LeNeant I saw this movie for the first time in my life a few days ago and i must say i loved this movie.If you think about the 80's the picture you have in mind is pretty close to what you see on the screen when you put in Flashdance. From the first second onwards it blasts 80's synthesizer-sound in your eardrums, you see the typical hairstyles and clothes (that you would instantly relate to that era in your head). It's just a perfect emulation of that period of time, i felt like i was there, totally immersed and ready to go. So regarding the atmosphere it was just perfect for me. In addition Jennifer Beals as the main character Alex Owens delivers an enchanting performance. She acts in a natural and relatable way, i was with her from the beginning till the end and felt all of her struggle to become a professional dancer. Her female role also struck me as rather atypical. She works in a man dominated job, she is living her life on her own and takes the active part in her relationship to the male love-interest. It's impressing how dynamic and fast-paced the movie is, there is not a single moment that leaves you bored. To me it represents a perfect example of a feel good movie.Even though i seem to only have praise for it, i am completely aware that there are multiple doubtful performances and that story-wise it has not that much to offer. It's not something you think about for days or something that leaves a deeper and lasting impression inside of you. But it leaves you with a smile on your face, with energy in your feet and makes you ready to dance yourself.Yeah I know that all mostly sounds like I am an all-out fanboy, but what should you do when you catch the Feeling?

connorbbalboa Style-over-substance films usually annoy me. When those movie are as bad as Flashdance, I just want to ask the people who made them what they were thinking. Actually, this was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who are well known for making films of cinematic gloss, but nothing with real humanity. The story is so simple, the whole thing is probably 50 minutes too long. This is basically Rocky if the story has dance scenes for filler, the numerous subplots went nowhere, and the characters weren't appealing.For a story, Jennifer Beals plays a young girl named Alex who wants to be a professional dancer, and not just to dance at a small nightclub. By day, she works as a welder at a steel mill; shocking since she is only 18. The steel mill boss's son falls in love with her and later tries to help her get into the professional dance group that she yearns to be a part of, if only she had more confidence.Everything that I highlighted in just three sentences is everything there is to know about the main story. Everything else is just music video-inspired dancing scenes (which, unfortunately, are mostly performed by Beals's body double instead of Beals herself) set to popular 80s songs, and subplots that go nowhere or are resolved in five minutes. For one thing, Alex sees the boss's son with his previous wife, she gets mad and throws a rock at his window, but the next day, he explains why his ex-wife was with him in the first place. Later, her friend joins a sleazy strip club, and Alex forces her to leave after three minutes. There is even an old woman who is Alex's friend, and conveniently, was also a famous dancer. Not enough time is spent on the relationship they have and the film never establishes how they met.The acting is average at best, with Beals giving the warmest performance of the whole cast, and most of the characters act like old stereotypes, such as the pathetic friend who makes useless jokes (which leads to another sub-plot that goes nowhere) and the aggressive jocks who have eyes for the main heroine. Alex herself is also the victim of the horrible screenplay. Close to the beginning of the film, she actually does come close to signing up for an audition for the dance group, but she backs out because she is afraid. Not a good enough reason? Well, the film still has an hour and fifteen minutes left, and if she did get her confidence at that moment, it would be nothing more than a short film.I have very little to say about Flashdance because the film offers so little. I guess the dance scenes are well shot, and Beals performance makes things a little more tolerable, but everything else is quite awful. Even some of the 80s songs are poor. This is easily one of the most uninteresting pieces of nothing ever made.

mark.waltz So this movie, the first film I saw at the Chinese Grauman's upon moving to L.A., has one of the great 80's soundtracks of all time, in addition to a standard Cinderella story of a struggling dancer who wants to get out of her nighttime exotic dancing job into one of the big dance schools in Pittsburgh. She works as a welder to make a living and deals with all sorts of sexual harassment which she handles like a pro. She's certainly able to take care of herself and nobody's going to mess with her unless she wants to be messed with. She's Jennifer Beals, a sort of here today, whatever happened to them tomorrow sort of star who hasn't quite had the A list career she started off with, but then she hasn't quite faded into obscurity either. I found her very likable and wanted to see more of her, but if there's anything in her career that she'll always be remembered for, at least as a cult actress, it will be "Flashdance".This has a rough around the edges feel to it with its Pittsburgh street life view, and director Adrian Lyne ("Fatal Attraction") gets much of the gritty side of that Pennsylvania city quite right. She has the right man (the handsome Michael Nouri) and the right attitude to succeed in finding her dreams, so what a feeling you know she'll have once that dream is achieved. She also has her own real life fairy godmother (Oscar winning Lilia Skala), so there's never any doubt that this will have the standard Hollywood ending. Kyle T. Heffner is amusing as Beals' struggling stand-up comic pal. While a decent actress with presence, Beals does not do her own dancing which gave this film some bad press when it came out with all of the out of work dancers/actresses possibly more qualified for the role. The music is fun, the energy filled with a really retro 80's atmosphere, and in spite of being cheesy when I look back on it nearly 35 years later, I have fond memories of it.

Emma Maguire On a whole, I went into Flashdance as a fan of dance films. I love dance films, I really truly do, but there comes a time where a dance film becomes a music video, and Flashdance has just crossed that thresh hold.Jennifer Beals, playing the lovable and very talented Alex, is one of the only highlights of this film. She is very good at what she does and quite endearing, but her appearance as the main character doesn't make up for the fact that this film is pretty bad in many other ways.The prominent men in Alex's life are creepy, and she falls in love with the one who follows her home in his car, buys her way into an audition, and generally just uses his power as her boss over her. The film itself lacks a majority of a plot, and the exposition needed to explain Alex's existence simply isn't there. Why does she want to dance? How are these people she spends time with related to her? How old is she in relation to her partner? Why should we care about her story? It's bad to come out of a film and realise that you haven't really been impacted by any of the characters' stories.The continuity is messy. There are cuts where there shouldn't be and chronologically, everything is a bit of a disaster.However, the dancing is very good, and the soundtrack is awesome. This film could be worse.