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Believe in the beat that's on the street/It's hoppin' and poppin'/They're breakin' and lockin' - Tag line for Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo

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.

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