Let's be realistic.

just watch it!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Without doubt Beat Street is the best film about the breakin scene. Everything about it is spot on,the clothes (puma),the music and most importantly the dancing! The storyline is basic,but hey whats there to tell a story about? The whole point of the film is to show what kids of that moment in time were doing,what mattered to them. It shows that teenagers in general are good,all that mattered to these everyday kids was music,dancing and friendship. Having watched the DVD recently i was plesantly surprised how well it had stood the test of time! The clothes didn't look dated (possibly because Puma is now having a massive comeback),the music still sounds fresh,and the dancing is still captivating to watch. A film anyone 10-25 years of age should see as part of their youth culture.

"...with a kung-fu grip that don't even work!"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Here we go...Kenny is an aspiring mixmaster/deejay. He mans the wheels-of-steel at Kool Herc's happening hangout, The Burning Spear. Kenny's brother is Lee. Lee participates in subway platform breakdance battles. Lee befriends serious dance student Tracy. Tracy falls for a guy from the wrong side of the split-open cardboard box, Lee's brother Kenny. They have snowball fights, roam subway passages together, and have arguments about what it really means to be "down".Oh, and Kenny has a friend named Ramo' who bombs (spray-paints graffiti on) the endless number of clear, white, subway trains that were seemingly in circulation during the filming of this movie. Only, there's some jagoff named "Spit" that keeps painting over Ramo's mobile masterpieces. "Why does he do it", asks Ramo's homey. "'Cuz he can't do no better" comes the response. Yup. Intense stuff.But "Beat Street" was never about plot, or acting, or even breakdancing (there are but a few short scenes featuring any at-length dancing at all). It's all about rap songs with lyrics like: --"My name is Brenda Starr, and I, move to the beat/I go to the Roxy just to move my feet"... or: "Jingle, and Jangle, a Jingle-Jangle for the poor/and when you get your welfare check, you can buy reindeer by the score!"It's all about juicylishus wet dripping Jerri-curls and goose down coats. It's about Fila suits and sneakers with the tongues hanging out. It's about girls named Sha-Rock and guys named Cosmic Pop, Crazy Legs or Powerful Pexster. It's about manly-man rapper Grandmaster Mel E. Mel, wearing zebra-print scarves, thigh-high black leather boots, dreadlocks with Christmas ornaments on the ends, and a wrap shawl that looks like a mutant-sized tarantula crawled onto his shoulders, threw-up, and then died.Stay tuned for the film's "Showtime At The Apollo/Welcome To Your Own Personal Hell" grand finale. It's true-- white men can't jump and not all black guys can rap either. Word.

Cinematically, this film stinks. So does a lot of the acting. But Idon't care. If there is a strong representation of what the 80's werelike(For a lot of us in the innercity anyways) and what hip-hop, Zulunation, and break dancing were really like.Great music, greatdancing! It almost seems like a documentary of a time now pastwhen hip-hop was a way of life. It's also interesting to see NewYork looking like ground zero from a nuclear attack. Some viewersmay be too young to remember that It was a poor, run down cityduring the 70's and 80's. This is the best of all the hip-hop/breakdancing movies that came out around that period. Of course the80's are considered a joke now with all the bad tv shows andmovies, but those of us who lived through it will always rememberit fondly for a time when music, dancing, and graffiti were fresh, yo!

When released in 1984, Beat Street was one of the best hip hop themed films released at the time. The movie gets a 10 just for combining all of the elements of hip hop which are the mc,dj, graff and b-boy. The soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard.