YMMV / Breakin' (1984)

• Awesome Music: The title track, "Breakin' (There's No Stopping Us)", is a beautifully high-energy beat that perfectly underlines the film's point.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Turbo teaching the kids how to breakdance immediately follows James’ party where Franco chews out Ozone before being asked to leave, and a minute is spent with Turbo before Kelly arrives and asks him where Ozone is.
• Just Here for Godzilla: You're not here for the silly dialogue or excessive spandex. You're here for the dancing.
• Narm Charm: Breakin' might as well have been called Narm Charm: The Movie for how seriously it took the the classic "pinning of all hopes and dreams on succeeding on a dance audition" premise with such a fad as breakdancing, but the Excuse Plot, Ham and Cheese acting and overall total weirdness were quite intentional, and even then, some people appreciated that despite the wackiness, the movie's drama (or at least attempts at it) made it still more grounded than its infamously-titled sequel, who ratcheted up the crazy with things like using breakdancing as a form of combat and Turbo dancing on the ceiling.
• Padding: Despite being a relatively short dance flick, roughly ten minutes consisted of credits and re-showing the film's trailer not long after the film ends.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Ice-T appears as - what else - a rapper. He's not proud of this.
  • Most of you know James, aka Christopher McDonald, for being Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, or Darryl from Thelma & Louise.
  • Jean-Claude Van Damme of all people has a small uncredited role as a member of the crowd who watches Ozone and Turbo when Kelly meets them for the first time. He's the one in the black singlet who's enthusiastically clapping.
• So Bad, It's Good: Regarded as such. Sure, the acting's lousy and the plot's barely there, but the dancing's actually pretty good and everything is just SO EIGHTIES!
• Special Effects Failure: The wires are clearly visible in the magic broom dance scene.

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