Chapter Two: Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
By Brett Beach
June 25, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
A Golan Globus production. Another great hit from Cannon - from the trailer for Breakin' 2 (voice over work and accompanying promotional rap done by Ice-T)
Electric Boogaloo. Over the last 25 years, those two words have become an in-joke of sorts in the world of sequels. They signify - according to Entertainment Weekly's 2007 survey of the worst sequels ever - installments of a series that tend to be formulaic, ridiculous, disappointing or just plain obscure. That group of adjectives tends to cover a lot of ground so I prefer to opt for ridiculous. (It's worth noting that although Boogaloo rates a mention at the intro to that piece, it does not make the list. Make of that what you will.) The second Austin Powers film was almost Austin Powers: Electric Boogaloo. Hell, Electric Boogaloo was on the shortlist of titles for this column. The phrase never fails to turn a smile and even someone who has never seen or has no interest in the Breakin' films will likely recognize it from somewhere.
The funny thing is - relatively speaking - Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is a more enjoyable and better film than the original. Now mind you, this is like looking at two hirsute and shaggy dogs and decreeing that one is most definitely just a smidgen hairier than the other. At some point, it becomes an argument of semantics. What I did confirm from re-renting both films this past week - aside from the fact that they remain popular rentals per the Hollywood Video employee who had them on hold for me and I was quite lucky to have caught them on the shelf - is what I knew when I was still a child in my single digits. Boogaloo is more fun to watch.
The distinction may best be broken down as such: Breakin' is a film made by eight-year-olds and Breakin' 2 is a film for eight-year-olds. If it is a prerogative for a lot of Hollywood escapism the last few decades that one turn one's mind off at the door, then Electric Boogaloo requires one to approach a zen-like state of simplicity, the transcendence by which an adult could appreciate or tolerate entertainment along the lines of the Teletubbies or Gabba Gabba Hey! (with or without kids in the room/with or without the aid of chemical enhancements, the choice is yours).
When my friend JD would have me and other friends over for frequent childhood slumber parties, there was a small list of films that would be played ad nauseam: The Breakin' films, both of the Conan films, The Beastmaster, the Ninja trilogy (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja and Ninja III: The Domination), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, the Woman in Red and Bones Brigade III: The Search for Animal Chin. A quick glance at those titles will confirm that all genres that would appeal to pre-adolescent boys in the mid-1980s are indeed covered: sword and sorcery, slasher, martial arts, skateboard, Kelly LeBrock caught for half of one second fully-frontal nude (but only if you hit the pause button on the VCR at the right moment), and break dancing.
There was another constant. No matter how early Breakin' was started, I was always out like a light before the halfway mark. Breakin' 2 could be started at three in the morning and then rewound and started again 94 minutes later and I would somehow find the energy to keep my eyeballs open for the duration. It was an unscientific experiment perhaps, but repeating it this week produced similar results. Breakin' was a film to be endured, even at 7:30 in the evening (or as my girlfriend wondered aloud, "Why in God's name am I watching this?") and Breakin' 2 was an overdose of candy on Halloween night or Easter morning. It needs to be seen on its own for maximum pleasure. The VHS cover for Breakin' 2 is a living testament to this kind of sugar buzz overkill. The three leads are posed (in mid -pop and/or lock) and placed around the perimeter of a sneaker so deliriously neon it seems headed for a Three Mile Island-ish nuclear meltdown. I only noticed when doing research this week that the sneaker is actually glowing because it has prongs at the bottom and is meant to be "plugged in" a la a nightlight or some incredible childhood toy the likes of which we have not yet encountered.
There is another thread connecting a number of the videos I mentioned above. The Ninja trilogy and the Breakin' films were all produced by Cannon pictures, a company run at the tail end of the ‘70s and most of the ‘80s by cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. They financed a lot of Chuck Norris' output in that decade (particularly the Missing in Action films), a good number of Charles Bronson's oeuvre (Death Wish II and Ten to Midnight to cite a few) and a mishmash of other exploitation type fare (Hot Resort, Making the Grade, The Exterminator 2, the King Solomon's Mines remake with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone). I seem to recall that I was fairly aware as a child of the Golan Globus brand and what it stood for (crazy action, goofy plots, bare-breasted women, hours of entertainment).
As a subset of that and a way to lead into an actual discussion of Boogaloo, it must be noted that of the three ninja films and the two break dancing films, 60% shared the same director and the same leading lady. Sam Firstenberg (nee Schmulik Firstenberj) directed Revenge of the Ninja, Breakin' 2 and Ninja III: The Domination all in the same year, which is kind of like Bob Clark churning out Porky's II: The Next Day and A Christmas Story back-to-back in 1983. Lucinda Dickey starred in both Breakin' films and Ninja III in the same year before disappearing into the Hollywood sunset (Kind of. It seems she has been married to one of the executive producers of Survivor for a number of years, which is a coincidence that means nothing, I know, not in Hollywood, but somehow suggests levels of profundity to me.).
Dickey possesses a bland breed of pluckiness, sort of Molly Ringwald lite (and Breakin' did indeed open the same weekend as Sixteen Candles, topping that teen landmark in the box office rankings.). At the very least, she survives no less than a dozen horrific outfits, all pulsating with Boogaloo ultra-glow shine. But she's appealing and likable and if you can track down Ninja III on VHS or online, check it out to compare "suitable for family audiences" Dickey with "hard R-rated" Dickey . Ninja III has nothing to do with the first two Ninja films and obviously nothing to do with the Breakin' films but I like to think it brings a weird kind of closure to both series. Imagine a mash-up hybrid of exploitation genres - almost along the lines of fan fiction - and you'll be in the ballpark.
