon approaching, and Diana and Monica scheming to bring each other to ruin, surely we will get some werewolves in this movie! Maybe? Please.

"I don't want any ungrateful rats." - Monica

Every scene is as dry and clumsy as an amateur highschool play. The acting is so bad that it feels like the people are aliens from another galaxy trying their best to act like humans that are acting in a movie. It gives the entire movie an ethereal weirdness that captivated me, because somehow all the unintelligible talking is not completely boring! I couldn't stop watching, as though I was hypnotized by the incoherent vacuum of the family's psychotic melodrama.
This is enjoyable as a cynical oddity of trash cinema, but nothing more.

Would you buy a rat from this man ?

Be sure not to miss:
- Monica names two of the rats Willard and Ben, both from Willard.
- The gunsmith's monologue about getting old. Hilariously dull.
- I saw some cars and light switches in the background (it's supposed to be 1899.)
- Rats, rats, rats enough!

Internet review:
"I found this movie fascinating in the way highway accidents are fascinating." - Mondozilla

Should I watch it?
We've enjoyed worse, but this might test your patience.

Where can I find it?
The promptfile link here. (or on YouTube but the quality is terrible.)

The Rats & The Werewolves gets...

War Bus (1986)

"Soldier, you've got to ride the bus!" - Major Kutran

Soldiers in the Vietnam war use a school bus to get their mission done.
Starring: Daniel Stephen, Ramona Kristoff, Urs Althaus, Ernie Zarate

Link to IMDB

Three American soldiers are trapped behind enemy lines in the Vietnam jungle, and are forced to commandeer a yellow school bus to get back to safety. Along for the ride are a few Christian missionaries that just had their schoolhouse blown to smithereens.
The soldiers are typical tough guys, led by the fearless Sgt. Dixie. It's not exactly a happy atmosphere on the bus, as the soldier's taking control causes stress and confusion about what kind of danger everyone is getting into. The civilians are a mixed group of people, each with a tiny bit of backstory to give us an idea of what they're capable of. Most notable is a retired Major, he knows the lay of the land better than the soldiers do and becomes their advisor as the War Bus heads off into the jungle.


Tensions rise as they travel through war torn areas, and the civilians debate if they should abandon the soldiers or if they need them for protection. There are lots of explosions and gunfights at every obstacle, but the movie also focuses on the human interactions, showing how the ugly horrors of war affect the characters differently.
It's not long before everyone realizes they all need to work together on the War Bus if they want to survive. The soldiers go on a mission to sneak into an enemy camp for fuel and supplies, and when they get pinned down it's War Bus to the rescue as the civilians prove their valor! There's still a long road ahead, but the enemy infested jungle is starting to take its toll on everyone (including the old bus.)

Major Kutran

Dixie

Even at a brief 80 minutes, the movie starts to run out of steam near the end. The gunfights get repetitive and the characters aren't deep enough for us to really care about most of them. The bus itself seriously becomes the character I was rooting for. The concept of a bus in the middle of a war is fully explored, so the movie does deliver what the title promises. Lots of War Bus action!
It's easy to find laughs here despite the serious delivery, because the characters do dumb and eccentric things and not many movies have a bus as a war hero. I debated on the Ham rating for this one, because the flaws are minor, but the eventual monotony was a slight disappointment.




Be sure not to miss:
- If you don't follow orders, Dixie will dropkick you in the chest!
- "The battery is the soul of the bus."
- Rats enough!

Internet review:
"What it lacked in good gas mileage, it made up for with bravado." - Monsterhunter

Should I watch it?
It's a hidden gem worth checking out as a unique war movie.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

War Bus gets...

Mankillers (1987)

"Women are more effective in the field." - McKenna

The CIA trains a group of female convicts to assist in stopping a rogue agent.
Starring: Lynda Aldon, William Zipp, Christine Lunde, Edy Williams

Link to IMDB

McKenna

John Mickland is one very bad man. He's a drug dealer, murderer, slave trader, and complete psychopath. He also happens to be an ex-CIA agent, which allows him to always be one step ahead of the law as he goes about his daily business of killing people. Desperate for a solution the CIA contacts Mickland's old partner, Rachel McKenna, who has since quit the agency after Mickland betrayed her and left her for dead a few years ago.
McKenna is reluctant to work with the agency again, but agrees to stop Mickland if she gets to be in charge of her own squad that she'll personally handpick and train by herself. Instead of recruiting agents she goes to the nearest prison and selects a dozen of the most dangerous (and hottest) ladies she can find, promising them early parole if they obey her commands and help her stop Mickland. The ladies are a saucy and violent crew, but they generally agree to work for McKenna if it means getting out of jail earlier.


Try not to think about the plausibility behind such an undertaking, because the writers didn't either. The premise is crazy, but it fits perfectly into the wild and hazardous feel of everything else that surrounds it.
Each lady has a brief introduction, but we only get familiar with three or four of them through the movie. Suffice to say, they are all dangerous criminals with fantastic hair!

The training regimen is brutal and some of the girls are troublemakers, but McKenna has no problems keeping everyone in line during the training montage. When Mickland gets word that McKenna is coming for him, the girl's training has to be cut short. They're going to have to launch their assault on Mickland's camp before he can escape across the border! Inexperienced and outnumbered, McKenna takes her team of girls into the battle zone equipped with machine guns, grenades and hot shorts.

Mickland

This was actually more compelling than I would have guessed. It's still very cheesy and trashy (the ladies are always dressed sexy for no reason,) but it also shows the heroines as capable bad-asses that work together and learn how to do something positive with their criminal lives. Mickland is such a sadistic, nasty villain that I was anticipating when he and McKenna would come face to face and settle the score, and I wasn't disappointed!
It's all the typical stuff... Things explode, lots of people get shot and cocaine fuels the criminals. But there's just enough magic here to make it feel like something I hadn't exactly seen before.



Be sure not to miss:
- There are two 80's power ballads featured in the movie. So cheesy and so obscure I can't find them anywhere else.
- The set for McKenna's camp is clearly the same one as Mickland's camp. It makes it seem like they're all living together.
- The last 5 minutes.

Internet review:
"There's an important feminist message underneath all the cocaine and machine guns." - Jerell

Should I watch it?
It's better than expected, but not a must-see unless you crave some sloppy violence.

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Mankillers gets...

The Last American Virgin (1982)

"I'd rather screw Godzilla than them." - Gary

Teenagers get life lessons as they try to find sex and love.
Starring: Lawrence Monoson, Diane Franklin, Steve Antin, Joe Rubbo

Link to IMDB

Gary and his best friends Rick and David are typical teenage boys, struggling through the boring days of school and part-time work before looking for some excitement in the nights. Their biggest concern is finding some girls to hook-up with, in hopes of getting laid. The chaos and laughs arrive quickly, when the guys invite some girls over for a party that gets interrupted by the parents, and everyone's scrambling to escape with their clothes half off.

Gary, Rick and David

Karen

The new girl in town is Karen, and it's love at first sight when Gary meets her, but at the next big party he sees that she and Rick are getting close. Gary's heartbroken, but he's also used to seeing Rick get all the girls so he tries to put it behind him by slamming whiskey.
The guys' desperate search for sex gets them involved with all sorts of strange ladies and strange situations. There's lots of nudity and slapstick raunchiness as they party and cruise the streets. It's fun to watch, but feels almost like a sub-plot to the more character driven stuff.
Gary begins to resent Rick as he spends time with his dream girl Karen, and their friendship is strained even more when Gary discovers they've been having sex.


The third act takes the story in a very serious and dramatic direction, as Karen comes to Gary for help with a life changing situation. Gary's going to have to grow-up fast to deal with his feelings, and make some hard decisions on where he should place his loyalties. The concluding scenes of the movie are devastating, as an unexpected event subverts all expectations.

Underwear adventures

The movie does a good job of portraying the awkwardness and pain of being a teenager, but with goofy hijinks and nudity thrown in for fun interludes. It's mostly grounded in reality with the guys feeling like authentic people, but it still dabbles in the spoof genre once and awhile. The combination works well and keeps everything moving fast.
It's the unforgettable and uncompromising final 30 minutes that really elevate this above other teen sex comedies, giving the movie some profundity that I was not expecting to find here. After all the laughs delivered before, the brutally honest ending left me satisfactorily pensive.

