Don't expect high art, but this was the 80s.

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2016)

I give this a reasonably high rating of 6 or 6.5, but that is with some serious caveats. First, more than half of the charm of this movie is nostalgia. If you grew up in the 80s, this movie was cutting edge for a teenager. It captured the feeling of energy and mania at the time in the music scene. On the upside, the characters are sympathetic and you can care about their story if you can overlook the ridiculousness of a few aspects of it. The downside includes those ridiculous aspects, and the fact that the story romanticized a lot of bad things. Like pretty woman, it gives the illusion that if the "bad girl" gets vulnerable enough, a sensitive man will save her. In Pretty woman its a prostitute, In Flashdance its a stripper. In real life, its just not true.