Sober-Friend Watching this film screams 1980's. However this film to me is just as entertaining now as when it was first released in 1983. Alex is a welder by day and dancer by night. Her dream is to be able to enter a dance academy but she is afraid of not only getting in but even applying freaks her out. Alex at times is very mature for her age but at times she acts very immature. The dance sequences in this film along with a great characters and great original soundtrack made this film a huge hit.I am shocked that this film never got a sequel. Even more shocking is hasn't ( as of 2018) there has not been a remake.

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.

Dalbert Pringle OK. Let's face it, folks - If you actually took away Flashdance's "Giorgio Moroder"-driven soundtrack, as well as the impressive dance sequences where the uncredited Marine Jahan doubled for Jennifer Beals (who couldn't dance her way out of a wet, paper bag) - Then (Yes. Indeed) this dull-edged story about an 18-year-old welder-cum-dancer (Can you believe such a preposterous scenario as that?) would have been a major flop-eroo like no other. Released in 1983 to great fanfare - Flashdance was produced on a relatively modest budget of just $7 million. Yet. In its first year, alone, it actually grossed over $200 million, worldwide, at the box-office.And, speaking about anyone seriously thinking about taking up welding as a means of employment - Believe me - It's definitely one of those super-unhealthy trades where one is up close and inhaling all sorts of noxious fumes and gases, non-stop. Yep. Being a welder will fry your brain in not time flat.

jimbo-53-186511 Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) is a welder by day and exotic dancer by night. However, neither of these things satisfy her so she decides to try and fulfil her true passion by enrolling in a ballet school.Let's get one thing out of the way fairly early on - Flashdance is not a particularly good film. It's a film that opens up with a story, but it's a story that is never really expanded upon - director Adrian Lyne fills much of the running time up with montages that are mostly a cross between music videos and fitness workouts. The film also contains way too many scenes which seem to exist merely to elongate the running time - such as the 'ice skating' scene and the rather random scene where a police officer and a member of the public are directing traffic whilst dancing. From a technical point of view these things are quite impressive, but they have absolutely naff all to do with the story and consequently add very little to the picture.Whilst Jennifer Beals was never going to win any awards for her performance here I actually thought that she did show moments of greatness; her scene with Michael Nouri about halfway through the film where she seemingly cries on cue was a good piece of cinema and Lyne takes full advantage of this moment. Although her performance here is hit and miss across the board, Beals is never less than charming at any given point in the film - she's adorable, charming and easy on the eye and she really does light up the screen whenever she's in front of the camera. Sadly this never really extends to her chemistry with Nouri and their romance is never convincing and this aspect clearly weakens the film slightly.Although the film is filled with lots of excellent technical moments it's the story that really lets the film down as it seems to only be used to start and end the film - there's very little of substance in between. For this reason it's going to something that lovers of cinema or lovers of a good story are going to have a hard job caring about. Having said that it is perhaps passable as a date movie or may even work for those who can't resist a bit of 80's cheese (which this film reeks of BTW).Where the film really stands strong is in its technical areas such as Choreography and Editing (which it receives academy nominations for). Whilst it's mostly good, sadly some of the hard work is undone in the final dance scene where it's pretty obvious that a body-double is used for some of Beals' scenes - check out the moment where she dances right in front of the judges where you can quite clearly see that it isn't Beals doing the dancing!!! Despite some of the negatives it is a passable film, but with a story that's practically non-existent throughout its running time it's a pretty unmemorable film even though it is mildly entertaining at times.