Be sure not to miss:
- Only $9 for a six-pack and a pizza!
- David's house is off limits for parties ever since "Big Earl smoked angel dust and ate the parakeet."
- Drunk driving is perfectly acceptable. 1982 feels like a long time ago.
- Excellent soundtrack!

Internet review:
"It goes from dumb 80's teen sex comedy to nihilistic realism so quickly that it catches you
off guard. - flyawayhome

Should I watch it?
Yes, it has a bit of everything to keep you entertained.
Would make a great Valentine's day movie!

Where can I find it?
Links here. (videome)

Last American Virgin gets...

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984)

"Fresher than fresh, funkier than funky!" - Ozone

Street dancers fight to save their community center from being destroyed.
Starring: Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones, Michael Chambers, Ken Olfson

Link to IMDB

After the huge success of Breakin' came the inevitable sequel, and it arrived only seven months later. Is that even humanly possible?

An undetermined amount of time has past since we last saw Kelly, but she has recently been dancing on Broadway for a few shows. She's growing tired of the daily grind and decides to take a break from her career, much to the chagrin of her stuffy parents. Kelly goes to chill with her good friends, Ozone and Turbo, who have been teaching dance at an inner city community center they've named Miracles.
I quickly noticed that the dancing is portrayed a bit different here. In the first movie it was only used as part of the plot, but the sequel feels more like a musical, as the entire neighborhood dances in the street to celebrate Kelly's visit.

The gang is back !

Business guys

Miracles is a great place for all the local kids, the positive environment being like a second home for many of them. Old Byron owns the place and he offers Kelly a job there to teach, she accepts, and of course everyone breaks out into another dance routine.
Not everything is peaceful for long, because a rich business man is trying to close Miracles so that he can build his new shopping center on the lot. The community would need to raise $200,000 in 30 days in order to save it from being demolished, which seems like an impossible task to Old Byron.
Ozone has other problems when his dance rivals start harassing him again, but instead of settling things with a dance-off like they used to, they now go full bonkers and have a dance-fight! It's intense and amazing nonsense that is only the beginning of the weirdness to come.

"When I'm dancing it feels like everything is alright." - Lady

The first half meanders for awhile, with time wasted on small sub-plots and random dancing, instead of getting to the main conflict. It starts gaining momentum again when the movie decides to deliver two things: More focus on the character's stories, and some full-blown wackiness on the side.

Ozone needs to rally the community (with dance) and try to get City Hall and the press involved to save Miracles, all while Kelly debates leaving for a career in Paris. It's not delivered as serious as the first movie, but it's still a decent tale of the downtrodden struggling to have their voices heard.
It's when the movie cuts loose into surreal moments that really makes it memorable. For example, Turbo literally dances on the ceiling like Lionel Richie! But when an entire hospital ward dances away their injuries I just had to accept that the absurdity was a great idea, and I was gladly getting pulled deep into the Electric Boogaloo zone!

Byron delivers a speech to City Hall

It was great to see these characters again, even if the movie was clearly rushed into production with a lazy script padded by lots of dancing. Don't get me wrong, the dancing is still fun, but it's often here without any connection to the plot (or reality.)
I enjoyed the more conventional, streetwise original over the exaggerated and comedic elements of this one. Both movies still work great as 80's dance stories, just for different reasons, because Breakin' 2 celebrates its cheesy weirdness without any restraints.

???

Be sure not to miss:
- That 12 year-old girl has the hairiest armpits ever!
- Ice-T is back with more whack rhymes.
- 30 years later, and the infamous subtitle remains a pop-culture reference for absurd sequel ideas people joke about.

Internet review:
"Every minute contains a new reason to howl in surprise and derision. - Tasha

Should I watch it?
Both are definitely worth seeing, but the sequel's a lot more silly.

Where can I find it?
Viable links here.

Breakin' 2 gets...