I have come to the conclusion that Electric Boogaloo is indeed the ultimate example of a sequel that was made to cash in on the unexpected success of its progenitor and a perfect example of a sequel that was unanimously rejected by its audience. Breakin' came out in May of 1984 and was (believe it or not) the number one film in the country the weekend it opened, with a gross of just over $6 million and a final tally of $38 million. Breakin' 2 was in theaters a mere seven months later (the weekend before Christmas - admittedly not a smart time unless it was to be Breakin' 2: Electric Booga-ho-ho-ho), opened to less than half of its predecessor ($2.9 million and tenth place) and limped to only $15 million, or 40% of what the original did. Without the winter holidays to help pad the gross a little, it is probable it could have wound up even lower. The phenomenon of break dancing had reached its national commercial plateau and all the young 'uns were catching Beverly Hills Cop for the fourth or fifth time with their older brother or sister. End of franchise.
Nowadays, that second film might have gone straight to video (a la the Bring it On series) and been similarly ridiculed, but really Breakin 2 is no less generic or cliched than Breakin'. In fact, all the threadbare, creaky plot lines that aren't employed the first time around make an appearance in Boogaloo. On some level, it is a wonder to behold. Would it surprise you to discover that the two distinct sets of writers credited to each respective film have that and only that film on their C.V.?
To recap the first film: would-be serious dancer Kelly (Dickey) hooks up with "street dancers" Ozone (Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones) and Turbo (Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers). She teaches them some moves, they teach her some moves, they win the big show despite the interference of Kelly's snooty former instructor and get their own local production, all set to the beat of the mean streets of Venice, CA. The film stretches to the 86 minute mark with very slow credits and a recap of the action that is actually the film's trailer with an epilogue-ish rap delivered over it, rather than a come-see- this- movie rap.(These are also courtesy of Ice-T.)
Boogaloo uses a plotline that dates back to the hoary days of Andy Hardy and the Little Rascals: the youth center where Turbo, Ozone and Special K (yup, that's Kelly's street handle) volunteer is set to be a demolished by a greedy developer who wants to put up a shopping center. What can those crazy kids do? Why, put on a show to raise the $200,000 needed to repair the center. Where Boogaloo actually boggles the mind is in the new information about the characters it reveals. Wait! Kelly is actually a poor little rich girl whose parents want her to give up dancing and go to Stanford? Hold on! Kelly has a fiance/boyfriend that the father likes and she can't stand? Word! Ozone has a jealous ex-girlfriend who threatens Kelly with bodily harm? Def! Turbo attracts the attentions of a chica caliente who speaks no English? Almost all of these plot lines come to nothing in the final count (although if you're a betting type, you might want to wager that Kelly's parents have a change of heart and come through with a large chunk of money, no strings attached).
So what gives Boogaloo the edge? 1. Less smack talk between Turbo & Ozone and their rival crew, The Electro Rocks. Seriously, the first film would be even shorter if all of the PG-rated insult toss off scenes were cut. 2. The songs are better taken as a whole (less bad rap and more spiky R and B and more electro rock - the music, not the film's group.) 3. It is actually closer to a musical than Breakin' is, with several hallucinatory sequences.
There are three showstoppers in particular worth calling attention to (none of which involve anything to do with the telethon antics at the end). Ozone maneuvers a gravity defying-dance around the walls of his apartment. It doesn't have the same "oohwowneatcool" quotient it did for this no longer eight-year-old but it is still impressive. There is a hospital breakin' number (after Ozone winds up there after falling down about a hundred stairs; please don't make me repeat what brought that on) with "nurses" in short skirts, "doctors" doing the worm and a nifty acrobatic move involving a walker. The breakin' de resistance, however is a number involving Ozone and Turbo and a blowup doll, which feels like an homage to Clint Howard in Rock 'n' Roll High School and which is so creepy in retrospect that, not to flog a dead break dancer, would probably only make sense to the non-existent libido of a male child who still looks at girls with suspicions about contracting cooties.
The only question left to be answered is: What is Electric Boogaloo? Oddly enough, the film is no help providing an answer. I will admit to having been only marginally knowledgeable about break dancing back when it was most popular, but considering the simplistic plots of both Breakin' and Breakin' 2, it made sense to me that at some point, it would be announced that the Electric Boogaloo had been "brought" and those who were doubtful would indeed be "served." Alas, this is not the case. The ads for the film are not helpful either. At the end of Breakin', a title card appears to announce, "Coming Soon: Electric Boogaloo - The Dance Sensation of Tomorrow" which seems to me similar to how Dippin' Dots have been heralded as The Ice Cream of the Future for going on two decades now. The trailer for the sequel actually proclaims that "Breakin 2 IS Electric Boogaloo" which probably sounded great in the marketing conference room but only confuses matters.
Long story short, there was a group in the 1970s out of Fresno called the Electric Boogaloos who actually coined the term and created a number of what became legendary styles. Electric Boogaloo is a combination of two distinct "funk styles", boogaloo and popping (a subset of the umbrella term break dancing). Boogaloo uses every part of the body, often employing fluid movements involving rolls of the hips, knees and head. Popping involves snapping the legs back and flexing the muscles continuously to maintain a jerky, stuttered motion.
This concludes your guided tour through a seminal piece of sequel schlock. Feel free to place some cardboard out on your front sidewalk and practice any and all moves that have been discussed.
Next time: It's one of only three films Jack Nicholson has directed to date. Hint: It's a sequel!