The Breakin' DVD Collection

The flow of unnecessary box sets no one asked for continues as Beat Street is paired up with the two Breakin' flicks to create a dated hip-hop DVD pack of fancy footwork and bad '80s fashion. Beat Street is the only film actually worth owning, given the fact that it's about as honest to hip-hop as Hollywood has ever been, excluding documentaries such as Style Wars. There are some tie-ins with interpretive dance that make things a little corny, but for the most part Beat Street shows actual breakers such as the Rock Steady Crew and New York City Breakers doing their thing, along with cameos from Jazzy Jay and Kool Herc. The plot is pretty much non-existent in the first third of the film, but after we see a phenomenal b-boy battle and the basics of hip-hop culture the film takes a bit of shape, only to fall apart in the end with Ramon's corny remembrance concert. Still, Beat Street looks like The Godfather compared to Breakin'. Though all three films in this package were released in 1984, Breakin' is far flashier and comes off as a hip-hop Fame, as a white ballerina named Kelly gets roped into the exciting world of breaking, along with the ambiguously gay duo of Ozone and Turbo. Though you can't rip on Breakin' too hard because it's definitely a guilty pleasure in the world of hip-hop, especially when Turbo dances with a broom to "Tour De France" and we get to see a pre-gangster Ice-T dressed like Cyndi Lauper. As for Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, there's very little value in it whatsoever, as the kids try to save a community centre through dance, and the focus shifts from uprocking to just plain dancing in spandex. So even though only one movie has any worth, the extra disc of bonus features could have made this collection justified, but we get nothing more than a bunch of talking heads trying to teach us what hip-hop means and why it's relevant in today's culture. Wait a minute, is it still 1984? Sadly this DVD seems to be packaged for people who are new to the four elements of hip-hop and has absolutely no value to people who have seen Beat Street 30 times. Plus: photo gallery. (MGM/Sony)