Flashdance redux

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2001)

The two leads are adorable. They look like real people. (As opposed to Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri in "Flashdance." Do people who look like that really weld?) At times, I'd think of "Billy Elliot" when Stiles was going through her "awkward" dance phase. (This isn't a bad thing.) The "thug-friend" subplot was unnecessary and detracted from the dance, coming-of-age stuff. And where was all the hip-hop music? "Romeo is Dead" seemed to have more. It's better than "Flashdance" but, because it has regular people in the leads, it's not nearly as sexy. No scene that comes close to Beal taking off her bra from under her sweat top. Still it's a great film for its audience (which, scary enough, were toddlers when "Flashdance" hit) and a pretty okay film for the rest of us.