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What's the Story, Mornin' Glory?
Flashdance
(1983)
Mawby's is a place for dreamers. The cook dreams of being a stand up comedian, a waitress dreams of being an ice skater, a dancer dreams that her boyfriend will one day call her, and then there's Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals). Alex is a working girl. She works as a welder for a construction company during the day and does exotic dancing at Mawby's at night. Her true dream is to enter a prestigious ballet school in Philly and become a professional dancer.
One night her boss at the construction site sees her dancing at the club and instantly becomes infatuated with her. He makes plenty of moves on her, but she always turns him down. Alex goes to the school to get an application, bur becomes intimidated by all the real dancers and runs out. While trying to realize her dream she quickly falls for her boss. Will she ever become a real dancer or will she spend the rest of her life dancing at Mawby's.
You Learn Something New Everyday...
 When you're living the dream, you don't need to sleep.
Cooks don't make good comedians.
Zing!
"I've been thinking about sex a lot lately, I mean I guess you can't really help thinking about sex...well, I guess you can..." -Alex during her confessional.
Survey SAYS...
I'm one of those people that never saw Flashdance, ever. I love 80's movies to death, but I never got around to watching it. I knew the theme song long before I ever actually sat down and watched it. Flashdance seems to be one of those movies that you remember being totally awesome in the 80's. It was hip, inspirational, and the way she wore her sweater off her shoulder was just plain righteous. However, with a more recent viewing you'll realize that Flashdance is less inspirational and more pure, campy gold.
The storyline of Flashdance actually makes very little sense. A girl welds during the day, works out, practices dancing after welding, and then dances at a club most of the night. When does this girl sleep? That, can be ignored for the sake of enjoying the movie, but if you think about it...this movie is not inspirational at all. The rich guy that she starts dating calls in a favor for the dance committee and that's what gets her the audition. She didn't really earn it in any way. The ending is rather ambiguous as well. She's walking down the street and he's (the rich guy she's dating) there with roses and a bow on her dog and she hugs him. Did she make it? Who knows. Probably. It's be a horrible movie about failure if she didn't.
The scenes in the movie don't really flow very well. The construction scenes don't mesh well with the dancing scenes and the dancing scenes don't mesh well with the romantic scenes. Everything seems to hang in such a delicate balance. The cook goes to LA to become a comedian and when he returns his girlfriend (who aspires to be a ice skater) is dating a sleazy strip club owner. Then Alex disappears when she's upset over the fact that her boyfriend helped her get the audition and the next thing you know the ice skating waitress is a stripper. These people just don't show up to their jobs and they're not fired they just get a “where the hell have you been?” The dancing in the club is very high tech and artsy, but this bar is a seedy bar downtown. Where do they get the money for all the high tech stuff? The relationship between Alex and her boss certainly isn't healthy. You'd think a guy who's been through a nasty divorce would not want to be with a girl who hits him and gets so angry so quickly (they call it being “passionate”). Flashdance almost seemed like a hour and a half long music video. I had to laugh at the climatic scene though. When she falls during her audition, it's hilarious. It's not like she was doing anything difficult.
In the end, Flashdance is really cheesy and extremely campy movie. It has a good message though. It's really about trying to achieve your dreams and not giving up when you fail. The whole set up is totally unlikely and everything is really dated, but the entertainment factor is high. The “comic relief” is kind of annoying, but not really a big part of the movie. If you haven't seen Flashdance before and enjoy campy 80's films then I'd suggest watching it. If you watched it back in the day and have fond memories of an epic film, I wouldn't suggest watching it again, unless you like campiness. So, if you like...unfunny cooks, racist jokes about Polish people, mime seizuring, street performers, lots of close up sweaty ass shots, and obvious body doubles then this is the flick for you. As for us...we give Flashdance
That Wasn't so Bad Was It?
I was left Feeling: Highly Amused
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