Wuchak "Heavenly bodies" (1984) was Canada's answer to 1983's "Flashdance." Not that it's a rip-off, because the stories are totally different. In "Heavenly Bodies" three women decide to start a fitness club that specializes in aerobic with intentions of eventually purchasing the building they lease. When the building is bought out from under them by a competing fitness center, the main protagonist, Samantha Blair (Cynthia Dale), issues a challenge -- a dance-aerobics competition -- with the building as the prize.Some have lambasted "Heavenly Bodies" as the "worst film ever made," "bad cinema" and "heavily campy," but actually none of these criticisms are true. Films should be evaluated according to what they aspire to be and, consequently, no genre is beyond redemption or beneath contempt. "Heavenly Bodies" never aspired to be "Ghandi" or "Out of Africa." It's a sports film focusing on aerobics for cryin' out loud. The question is: Does it deliver on that level? Yes, in spades.What is required in a aerobics sports flick from 1984? Quality characters, heavenly bodies (sorry), energetic music, kinetic direction, a story that keeps your attention and a film that generally keeps your blood pumping, right? "Heavenly Bodies" scores well in all these areas. For instance, Cynthia Dale is a great protagonist for this type of flick; she's cute, winsome, sprightly and insanely curvaceous. Although Jennifer Beals was fine in "Flashdance," Cynthia easily surpasses her. And Cynthia is only one of the numerous shapely women featured throughout. There are guys too, of course, for those who care.The criticisms that "Heavenly Bodies" is "bad cinema" and "heavily campy" are based solely on the fact that the film is from 1984 and involves aerobics. Aerobics was a fad that goes by different names today and the attire & hairstyles are naturally dated, which make the film an easy target for contempt. But this does not make it bad filmmaking or campy in the least. As far as "heavily campy" goes, there's nothing artlessly mannered or self-consciously artificial in the story or performances; and there's nothing remotely campy in the sense of, say, the 60's "Batman" TV series. The story and actors play it straight throughout. Do these critics even know what 'camp' is? The film runs a short-and-sweet 90 minutes and was shot in Toronto.FINAL WORD: Don't listen to those who rip on "Heavenly Bodies" as a bad, campy film. It's at least as good as "Flashdance" and IMHO far better. Cynthia Dale is a great protagonist with a charming presence, a well-rounded perfect figure and excellent dance/gymnastic skills, not to mention the myriad of other 'heavenly bodies' throughout. It also has energetic (albeit dated) music, solid characters, limited dialogue, flashy directing and an entertaining story. What more could you ask for in a film of this ilk? Unfortunately the film is only available on VHS as of this writing.GRADE: B+ or A-

jehaccess6 This film was low budget and it showed. If you look at the top of the screen, the boom mike is clearly evident in at least two scenes. The plot was rather far fetched too. You can tell the production didn't take itself too seriously, there is a movie poster for 'Flashdance" clearly evident in an early scene of the film.What saved this film from total failure was the huge effort by the star Cynthia Dale. She just about killed herself in her exercise scenes. You could see what terrific physical condition she was in and that she was no stranger to dance training. The fact that she is stunningly good looking didn't hurt either.The climax of the film, the exercise marathon, really came alive with the absolutely compelling effort Cynthia put forth. I know it was only a performance, but the level of her exertion is still clearly enormous.I could only find this film on VHS, but it is worth the effort to catch this great performance in an obscure film.

VegasDV While some are correct in saying this film is so bad that it's funny, you really would need to be the type of person who could laugh at a totally ridiculous plot, and severely poor acting. It's a complete waste of anyone's time. I can only believe the 19 or so people that rated this film a "10" either incorrectly thought that was the worst rating, or possibly were family members of those that appear in this disaster. You would think a release by Playboy Enterprises would, at the very least, have some eye candy. However, even the characters who are supposed to be "sexy" are more like K-Mart catalog model rejects. I believe they were trying to ride the popularity of "jazzercise" at the time, and were thinking a Flashdance like story would be enough to release this in theaters. However, it ends up being a seriously boring version of (the much later released) Dodgeball, in which exercise-dancers try to save a workout club through a competition with their rivals on TV. Do I need to say more?

whpratt1 Taped this film years ago and thought it was just a great film about three(3) young gals striving to make a career in the dance field. It showed the hard work behind the scenes of the dancing world and gives encouragement for all those trying to follow in their footsteps. The location in Canada is depressing and the abandoned warehouse they decided to rent was unbelievable. There is lots of love and HOT romance along with a cute scene with a little boy asking a question about "Orgie's" and a very cute reply from his mother. This is a great classic film and very enjoyable to view, try to catch it on TV sometime!